Game Revolution N64 Review Page

by Fefnir

How to turn dinosaurs into oil...

We all remember that classic game Acclaim brought us just a year ago. When I saw first saw Turok: Dinosaur Hunter it was extremely impressive. But with the release of Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, I anticipated the worst, seeing how Acclaim has since become infamous for poor games like Wargods and Mortal Kombat Mythologies. And as we all know, sequels have a terrible reputation for being over-hyped gimmicks attempting to make more money off a good concept. However, Iguana Software is behind this sequel, and kudos to them for this job well done. Turok 2 has managed to impress me just as much as its predecessor.

The all-encompassing evil demon, Primagen, has been locked away for centuries. Should he escape, the dimensional flux would destroy the universe! [Stupid, rickety universe! ~Ed] Now, the Primagen manipulates and influences his "Dinosoid" minions, ordering them to destroy the five "Energy Totems" that keep him locked away. Though the Dinosoids obey the Primagen, that's not going to stop them from eating a few people on the way...

It's your duty as Turok, to protect the Energy Totems at all costs and keep the Primagen from escaping....

Iguana has done it again. With dazzling graphics and solid polygons, we get to see the N64's true power. The terrain is fully rendered, and textures are solid and complex. Waterfalls and streams are an especially impressive piece of effort in this game. The appearance of reflective textures is a bonus as well as the transparencies. Weapon fire is mixed brilliantly with the lighting effects as well.

The sound quality is excellent! Ambient jungle sound is realistic and very clear. The music isn't revolutionary, but it is pretty good. And the sound effects are astounding. From the noise of your bow bending as you draw it, to the singing of birds in the background. Even speech has made its voice heard in this thriller. (Forgive the pun)

I know what you're thinking, "Oh great. Now I can listen to bad voice acting while I play." Never fear. There's hardly any voice, (unlike the overly verbose Metal Gear Solid)and they didn't just hire someone off the street. The voice acting is surprisingly good and well spoken.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is a bit of a mix between GoldenEye and Tomb Raider. Wandering around in maze-like areas, flipping this switch here to open that door there, makes it an average puzzle solving game. Mowing down enemies and fighting through the mazes makes it a blast for action lovers.

The game itself is remarkably large. With several million virtual square feet per level, you'll always be finding places you've never seen. This makes the game fairly replayable. You'll find even after you've beaten the game you've forgotten the solution to many parts of the previous levels. The tremendous levels makes the game incredibly long. If you don't play with cheats it'll take you quite some time to solve each level.

Controls take just a little getting used to, especially N64's analog joystick. Many parts of the game require you to make snap decisions and quick targeting. The dinky little spring loaded analog analog stick just isn't suited for this.

Enemies are rendered in three dimensions, unlike the sorry sprites of Duke Nukem 64 and Doom. They vary from Raptors, to the giant ape-like Purr-Linn, to hybrid, ion rifle-wielding "Dinosoids". Their movement is very smooth and realistic. Their heads track to follow your movement and they can even die in multiple, bloody, sickening ways. Enemies no longer see through the back of their heads. They have to actually 'see' you before they can attack, giving you many stealth options and tactics. They also now have better AI and won't just run straight at you while you tear 'em to pieces with your minigun. Instead they sway left and right as they advance making it much more difficult to hit the bastards.

Combat is a little different. Targeting is much more difficult and takes some practice to get good at, even with "auto-aim" on. A shot to the head means instant death. And even after you've killed an enemy, on the way to the ground, they might still have a chance to hit you before their permanent demise.

Multiplayer deathmatches are also supported. One to four players can enjoy slaughtering their friends in many different modes of gameplay. Those of you who are familiar with multiplayer will recognize this feature right away. It has much the same feel as GoldenEye's multiplayer mode with the exception that the levels are somewhat smaller and less complex.

Another one of Turok 2's cool attributes is the immense arsenal! Those of you who enjoyed Turok's weaponry in the first game will love this one. There are now an additional 20+ weapons, including flame throwers, grenade launchers, and "The Cerebral Bore"! Over twice the amount of firepower as in Turok 1. The highly demanded cross-hair targeting has finally arrived, enabling precision targeting and accurate fire, and a new sniper function is enabled with certain weapons. This awesome device allows you to zoom in on enemies from a great distance, precisely target their head, and accelerate bits of their gray matter. This feature is very handy and loads of fun all by itself.

Many of you who have played Turok: Dinosaur Hunter will remember the gruesomeness of your enemies' deaths. *ugh*. Well in this game, it's even more gruesome... Utilizing your new arsenal, you can have large effects on the local decor. *again ugh*. Blastin' away at opponents can result in loss of their limbs, heads and torso altogether. Not to mention all the blood. *Even more ugh*. Parents should keep in mind that the contents of this game may be much too violent for their younger larvae.

But don't forget that every game has it's problems! Completing mission objectives often has you searching through HUGE labyrinths, making parts of the game tedious and dull. Also some objectives are somewhat unclear. You'll occasionally find yourself running around in circles for hours trying to figure out where to go next. This may be enjoyable for people who like puzzles and long gameplay, but it is aggravating for more action-oriented players.

Though throughout the game the average framerate is very high (a full 30 frames per second). However, when in battle with several enemies, sometimes the framerate drops to as low as 5 per second but for only a bit. This doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's really distracting. Don't take this too seriously, though. You'll find that this problem does not persist and happens rarely. Multiplayer suffers from the same framerate drop during heated battles but it's less intense and even less frequent. The frame rate problem can be corrected with the RAM pack, so don't worry.

Speaking of the RAM pack, this game is obviously better with the additional memory. Though it has great graphics on an unmodified N64, is a far better experience when you add the four megabyte pak. Using the RAM pak increases screen resolution, framerate, lighting effects, and animated textures. You just don't get the same feel without it. It's a pain having to go spend an additional thirty bucks, but I'd say it's worth it. The game is good without it, but best played with it. I recommend purchasing a Nintendo 64 RAM pak as soon as you get this game.

Don't forget that Turok 2 requires the Controller Pak to save your progress. In fact, it requires 90 pages of space to save the game. You may have to do a lot of reorganizing before you can save.

All in all, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is a great game and a worthy sequel. Those of you who loved Turok: Dinosaur Hunter will absolutely love this beauty.