Turok Evolution

GameCube, Turok Evolution (2002) game

I had happy memories of playing this one back in 2009, and I always thought I'd one day return to it. That one day has come and gone, and while it wasn't quite the Great Game I had in memory, it remained a good one for sure. My history with 'Turok' goes back to the first two games on the N64, both of which were enjoyable chunks of action FPS that held difficult challenges of both endurance and precision jumping. 'Evo' by comparison is a ridiculously easy game. Not to say it doesn't have some irritatingly challenging moments, particularly in the 'Rogue Leader'-esque flying sequences in which you ride atop a tame Pterodactyl, firing at all and sundry before plunging into tight caverns where the slightest mistake will send you banking into a wall and certain death. The difference is that the save points were pretty lenient compared to the slogs between saves that marked out the difficulty of the earlier games (this being the fourth in the series - technically fifth, though 'Rage Wars' was basically multiplayer only, and not a 'proper' game). If you collide with death here you generally only have to go back a few minutes, so it's considerably more generous in that regard.

That's probably part of the sweeping genetic changes to gaming's DNA that has taken place across the board during its lifetime, games becoming easier so more people can play them, they sell more copies, more elaborate gaming experiences can be put into production until it became the global number one entertainment pastime in terms of profitability. 'Evo' still provides a meaningful challenge, it's just broken up into more chewable chunks. This has the effect that you probably get through it quicker than the older games, but it's a boon when you can choose whether to push on for another twenty minutes or call it quits, accessibility once more the watchword. I couldn't tell you what the story was about - vaguely, there's this villain called Bruckner who falls through time, along with Turok, for no good reason other than they were hunting each other, I think, and then he's the guy at the end who you have to best. Other than that it's just running around the impressively vast landscapes shooting at Slegs and dinos. The big deal of the time was its improvement in graphical ability over the previous games in the series. It really does show that it's part of that next generation on from the N64, with dense foliage in the jungle areas, or distant mountaintops which you'll eventually reach after traversing deep gullies, right down to the bottom and up to the top.

The scale is amazing in comparison to past glories and it was this above anything else that I always remembered so fondly. There simply weren't enough true updates of N64 favourites to please me on GameCube, and that's one reason I feel it was a relative failure compared to the N64, my favourite console of all time. Sure, there were 'Zelda,' 'Mario' and 'Mario Kart,' the usual suspects on a Nintendo console, but there weren't enough of the other games: 'Banjo-Kazooie,' 'Donkey Kong,' 'Excitebike,' 'Snowboard Kids,' with only 'Rogue Leader' and this to really show the potential of a next-gen version of what I'd enjoyed on N64. One area the 'Cube was particularly lacking was in the First Person Shooter genre, so it came as a surprise when I discovered 'Evo' thanks to a friend passing on his old 'Cube games, all of which I'd never have tried out back in the day, probably thanks to NGC Magazine's less than complimentary reviews. But not everyone feels the same and though they weren't enamoured with 'Evo' I found a lot to like. I had pleasant memories of fighting the T-Rex at the start of the level in the mountains, of making my winding way up said mountains, of searching for keys in the thick jungle, and of travelling high in the air across a vast city. I even had some happy memories of soaring around in the flying levels!

Playing through on this occasion was a time for reminiscing, rediscovering the varied and imaginative levels that could range from sneaking into a heavily fortified Sleg outpost, to the depths under the ground. Fighting the humanoid Slegs or fending off the less intelligent, but faster moving dinosaurs that are a trademark of the series. This was the first game that got the balance right, with incredible variety in the dinosaur species that you're up against or merely passing while they graze. Way back in the original 'Turok: Dinosaur Hunter,' one of the three launch games on N64 (and reportedly with a massive £60 price tag!), mostly had human or troll-type enemies with only the occasional appearance for traditional dinos. 'Evo' really put that right, using all the 'Cube's power to show off huge, shambling creatures down to zippy little ankle-biters and everything in between. You even go up against Sabretooth Tigers and baboons, which were probably the hardest to deal with, though Raptors were also deadly. There's nothing like creeping through an impenetrable forest complete with towering trees, and the overpowering chirping of countless birds to unnerve you when you know Raptors are near - and then they're upon you! (Though I would add the loud chirping did get annoying after a few minutes).

Graphically it was very accomplished, but the jungle was the one area where shades of the old games' problems were visible. Or I should say not visible until they popped up in front of you! Fogging and pop-up of details in the landscape was one of the biggest issues with the old games, limited as they were, even when using the Expansion Pak ('Turok 2' required it, I think, or at least was one of the first games to use it), and while fog was a thing of the past in this game, I did notice plants suddenly appearing before my very eyes as if there was just too much detail for the processor to handle. It's a small complaint, but it stood out because of the scale and splendour of the rest of the graphics. There were other negatives, such as the fact that your weapons would often have no effect on the undergrowth - I wanted to be tearing up the plants as much as the carnivores they camouflaged, but even using a Minigun would have no effect on the greenery - deformable scenery was still out of the realms of possibility, it seems. The biggest problem for me was the lack of a weapons wheel to quickly select the suitable tool for the job, and on too many occasions I was caught cycling through weapons one by one to find what I needed while being shot to pieces (I did enjoy the bitter touch of the Slegs cheering and raising their arms every time they succeed in killing you!).

Alongside the inability to instantly choose your weapon, and there could be a lot of them later in the game, there was also the occasional glitch of getting stuck in scenery. It wasn't often, but once in a while I'd become trapped in a wall and then killed, or drop down to a lower level with the ability to still move about down there, but with no ladder to make my way back up, the only option being to jump to my death. Or in the final fight with Bruckner I could find myself knocking against the tiny bank of a stream and would have to turn and jump onto it when I should have been able to step! The final battle was also extremely easy. It's difficult to know how far to go in criticism of a difficulty curve, because you want the game to become tougher as you progress and become more proficient with the game's style, but you don't want the last levels to be almost impossible, at the same time. The flying sections near the end required many attempts, particularly that awfully tight section through crystal-infested tunnels. In general the game was probably a little too easy and I had planned to select a tougher difficulty level from the start on this play through. Except there wasn't that option. As it turned out it was enjoyable enough, and it wasn't really a game of skill so much, it was just about getting from A to B, with the enemies in the same position each time.

In that respect it was quite a shallow game and there were few opportunities for the player to have genuine freedom, though the width of the levels were such that it wasn't like playing down a narrow pathway. So there wasn't the kind of freedom that makes games push beyond merely a good experience, but at the same time it was enjoyable and I wanted to keep playing. The weapons were varied and there was always enough ammo lying around so you were never really caught short, and though the intelligence of the enemies was average, they were mostly cannon fodder. The variety in locations helped to hold the interest and I would still rank it as the best of the three games in the series I've played. I have the feeling 'Turok' died out after perhaps one more game that never came to a Nintendo platform, though I could be wrong. All I know is that for a system that needed more shooting games, this stands out as being exactly the kind of thing that showed what the 'Cube could do. I only wish I'd played it when it first came out because then I'd have been even more wowed. Would I play this again? I don't know, maybe in another decade it might be fun to do it all again, but the rate at which decades go by now means that it wouldn't be long before it was here again, so maybe fifteen years would be better. It missed longevity by not including the difficulty options, but I still think fondly of it.

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