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 There are few things you can rely on in the world these days. But one of the few Ultimate Truths still remaining is this: Dinosaurs are cool. Anyone that argues with you is probably someone that hated Jurassic Park and, therefore, is crazy.
A game like Turok should be awesome. And if you look at the list of ingredients in this game, you'd swear they were a mixture for perfection. It's a first person shooter with an intense story about survival and wandering loyalties. It's a science fiction based universe. It's a game where the weapons range from primitive to futuristic. Celebrity voiceovers are included across the entire cast. The game's presentation is highly cinematic. Oh, and there are dinosaurs, too. Big ones.
But when you put these ingredients in a pot and stir, the final product is only slightly better than average, and certainly never becomes more than the sum of its parts. Turok has the recipe for success, and the ingredients for it, to boot. Somewhere along the way, the cooks messed up. Turok's not a terrible game, and fans of the series will enjoy it. There are some enjoyable aspects of Turok. But this isn't a great game. There are just too many issues with the PlayStation 3 implementation of Turok to make this the game to tide you through the winter doldrums into the spring release schedule.
Hit the jump, but move slowly. We don't want to startle the T-Rex.
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You're Joseph Turok, the newest member of a Special Ops squadron of elite fighters called Whiskey Company. The Whiskies are tasked with finding Roland Kane, a ruthless madman hell bent upon unspeakable evil, and neutralizing him by any means necessary. Kane is Turok's former mentor. During his time as a member of Wolf Pack, Turok was trained by Kane in the art of combat. Now, he's tasked with using that same training to eliminate the man that instilled it within him.
Only it's not that simple. Is it ever? En route to a remote planet suspected to be Kane's base of operations, Whiskey Company's ship is blown out of the sky. As the fiery hull of the ship splinters apart and plummets through the atmosphere, leaving the Whiskies stranded on a remote and uncharted world, Turok is tasked with reuniting with his comrades, surviving the environs of a world that isn't quite right, and earning the trust of the other members of Whiskey Company, who view him as a turncoat and a traitor. Progressing through the game, Turok comes to grips with his own past, his teammates, and the taint upon his life for the atrocities he's committed.
It sounds rich and complex, but let's be honest. The reason you're here is because of explosions, shooting a bunch of bad guys, and seeing large dinosaurs. Hey, who can blame you? As you go through the game, you build bonds with your teammates, avenge old losses, and maybe even redeem yourself as a warrior.
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Throughout the course of the game, you'll encounter bad guys of both the human and dinosaur variations. Humans have a much more complex A.I structure, allowing them to work in teams to flank you, take cover where appropriate, and move in when you're wounded. Dinosaurs, as you'd expect, are much more primitive and instinctual in their method of attack. They just want meat. And you are meat.
As realistic as this sounds, neither are implemented well. The difficulty level on some of the human A.I. you'll encounter borders on ridiculous at certain points, instilling a level of frustration that will have you ready to hurl your controller at a puppy or Oompa Loompa. The dinosaurs, for all the terror they instill and ferocity their visages carry, are practically moronic in the way they attack you. After the umpteenth time you sidestep a Raptor that's just intent on running you down in a straight line, you'll wonder how Samuel L. Jackson ever managed to get eaten by one. This is pretty much the case with most of the dinosaurs all the way up to your first encounter with the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The T-Rex is a total pushover that's defeated by finding a convenient spot to hide, then chipping away at her health as you fire bullets. You walk away relatively unscathed, too.
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Humans and dinosaurs you encounter also have reactionary A.I., which allows you to pit primal instinct against futuristic technology. As the enemy troopers encounter dinosaurs, or vice versa, the pair react to one another accordingly. Dinosaurs freak out when they spot excessive movement, heat sources, and anyone that threatens their babies. Humans freak out when they see dinosaurs. Because of this, you can easily dispatch enemies by pitting them against one another. If an M.G. trooper is standing near a nest of Raptor Eggs, fire an explosive arrow into the nest, and watch the Raptors jump out of the grass and just rip that innocent trooper to shreds. If there's a troop of enemies walking through a clearing and a pack of Dilophosaurus nearby, drop a flare into the midst of the troopers and let the two battle each other. Once one side has wiped out the other, you can move in and play clean up.
The weapon design in Turok is nicely done, and the selection of weapons is wide enough to keep things interesting. Starting out with pistols and SMG's, and later moving into more exotic weapons like the pulse rifle, the game gives you the ability to pick up a variety of weapons, each with their own set of pros and cons, but limits you to two guns at any given time. You'll also find more primitive fare by way of the bow & arrow and combat knife. While dispatching enemies with guns and explosives is cool, sometimes there's nothing more satisfying than drawing back the string on your bow, letting an arrow fly, and watching your shot pin an enemy's still-warm corpse to the wall.
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The game also offers up a one hit kill ability, allowing you the opportunity to take out unsuspecting dinos and humans with your combat knife. As you walk behind an enemy, or next to them, you can hit the R2 button in time with the icon on the screen in order to assassinate them. While this tactic has serious strategic advantages in terms of stealth, at times it's not as easy to accomplish as it should be. When you do get a one hit kill, though, it's awesome to watch. The death animations with the combat knife are exciting, visceral, primal, and worth watching over and over again. Although you have to wonder, what kind of future do we live in where a simple combat knife can not only penetrate the thick skull of a raptor, but also kill them instantly?
The game's graphics are nice and sharp at times, but the tearing you'll see at certain points is problematic and pulls you out of the moment. Dinosaurs are textured nicely and human enemies look detailed in their limited templates. The lighting effects aren't particularly great, though, with many of the levels feeling washed out and excessively dark. Levels start to feel and look the same after a while, as well.
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As you progress through levels, you'll reach pre-determined checkpoints throughout the level where your progress is automatically saved. The style is very similar to Halo and Call of Duty 4, but the frequency isn't. Checkpoints in Turok are sporadic and poorly placed, leading to many levels where you'll have to repeat difficult parts over and over again, simply because the next checkpoint isn't placed until much further down the line.
And that difficulty level is a problem. While the game starts out easily enough in the initial levels, it quickly ramps up and at times becomes an impediment. In particular, the human enemies in later levels become so tricky that you may question their superhuman strength and wonder if they're former Major League Baseball players. A challenge is one thing, but difficulty should be challenging without being annoying. Certain segments of the game are bad enough that you'll be watching the load screens over and over again (Curse you, Elevator Level). The controls, which don't quite feel fluid, don't help matters. While you can tweak the turning sensitivity, it never quite feels comfortable.
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The savior of this game could have been multiplayer. The multiplayer modes are designed well, giving you a total of six different game types. Multiplayer flavors include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Assault CTF, War Games, and Co-op. Multiplayer maps also include A.I. dinosaurs in the mix. Now, instead of just dealing with the players on the other side of the screen, you also have to worry about roaming dinosaurs that might just take a fancy to you.
But that's where the fun stops in multiplayer, because of three critical issues that take a good thing and turn it terrible.
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First are the connectivity problems. During our four day test of multiplayer, connectivity issues ranged from a complete inability to get into the game's set of multiplayer servers to lengthy connection times into games, only to time out once we finally connected. We tested out other multiplayer games on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and the PC. None of them experienced connection problems.
Second is the lack of lobbies. By the time you've managed to connect into a game, and then found a group of people you're enjoying playing with/against, you're dropped back to the main multiplayer menu as soon as the match is over. The inability to keep playing with others conveniently means that the multiplayer experience is marred.
The third issue is going to raise the most hackles. The PlayStation 3 release for Turok does not support voice chat. This is bad enough on its own, because an FPS multiplayer title without voice chat in this day and age makes no sense. But at the same time, on the other side of the coin, the Xbox 360 version of the game fully supports voice chat.
Whether this difference is because voice chat is integrated at the base level of the Xbox Live service isn't important. Why even bother with multiplayer if you can't talk to people? This is compounded by the fact that the multiplayer functionality includes a Co-op mode, which is something we'd love to see more of in competitive multiplayer. But without voice support, and without a way of directing your teammates to different directions and defending/attacking different spots, it becomes a giant clustermuck, and team tactics have to occur by an improvised pantomime.
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It's just a shame. Turok is a game that could have been greatness if given a few more months to simmer on the stove, while the chefs worked out the kinks and ironed out the experience. Turok could, and should, have been awesome. But it feels like this title was rushed to market to take advantage of the lack of new FPS titles. Turok on the PlayStation 3 will undoubtedly sell well because there's no immediate competition for it, but any other month of the year, when good FPS titles were coming out, this would be a footnote.
A lack of voice chat in multiplayer? Huge problem. One that makes you wonder why the PS3 version even includes co-op modes.
The other problem is that the game never really gels into a single cohesive experience. There are going to be moments you enjoy, of that there's no question. But as an overall game, it's like having a bunch of memorable battles mixed into the rest of the so-so stuff. The game never truly builds a momentum until the last few levels, and by that point, the game's over. And that's a 14 hour experience, which is a long time to spend without every feeling like the game is just zipping along and everything is going RIGHT. There are too many points of frustration, too many issues, and too many hiccups in the game.
Enjoy this as a rental. The PS3 edition of Turok isn't going to do too much to earn that $60 price tag. Turok is only slightly better than average, and thus, we're ranking it accordingly.
Final Score: 6/10
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