Turok was one of those old-skool shooters that I didn’t play much when I was younger. I played a bit of the first game on N64, and I knew it as that “Dinosaur FPS.” Now having played the first game, it’s time to see how much the sequel improves upon the original.
The first thing I noticed about Turok is how they’ve improved the story. In the original you were completely alone, left to figure out everything by yourself. In Seeds of Evil, we are introduced to Adon, who will serve as Joshua’s (i.e. you) guide in his quest to defeat the Primagen.
It’s no Citizen Kane, but the story provides a framework for you as a player to get invested in the game. In addition, the story is used to provide extra missions for each level. These missions add flavour to the world, as well as extra challenges to complete as you work your way through the game.
One area where I think the game does less in comparison to its predecessor is with the bosses. The bosses in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter were unique and imaginative, including humvees speeding around you, or spider monsters climbing around the walls. The same can’t really be said of Turok 2.
Most of the levels end in something similar to a Minecraft Raid. Several enemies from the level attack an Energy Totem, and you have to kill them all before it is destroyed. On normal difficulty this task was usually trivial, especially as the enemies tend to attack the totem rather than you.
There are four real bosses, and these can be fun to fight. My favourite is the Blind One, as this boss will attack you in various ways as it watches you from above with a single menacing eye. The other bosses are generally defeated by shooting specific areas that will highlight during each phase of the boss fight.
While I enjoyed the boss fights, I still felt that its prequel did them better; using more imaginative levels, different ways of moving, and unique attacks.
What the game does improve, however, are the general enemies you encounter. Each level is set in a different world, with a unique history, and mainly populated by one specific species. The dinosaurs are back, but you will also encounter the insect-like mantids who seek to enslave humanity, undead zombies, and a primitive alien race using weapons given to them by the Primagen.
Many enemies being animals will simply run at you and try to claw/bite you. But the more intelligent enemies often have multiple attack. They will fire their weapons at you, throw grenades, swing at you with the butt of their rifles, strike the ground to create quakes, and generally do whatever they can to hurt you most effectively.
I don’t know how intelligent the enemies actually are, but what’s important is that they feel intelligent, like they are making choices based on your actions. The way they look and behave helps both with worldbuilding and creating interesting gameplay.
To engage with enemies you have several weapons at your disposal. Old weapons like the Tek Bow and the grenade launcher make a return, and it is satisfying to blow up enemies with these. New weapons include the PFM Layer that lays mines, a Flamethrower, and my favourite in the Cerebral Bore which shoots drones that drill into enemies skulls.
I love all the weapons in this game, and I love how it keeps ammo just sparse enough that you have to experiment with all of them. Later in the game you’ll find ammo more abundant, but this comes with a ramp up in difficulty around level 5. You still have to be wary and think on your feet in many firefights.
As in the first game, each level has secrets and collectibles for you to find. The main collectibles are the level keys and Primagen keys that unlock future levels. You can also find feathers which will allow you to unlock new abilities, such as walking on lava or leaping great distances. Finally you can find a teleporter in each level that will send you to a Primagen base where you can recover parts of the Nuclear Weapon. This is a hugely powerful weapon, similar to Doom’s BFG.
So does it improve upon Turok? Overall I would say it does. The graphics are an upgrade, though they are dated by today’s standards. The story adds a much-needed framework to get a player invested in the game. My only minor gripe is that the bosses could have been more creatively designed, but it’s not enough of a problem for me to dislike this game.
If you’re a Millennial like me who never got around to playing Turok, or if you’re a fan of old-skool First Person Shooters, you will love this game, and I highly recommend you give it at least one playthrough.
