GENRE
	First-Person Shooter
	DEVELOPER
	Acclaim
	PUBLISHER
	Acclaim
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	CONTROLLER PAK
	yes
	RUMBLE PAK
	no
	RAM PAK
	no
	BUY NOW AT

Turok. Stupid comic and not exactly the best idea to port to video games, especially the most powerful console on the market. Well, Turok takes all those criticisms and flushes them down the toilet. Not only is Turok a good game, but as of now it is the best 3rd party game for Nintendo 64, and it shows!

If the essential part of Turok was created on the PC with networking in mind, it would simply destroy Quake as the game to play. It's that good of a first person shooter, in every category.

visuals

In a word, perfect. The graphics are outstanding, maybe an example of the best graphics in a real-time game ever! The ambiance is convincing and attention to detail is outstanding. The alien ship at the end of the game is glorious, it looks like some kind of elaborate techno-renaissance cathedral. When you kill a creature who is swimming, the underwater cloud of blood will have your tongue on the floor. Enemies are gorgeous and deadly. The arms are all polygons and sway back and forth as you walk, run, and jump. There is armor shine on all things appropriate, and lens flare for those star gazers. However, Turok does lose a point for a slight redundancy in textures. There's cartridges for you.

Effects are top-notch and precedents have now been reset. The Mini-gun weapon puts Doom's Chaingun to shame, as it spins and "whiiiirrrrrrrs" even when empty. Atomic blasts have never been so realistic since Hiroshima, and when you first fire off that beloved Chronoscepter and blow the hell out of some trees and foliage, you will leap out of you chair with excitement. There is also the question of the fog. Turok contains an always present dense fog. Many magazines have criticized Turok's fog that it is too close, and it is close only to conceal tremendous pop-up. I agree, there must be a lot of polygon pop-up plaguing this puppy, but I don't see the flaw. When I am playing the game, I can see the fog as part of the atmosphere, and I see as far enough in front of me as I need to.

As for animation... incredible. Each enemy has two to five death animations, and all are out of sight. I almost cried when I saw a soldier squirming on the ground, trying to get a foothold on the jungle floor, or the soldier who holds his throat as blood squirts out of his neck like it's water from a fountain. Another good one is when a raptor flips and flops and drags it's snout on the ground in pain and anticipation for death. Simply gorgeous!

audio

Sound effects are quite realistic. Nice firing sounds, pistols sound like pistols, shotguns like shotguns, Chronoscepters sound like Chronoscepters, you know. Dinosaurs roar with alarming realness (not that I've ever heard one), and instead of music, this game's accompanying rhythm is jungle beats consisting of drums, bongos, bird chirps, human shrieks, bobcat roars, T-rex screams, etc... It doesn't sound too exciting right now, but it really adds to the suspense of the levels and further develops the surrounding atmosphere. Top-notch audio.

gameplay

The control of Turok is flat out awkward...at first. The basic movement is controlled by the four yellow C-buttons and the analog is used strictly for aiming and turning on-the-go. The directional pad toggles between running and walking, R jumps, and A and B switch weapons. Sound confusing? Well, at first try, it is, but after a few plays, I can't imagine the setup any other way. However, an option to modify the controller would have appeased more stubborn and traditional gameplayers, but It's fine by me. And one thing the control does accomplish is create a new sense of innovation of control. Besides that, Turok is nice and loose. Jumping takes precise measurement at times and it's possible that if you could have an outside view of Turok or a glimpse of his feet in the Doom-like perspective, that jumping and traveling would decrease frustration, but you don't, so you're going to have to get some skill.

multiplayer

N/A

overall

After the smoke clears, and the nuclear radiation fades, Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter is one of the finest games in video game history. It combines every element that makes a good game flawlessly, and, unless you are really, really, really, not a first-person shooter fan, Turok will satisfy you. I think all Nintendo 64 owners should at least try this game, and see why the people who own it think some gaming magazines were dead wrong with their reviews. One of the best so far for the Nintendo 64.

9.0/10