current games

best video games

nintendo ds
Turok Review by Steve Heimel

Turok is a game I've always enjoyed the thought of because of the dinosaurs and creatures.  The question is, does it deliver the goods?  First off Turok is a fps I played on the Xbox 360 for 5 days.  It has dinosaurs, giant bugs, enemy soldiers, and teammates that seem to be dependent on you doing everything for them.  Anyway, let's get into the story of Turok.

Origanally, Turok was about a time-travelling guy, but that has been completely changed.  You are now part of a team of soldiers sent to capture your old mentor, and leader of Wolf Pack....Kane.  Kane is up to something, but as you approach the planet he has setup his base on, you are shot down and crashland on the planet.  You are seperated from everyone and are forced to go searching.  You meet up with Slade who tags along with you, and by the way he hates you for whatever reason.  Then you find another survivor who's got a sniper and Slade becomes a lot more jolly.(Not to you)  Then you all go find the ship and meet up with the rest of the survivors.  You then basically forget the mission and try to find ways to get back home, while the story moves on.  Which involves fighting off soldiers, bugs, and dinosaurs, looking for stuff, and uncovering Kane's purpose.  Of course, you eventually end up at Kane's base and are forced to confront him and his massive army of soldiers.  I won't give away the ending because if you think real hard you already know it without even playing.  Its incredible isn't it!  It's just the basic good guy versus bad guy scenario with a few twists and turns.  It only develops relationships with a few characters so when the other ones die dramatic deaths you don't really give a s***.  Overall, I'd just give it an average rating on story, but you know most people don't buy the game for story so let's go on.

The gameplay is fps style with a few differences between it and others.  First off as everyone says, there is no aim assist in the game.  While it is a little hard to aim at first, it get's easier later so I didn't find it a big issue.  Second is the knife kills feature.  I thought this was one of the best things in the game for a couple reasons.  One is that it requires almost no skill.  You basically get close to enemies and when it says pull RT you pull it, and boom dead.  Secondly it's just fun to watch the knife kills performed.  It adds interest to the kills and shows sweet moves.  Another thing is the weapons in the game.  This isn't just your basic game of picking up weapons that shoot bullets either faster, harder, or farther.  This game actually goes back to the games where weapons shoot different things and do different stuff.  Guns that shoot remote detonating mines, proximity mines, arrows, arrows with explosions, rockets, and flares.(The rest are just bullets)  So that's the gameplay the player uses what about the overall combat.

The combat in this is just pretty much point and shoot aside from the knifes and mines.  However, there are a few unique if not annoying exceptions.  For one it includes a Simon Says Button mashing system.  This happens when you are jumped by raptors, bugs, or bosses, plus when you open doors.(You just mash one button for everyting except the one boss)  This adds interest to the game and requires you to be ready at all times to survive.  However the ending boss sequence is frustrating when you are doing great and then it shows you one button you're not prepared for and you fail it, but it only should take a few try's so it is okay.  Another thing that is present is a stealth system.  Using the bow and knife enables you to do stealth kills and not alert enemies.(Unless they see you anyway)  It is a little hard to get the hang of, and once you've been found even if you hide they will be alert and ready.  Then there are the bosses.  The bosses in this game are a bit annoying but once you find the trick are easy as it gets.  There are technically I would say four boss battles, but only three bosses.  Overall, I found the gameplay to be fun and while it can be annoying at times, it keeps the game going. 

That was the overall gameplay for the game now let's talk about the multiplayer.  The multiplayer has CTF, Attack and Defend, Team Deathmatch, Warfare, and Deathmatch.  These are all played on dedicated servers and get random players put in.  There are dinosaurs, bugs, and pick-up weapons.  You basically play with others while you complete the objective whether it be kills, capturing flags, or completing tasks.  It has about six maps with different setups and weapons, which can vary the way you play.  I did not vary at all and charged in with my knife every time.  However you are playing with people now so it is harder to kill with any weapon.  The multiplayer is a lot like Halo where you spawn, pick-up weapons, and kill, and that is a good setup, it keeps the game going and interesting.  Overall, I thought the multiplayer was pretty good and was a good experience.  Now, there is one last mode which is different than those above and that is Co-op.  Co-op is a series of missions that take place in parts of the story and have you go through the levels and complete objectives.  You can have up to four players and you have a limited amount of lives for the whole team.  Which is a little unbalanced because you can have an idiot teammate who uses all of the lives, and leaves you none when you finally die.  I think the levels were a little too hard and I never even finished one.(Probably because my teammates sucked!)  Overall, it was an average mode that needed a little more work to be a fun experience.

The graphics of Turok.  The graphics in Turok were pretty decent with a few exceptions.  Number one,  the blood in the dinosaurs looked like a big fountain of paint, but hey maybe that's what they're blood looked like I don't know.  Number two,  a lot of the rock textures were pretty plain and looked like they were the work of an artist trying to hurry up and finish.  They are just too plain and look like they were just copy-pasted throughout the whole game.  Number three,  the sparks that comes off the soldiers seem a little bit blurred and have weird colors.  Other than those things the forests look pretty sweet, and the building being destroyed look pretty good as well.  Overall, the graphics aren't the best but there are some good scenes and views.

Now onto the sound of Turok.  The sound was not very bad in Turokin my opinion.  One thing however is when you stab the soldiers it sounds more like you're punching a cushion or something.  Other than that the sound is fairly decent and goes well with the game.

Overall, I thought Turok was a pretty good game with a lot of interesting elements that kept the game fun.  However I don't think that fun will last long enough for it to be worth buying.  I mean its good and all but it starts to feal repetitive in my opinion, but still I give Turok a good rating and hope you enjoy it. Comments.