SolidShoe's Full Review: Turok 2: Seeds of Evil for Nintendo 64
There are two versions of Turok 2. The version that all the videogame magazines promoted, and the version that we, the consumer purchased. These are two different games, and to this date, I've yet to play the version that gaming magazines like EGM had. I guess it was a super dev kit version, because the version I have seems much different. Well, let me explain.
Turok 1 was a great game. While not a masterpiece in the true sense, due to it's many,many flaws, What the game did right, it did in spades. Smooth framerate, great visuals, and awsome weapons. The only competition that turok had was Disrupter for playstation, and Powerslave for saturn. Well, both were better than Turok, but not in the graphical sense. Indeed, turok has been about graphics and weapons, and crazy enemies.
Then came the second coming. T2.
Now prior to this game being released, there were just sooooooo many great things being said about it. Everybody wanted Turok 2 the be the greatest fps since Doom, and almost every video game magazine made that fact known by promoting the game into the atmosphere. EGM claimed that T2 looked so good that it blew away almost every 3dfx accelerated pc game. They also called it the best looking game ever. Well, I guess Unreal would just have to leave the throne.
They billed it as the game that would push the n64 to the limits. It was going to be so fast too, because it used less fog and "the n64 isn't wasting time drawing things that aren't there". Man, the magaizines basically sold this game before it even came out, much like they are doing with the playstation 2 right now. Hell, they even bragged that the multiplayer looked like it would eat goldeneyes alive.
I gave a big whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaa when I read that. Could this be the game that all fps would be judged by in the future?
NO, with a captial n and o. When I weant to purchase this gem, I went fourth into best buy with shaking hands. The drive home seemed to last forever. Finally, in the confines of my home, I turned on my system, played the game, then watched as my feelings of Whoa!!! dropped to feelings of Cool!!!, then to WTF?????
There is just a lot wrong with this game. Now granted, no game is perfect, and even knowing that, I was still hyped up. The problem is, this game is just not as cool as it was billed to be. Is it a good game? Yes. Is it an instant classic? Maybe, if all you play are n64 shooters. Does it look good?
Yes and no. The textures are pretty good, and at times, they're great, and if you have expansion card, this game will put a smile on your face. While not even close to 3dfx quality, its pretty damn nice to high res stuff on the n64. All of the enemies have nice shiny textures that at time even resembles glass. The draw in distance is much better, with less fog, and there is good lighting. But it all comes at a steep price. Yes folks, i'm talking frame rate here. Now, given the fact that it came after goldeneye, I was expecting it to much faster. This was a next generation n64 game, with a much hyped faster engine. Well excuse me, but this game chugs, and big time. It's far slower than goldeneye and even turok 1. Does that make sense? Well, yes, because it looks so good right? Well, not only that, but because the enemies now have skin on them.
Which leads to 5 fps enemy fights if there are ever more than 1 on the screen. This is just trash, even by n64 standards. Yes, its not a pc, but its not exactly saturn either. I've always been a little suspect of the slowness in n64 fps, I mean, this is a 64 bit system right? But this game was the first game on the system that showed me that no matter how huge the gameing cart, no matter how much optimization, the n64 just can't handle much of the stuff that keeps fps rocking. Is it fun to have to watch a slide show while fighting enemies? No.
So, given that the frame rate sucks, there has to be something else there to hold me. Well, sadly, what is there is nothing but a long, slow, hard game that will get on more than it's share of gamers nerves at one point or the other.
The second biggest flaw is just too bad to overlook. The actual speed of the game is terrible. Not the frame rate, but the walking speed, the running speed, the side step speed, etc. This makers of this game wanted this to be a lonnnng beautiful game, so what they did was force you to move at a slow speed in order to make you enjoy the visuals. In most fps, the graphics, while being great, usually take a backseat to the action, because who has time to adore textures when they're in a fire fight with 15 odd-something guys? Nobody. But not in T2.
You're forced to basically powerwalk through every section. There is no run button, so it all relies on the push of the analog, meaning that you go from creeping to walking with the push of the stick. This kills the game for me, because in all honesty, the huge levels take twice as long as they would had the game had a run buttom. This shows me that the main priority of the designers was graphics and length. They sacrificed comfortabilty, forcing each and every gamer to look at every texture as they stroll from one fight to the next. This just bugs the hell out of me. Now I know that after a while, you get used to it. But turok 1 had a much faster character, so unless this main guy in this sequal has bad asthma, there is just no excuse for his sorry pace.
That brings the final nail in the coffin. The length. This game is comprised of several virtual miles split between a very small number of levels. This means that each level has to be long, long, long. So instead of have you run through a level and complete it in a half hour tops, you're forced to walk each and every one of those virtual miles, which causing some levels to take over 2 hours. Now, compare that with Jedi Knight 2 and which had true running speed and still had long levels, and you'll see that its just a bad gimmick. These levels are only long because you have to walk through them.
And to make matters even worse, there are a short number of save points during each level. You might not even find them all if you don't go looking for them, and the way this game is set up, you could easily miss an objective and get damn far into a level, only to find out that you forget something. Well,its time to make a two hour trek back to the start of the level. Oh, and if you die, with the lack of a decent number of save points, there is a good chance you'll have to replay two full hours of action.
That pretty much kills this game. While on the upside, the music, weapons, and enemies are great, the hassle that you have to go through in order to enjoy all of the elements just seems to much of one. Did I enjoy the game? Yes, when I wasn't annoyed by the glaring faults. Don't get me wrong, this is far from a terrible game. It's very enjoyable on many levels, and just like the first turok, it brilliant on many technical aspects. But I went into this game expecting the total package, like I got with goldeneye, turok 1, and even perfect dark to an extent.
I suspect that the version that most of game magazines were bragging on was the pc version. That version is 3dfx accelerated, but still manages to look inferior to the pictures that I saw in almost all the magazines.
That leads me to believe that there was a version running on a n64 super devkit, which might explain the difference in the real game that we got, and the one that EGM and company played. What really surprises me is that most of those same magazines gave the game good scores, as if to say they weren't going to own up to their mistakes. Or maybe they just decided the goods outweighed the bads? Maybe you will too.
So like one person said earlier, try to find this game at a really discounted price, or rent it first to see if you agree.
The second coming it is not, but its still an okay game.
bye
ps-the multiplayer isn't as good as goldeneye, but the creaters seemed to think it was so good that it warrented it's own game, hence Rage War, a turok version of quake 3 arena, tribes, and UT. Is it even close to those games? Do you even have to ask?
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