From earlier media criticisms of Turok: Evolution I had wondered what kind of game that I would be playing. Is it the “utter crap” that some critics have called it?  It seemed to me that the game would play the same as its predecessors, which is a pretty good thing to say considering its decent track record. Unfortunately, after I placed the disc into my Playstation 2, I had entered the world of “utter crap” that I had been warned of. What went wrong? Why did such a promising game turn into a horrific demon of unplayable proportions? We may never know, but all I can do is warn you to stay away from this game at all costs. Even for fans of the series, this is the very epitome of a catastrophic letdown. Turok: Evolution is hands down the worst port in the history of gaming. Why did Acclaim even bother publishing it for the Playstation 2 if they knew it was so gut wrenchingly bad?

 

            In previous Turok games the plot was fairly simple. You played the role of a chosen one whose job was to protect earth and mankind from various ugly, evil and maniacal beings. Yes, the series has always kept its premise quite simple. Turok 3 at least attempted to make the plot coherent with the constant action, but because of the aging platform it was on, the ambitious ideas presented became nothing more than mere novelties. At least Turok 3 tried. Turok: Evolution on the other hand, makes no attempt at providing a meaningful existence for our hero and even the basic chosen one vehicle doesn’t seem to fit. Evolution is definitely not the correct term for this game because it doesn’t even stand up to the previous titles in terms of gameplay to begin with. You start off with a shoddy bone axe that does more damage than a pistol shot to the head. Now does that make any sense? There are a decent amount of weapons and all of them are quite intriguing from their “manual” descriptions. But unfortunately, they are far too unbalanced, scattered and hokey to inflict any positive effect on gameplay. The level design is appalling, clunky and unimaginative. You are basically forced to run around the same basic level layout over and over with everything mixed around for some “variety”. The enemy AI is by far the worst aspect of the game. Enemies will often times ignore you simply to fire at the invincible giant dinosaurs that pose absolutely no immediate danger to them. Yes there are even points where you can hold a gun to their head and they would still be looking the other way. Am I the only one who sees these things? The single player game is quite lengthy but many people will give up after only a few levels. Believe me; you aren’t missing much because everything basically looks the same until the later half of the game. By then the level design has become far too mundane to even be described. The multiplayer portions of past Turok games have often been saving graces (especially in the case of Turok 2’s wildly unbalanced single player mode). While there are a load of options to experiment with, the multiplayer doesn’t hold out for long. Not only does it support just 2 players, but the modes have been dumbed down from their prime. Deathmatch simply isn’t fun anymore, and the already annoying monkey tag simply needs to disappear.

 

            The visual presentation of Turok: Evolution is simply atrocious. I have never seen such a screwed up port in my entire life. It was as if there was no effort put into making the game competent. Not only does the gameplay falter but when you can’t even provide decent visuals, why bother? There truly is no excuse for the mess that this game has become. If they knew the port wouldn’t work out, why did they release it? There is no excuse for it. The textures are muddy and lack any detail whatsoever. This version of the game uses a technique where foliage appears as you get closer. It is the most annoying and disturbing graphical effect I have ever witnessed. The game looked beautiful on the X-Box and GameCube, with its living environments and detailed floral textures, and none of that is maintained on the Playstation 2. The living environments are now shifting blurs of colors and the enemies look like simple blobs of gray waddling around. If the visuals deserve any credit, it would be towards the dinosaur animations which are simply amazing. The dinosaurs move fluidly and almost feel alive. If they hadn’t been given heads with eyes indistinguishable from their ears then maybe it would have had a better effect. The audio could have been quite decent. The soundtrack is very ambient and complements the jungle theme. But the sound effects are muddy and sound as if the developers were stuck in a tunnel under traffic. These two elements slaughtered a game that was already suffering from core gameplay issues.

 

            In the end, all that remains are questions. What went wrong? Who made the decision to release it and why? Turok: Evolution seems to have been caught up in the multiplatform frenzy that many companies were involved in last year. Many companies believed their games would sell better being on numerous platforms simultaneously. Unfortunately, the Playstation 2 crowd is left with an undeniable sour taste in their mouth. Upwards of 20 hours of gameplay, and none of it is any good. Just for your information, take the crap that is the shooting portions of the game, multiply it by fifteen and there you have the flying missions that pop up occasionally. That was yet another hyped portion of the game that came out as nothing. Another great franchise has gone down the drain, such a shame. Isn’t it?