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Turok 2: Seeds of EvilTurok 2 is Acclaim's answer to the Rare's masterpiece Goldeneye, and despite saying that they were not going to try and "out-Goldeneye, Goldeneye", the developers have created a game that bares more than a passing resemblance to Bond's foray on the N64. But is Turok 2 a better game than Goldeneye? After playing through both games for hours on end, the definitive answer is no. In the end, Turok 2 is just not quite as polished or refined. An extra delay into 1999 would have made the game A LOT better. But I guess this is where the two developers differ. While Rare delayed Goldneye endlessly to play test and tweak different aspects of the game, Acclaim and Iguana chose to just get theirs released before Christmas. Despite the rather pessimistic intro, Turok 2 is an ok game in its own right. It seems that Iguana has learned from flaws that were inherent in the first Turok. The restrictive fog that many gamers complained of has mostly been removed from the sequel, and jumping, which is nearly impossible in a first person shooter, also plays much less of a factor in the game. The graphics are greatly improved especially with the expansion pack, and the same control scheme is utilized from the original Turok (there is an option to switch to Goldeneye controls, but the Turok control scheme is much better for this game so get used to it). Other additions include new weapons, sniper mode, bigger levels, more advanced artificial intelligence, and a killer multiplayer mode. Basically everything you'd expect from a sequel. However, a few minor flaws keep this game from becoming an instant classic. Frequent drops in frame rate in the single and multiplayer games occur, especially during explosions. Also, you cannot skip level introductions and overviews. Sitting through the briefing over and over becomes quite tedious. Also, it may take a while to familiarize yourself with the Turok controls once again after playing Goldeneye for so long. But many of these flaws can easily be overlooked because of the sheer graphical beauty of the game. The multiplayer aspect of Turok 2 was not taken lightly by the developers. They crafted special levels and extra weapons for the frag fests, and they even included a hilarious frag tag mode in which one player is randomly turned into a monkey and all of his weapons are disabled until he finds a warp portal. But the three other players become monkey hunters and guards of these all important portals (which shift locations in the levels during the match). As soon as the monkey is turned back to normal, another player is chosen, and the hunting begins once again. It is a truly unique and hilarious experience. Drilling the monkey with a cerebral bore just before he enters the portal is an experience unto itself (you'll know what I mean when you play the game). However, Turok 2 also falls short of Goldeneye in the multiplayer modes as well. More options to choose from in Goldeneye (and better level design by Rare) just put it a notch above Turok 2. One other tedious part of Turok 2 is that the game completely resets after every multiplayer match leaving you to set everything up again. So is Turok 2 worthy of my money and play time? Maybe if you are a die hard FPS fan and need another one to tide you over. But if you were expecting a Goldeneye killer, I suggest you wait for Rare's unofficial sequel, Perfect Dark. I'm sorry to say this but one more delay would have done absolute wonders for this game.
-Kambei |
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