Turok Evolution Screenshots     The Final Say! Gameplay 8.9 Graphics 8.7 Sound 8.7 Value 8.6 Turok Evolution - reviewed by Tory Favro Review Date: 25 September 2002 Review Score: 8.6/10  Distributor: Acclaim

After many years in the console wilderness, Turok finally returns on the Nintendo GameCube with Turok Evolution. Over the centuries, there have only been a handful of chosen warriors to carry on the legacy of Turok, one such man is called Tal'Set, the leader of the nation of Saquin. Tal'Set's most insidious nemesis, Captain Bruckner has led a campaign of destruction and death on the people of Saquin. When Tal'Set finally encounters Bruckner, they are both mysteriously transported to a dangerous lost land. By staying alive, you ensure the survival of both yourself and your people until you can finally vanquish the world of Captain Bruckner and his followers. And this is where your journey begins. Turok Evolution contains the following features that sets this game away from its predecessors; improved AI aerial Missions new Gaming Environments & multiplayer Action Graphically, Turok Evolution on the GameCube is eye candy. Unlike the PlayStation and XBox ports of the game, the GameCube maintains a constant smooth framerate.  At the beginning of the title, I did notice some weird effects that kind of reminded me of a fishbowl appearance. This did not occur at any other stage. The game looks good throughout when playing and the dinosaurs look fantastic. Textures are of a high resolution and on particular models bump mapping is evident. I must admit that I was stoked to find that Turok was coming back after all this time as the original game was the reason that I first bought a 3D card for my PC back in the day. Turok looked gorgeous and was compelling with it's fantastic visuals and great gameplay. There are a number of effects used that make this a strong title graphically, however some of the far distant backgrounds appeared to be almost an afterthought and should have been presented in as good detail as the rest of this polished game. There are a number of game styles to this title however at its heart, Turok is a first person shooter. Some of the nice new innovations however are that finally Turok takes to the air on the back of ancient birds. The birds are nicely animated and if you take one of them into a dive, their leathery wings will actually flap wildly as their speed increases toward the earth which looks great and sounds very realistic.

Which of course brings us to audio, which has always been strong with all the Turok titles and this is no exception. Presented in Dolby Prologic II, the game world comes to life around you and everything is audible or so it seems with this title. You can even hear little details such as your enemies clawed feet making their way toward you as the nails hit rock. Explosions and weapons fire are effective and sound like they could be real. Music is excellent and really sets the mood for the game and will get you going as you spring from one action filled area to the next.

The graphics engine on the title is also the unseen/seen star of the game with plenty of innovations thrown into the title to give gamers more bang for their buck. Effects such as destructible environments will enable players to conserve ammo by knocking down trees and rocks to crush or block opponents. Later on in the game you can knock down pillars and other parts of buildings for the same result. Unfortunately this is not a rule as such and it's a case of shoot and see approach that needs to be adopted.

The dinosaurs look fantastic and move well around the map. One thing I did notice was that some of them were incredibly stupid and didn't respond to being shot. This surprised me as we were able to play some code a few months ago where we shot a stegosaurus and it proceeded to chase us around the level knocking down everything in it's path. It's only a minor point that doesn't really affect the primary gameplay however I would have loved to see it included.

The weapons as always with Turok are nothing short of spectacular and there are very clever upgrades for most of them so keep an eye out as you roam about the gameworld. Multiplayer is there for up to four players and is a blast to participate in, with the title still looking good without too much of a graphical hit.

I would recommend Turok Evolution as a really fun first person shooter title that will have you pretty happy to glue your hands to the controller.

- Tory Favro