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Health is regenerating, and while this is perfect for the frantic pace of multiplayer, it really doesn't suit the single player campaign. Most of the time you'll be able to charge out commando style, soaking bullets and taking a quick rest behind cover with nothing to fear. Other times, you'll be playing it safe, making your way carefully through an area, only to end up dead suddenly, and be sent all the way back to the last save point to do it all over again. Worse is more than half the time it doesn't feel like it's really your fault. The fact that dinos and grenades knock you on your ass, often turning you around in the process, usually leaves you disoriented and as good as dead. A far better system would have been like the upcoming Ninja Gaiden II, where there's a clear life bar that only regenerates after the current battle is over, raising the tension while reducing the chances of facing a sudden and unfair death.
It's a shame Turok was released post Call of Duty 4, since it's multiplayer is robust and engaging, with a number of options that just can't compete with CoD4's near endless wealth of features. There are three beefy co-op missions to take on with up to three allies, variants of deathmatch and capture the flag, as well as wargames, which is essentially an objective based assault mode. With all the customizations and the in your face gameplay, multiplayer can be a thrill for your online buddies, but you're out of luck if they don't have a console and internet connection of their own, since the developers made the bone-headed choice to not include split-screen play.
Here's a tip. When a developer goes out of their way to say they've been focusing on a particular aspect of their game, expect that aspect to not be particularly good. It was true for Stranglehold and multiplayer, and it's true here for story. You can talk until you're blue about building the game around the story and calling in Hollywood script writers, but when your main villain's name is "Kane" and his evil organization is known as "Wolfpac," you're not fooling anybody. It's basically Metal Gear with dinos, with a heavy dash of Aliens... with dinos, and a script that could be essentially summed up as "rejected lines from Gears of War." I mean, who goes to a hostile planet not expecting to be shot at, in a spacecraft that can't take a single missile? I won't spoil Kane's insanely overly elaborate plan, but I think even Doctor Evil would have been embarrassed by it.
As franchise reboots go, Turok is a pretty decent one. The action is solid and fun, but ultimately lacks anything truly exceptional to stand out from the pack. Even the game's main selling point, gutting dinosaurs, wears thin after a while, no matter how brilliantly they've been rendered and animated. Turok was a good ride for as long as it lasted, but it's not a game I'm going to be coming back to. |
