Turok (Xbox 360, 2008)

Turok for the Xbox 360 can be described as...bad or below average. I was looking forward to a Gears of War type game play, instead, I got a bad game that presents very little in the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre. The game tries too hard to be like both Gears of War (Story Mode) and Halo 3 (Multiplayer), but fails on so many levels.

Beginning with story mode, a major flaw here is the loooong checkpoints, meaning if you die in the middle of a level you have to start all over from the beginning again. This is extremely annoying knowing you have to kill all those dinosaurs and soldiers again, which can be hard at times because they appear at random and can fill your screen faster than cockroaches.

The load times during story mode take an average of five seconds every area you complete; meaning every two to five minutes theres the five second save and load that freezes the game for that brief time. At first, it's not a big deal, but after a while it gets really annoying-the excitement and adrenaline you've built from the last checkpoint all disappear in that small time frame.

The weapons are descent. Most, if not, all weapons have secondary functions which brings out the game play a little bit. The weapons, especially the SMG or automatics, handle and fire like Halo 3. However, the aiming is bad (no auto aim) and clunky (side-to-side view or turning is a bit too fast like a Timesplitter game). Every time you spot a dinosaur running around you or your partner, it takes a lot of concentration and time to point your aimer at the dinosaur-sometimes, you just wind up shooting your partner instead because of the crappy aiming and rapid dinosaur movements/attacks.

The gore in this game...is bizarre. The dinosaurs bleed but not the human soldiers. A minor flaw perhaps, but essential to game play seeming that all games today fully engage in blood and gore.

As for the multiplayer....well, it seems okay, if you can find people to play with. Your gameplay options here are your typical Capture the Flag, Big and Small Team Deathmatches, etc. Bots (dinosaurs) are included; 16 players max. There are no local multiplayer however, meaning you can't co-op or mess around with your little brothers or sisters, both are ONLINE ONLY!!!--So if you don't have Xbox Live, you're screwed and stuck with the single player story mode.

Overall, Turok is a Below Average game. A game that has good Gears of War graphics with a bad story/multiplayer mode. Story mode takes about a day and a half to complete, depending on play time, and multiplayer is only available online via Xbox Live. The coolest thing about Turok is the knife kills. This is revolutionary in my opinion and future FPS should adopt and add this concept to their games. Bottom line, the game scores a 4 out of 10 (10 being best) and I would consider renting this before buying because you will regret it later once you find out how crappy this game really is and the money you've just wasted or about to waste on it; of course, there is always ebay. Thank-you for your time, I hope this review was helpful, and have a nice day.

Turok PS3 is pretty much the same as the XBOX 360 and PC versions,.. well 'ugly much' the same.
While it retains the basic storyline, it is inferior in graphic detail and textures and has a jerky slowdown in framerate at several points in the game where the visual and technical action get intense.

It is playable and even a good first person shooter both in terms of graphics and storyline,- although there are long periods of boring lackluster visuals and action, followed by occasional brief interludes where you find yourself actually enjoying the experience.

TUROK is Klingon for "Shut off that damn background music!" As I more than eluded to in the title of my review,- one of the most annoying [almost unbearable at times] things about this game was the lack of an option to turn off the horrific background music repetitive loop, that was nearly enough to make me quit playing and turn the game disc into a coffee coaster. (At one point, during a particularly difficult combat scenario, the repetitious music kept rising to a creshendo, as if it would end,- only to pause momentarily and began all over again; I thought my head would explode, and actually had to mute the sound altogether, to even continue). I generally disable background music in FPS, because in addition to the need to be aware of the degree of noise your character is making, to be stealthy,- it is necessary to be able to hear subtle sounds like snapping twigs or rustling brush, footsteps, etc., that tip you as to enemy position and suprise attacks (in the case of Turok, to hear Dino's too).

Game developers who fail to include the option to silence "torturous" background music, and instead integrate it into the soundeffects track, really piss me off; I mean,- I can understand if your sound production staff had spent a major portion of the development budget composing an original musical score that was a masterpiece,- rather than just a 'piece' [of s**t].

I own all three major platforms for playing games (highend custom selfbuilt gaming PC, 360 and PS3), so I would have to give the nod to PC for graphics and framerate,- and the 360 for my preference of having the tactile feel of forcefeedback controller that a gaming console provides, while still having decent graphics texture and detail, as well as fairly smooth playable framerate. The PS3 not only sacrificed framerate to run halfway acceptable graphic texture and detail,- (emphasis on halfway/halfass) but also failed to preserve most of the best graphic detail of the terrain that made the PC version an emersive experience with mood and visual feel of the jungle environment (that the XBOX 360 almost captures, doing better than PS3).

The jungle terrain and foilage are reminiscent of Ghost Recon, circa 1998ish PS2, or in places, 1rst generation Playstation games.

With all of the great FPS games available (Bioshock, FallOut 3, just to name a couple),- this game, even with some fun to be had at points, is really not worth spending much on, in terms of time or money.
It might be okay for a budget buy, if you have already played the games I mentioned, as well as some other now budget games,- like 'Assassin's Creed', 'Dead Space' or 'FarCry 2', 'Gears of War 1&2' 360/PS3 'Resistance 1&2',- and you want something inexpensive to amuse you while waiting for the sequels to the above mentioned great games.

Turok is all around a pretty decent game. By no standards would I give it a 10, but still it deserves a place on your shelf at home. The fast paced dino fights were pretty intense. I found myself getting mauled to death quite a few times. Turok's knife is probably the main weapon in the game, having the most effect on the attacking dinos. The special "finishing" move never really got old. There was just something about seeing yourself as Turok dominating the attacking dinos. The downside to the game however, was that the motion sticks were way too sensitive. I had to turn the sensitivity almost all the way down, in order to keep from spinning in circles when attacked. The fight scenes were also a little too fast for my personal liking; the dinos come at you way too fast for you to have the chance to switch weapons. Also, the fact that I found really deterring was that you couldn't enter into the game in a two-person co-op. To tell you the truth I was pretty pissed off about that aspect. After hearing so much hype about the game, and then the game company doesn't take the next step that could have brought it close to Rainbow six and Halo. Overall I would give it a 7.5 because of this. Otherwise it would have been really close to a 10.

I gave this game a four because you cant give half points and I feel that it deserves better than a three, but not quite a four. The game is fun. It controls well, the story line is creative. There are just tons and tons of bad guys - people and dinosaurs, which really get annoying after a while. The knockdown system is quite the pain. The graphics are pretty good, no complaints. The dialog isn't the worst I have ever heard.

Overall, this is a fun shooter with an exceptional multiplayer. It does not set any precedents, but its worth having if you want more choices than Halo or Call of Duty.

When I bought this game I had high hopes considering I was a big fan of the original Turok for the Nintendo 64 when I was a kid. During the campaign, I was somewhat pleased throughout with the A.I. being quite challenging throwing different scenarios at you all at once. As with multiplayer, I felt the game play modes of Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, etc. were fun and interesting and kept you wanting to come back for more.
The problems with this game that I encountered were the gun mechanics. I felt that shooting your opponent was kinda hard for the new first person shooter player and felt that it might take away from the game play for someone that was used to more of an auto-aim capability. Another thing, is that I felt they put too much emphasis on the knife. Throughout the game you have this option of being "stealthy" such as a one-button instant kill with the knife, which is cool and all don't get me wrong, but whenever people in multiplayer figure out thats the best way to kill another player due to crooked gun mechanics you tend to have three guys circling each other the whole time trying to get a knife kill...
Seriously, this is suppose to be a first person shooter not a first person knife fight. As of right now I give Turok a 4/5 due to the multiplayer lag from game play being outrageous at this point and over exaggerated knife.