I really liked Turok 1, both on the N64 and the remaster, but I never had a chance to play Turok 2 on the N64. Turns out I dodged a bullet.
The game is clearly ambitious in wanting to expand the scope of the first game but it manages to do so in all the worst ways possible. It's a litany of baffling design choices.
For example, they added objectives to the levels. These are mandatory, but often hidden away. If you don't complete them, entering the portal to the energy totem will simply warp you back to the start of the level with a 'Mission Failed'. Other FPS games reward you for exploration with secrets, power-ups, new weapons (and, to be fair, Turok 2 does have secrets too), but Turok 2 tells you you didn't explore hard enough, so try again. It feels punishing, and it's the antithesis of fun.
I feel like the objective system was part of an attempt to inject some overt narrative into the game, like with the Star Wars reject lady who guides you throughout the game. It doesn't really work though. Turok 1 wasn't a game I played because I was deep into the lore. I just wanted to kill dinosaurs.
It doesn't help that the levels themselves are huge, often monotonous, and rely on the same gimmicks over and over and over again. Already by the end of the first level I was sick of hunting a switch to unlock a route to another switch to unlock a route to another switch to actually progress through the level. The levels outstay their welcome and I can only think that they thought bigger would automatically be better. It isn't. Turok 1's levels are far more interesting and enjoyable.
There's a varied selection of weaponry and half of them are ass. For every Cerebral Bore there's a Tranq Rifle. The game really loves its locational damage system too, to the point where even the good guns can feel totally ineffective if you're not headshotting enemies, leading to a lot of frustrating inconsistency. I shudder to think how people dealt with this with an N64 controller, KB/M was bad enough.
Turok 2 could be enjoyable, in parts, but its highs are nowhere near high enough to justify its lows. It's a prime example of taking a solid formula and warping it into something completely inferior to the original. After getting increasingly bored while playing Hive of the Mantids, I just realised any fun had long since stopped, and that's when I did too.
Nice music though, I'll give it that.
The game is clearly ambitious in wanting to expand the scope of the first game but it manages to do so in all the worst ways possible. It's a litany of baffling design choices.
For example, they added objectives to the levels. These are mandatory, but often hidden away. If you don't complete them, entering the portal to the energy totem will simply warp you back to the start of the level with a 'Mission Failed'. Other FPS games reward you for exploration with secrets, power-ups, new weapons (and, to be fair, Turok 2 does have secrets too), but Turok 2 tells you you didn't explore hard enough, so try again. It feels punishing, and it's the antithesis of fun.
I feel like the objective system was part of an attempt to inject some overt narrative into the game, like with the Star Wars reject lady who guides you throughout the game. It doesn't really work though. Turok 1 wasn't a game I played because I was deep into the lore. I just wanted to kill dinosaurs.
It doesn't help that the levels themselves are huge, often monotonous, and rely on the same gimmicks over and over and over again. Already by the end of the first level I was sick of hunting a switch to unlock a route to another switch to unlock a route to another switch to actually progress through the level. The levels outstay their welcome and I can only think that they thought bigger would automatically be better. It isn't. Turok 1's levels are far more interesting and enjoyable.
There's a varied selection of weaponry and half of them are ass. For every Cerebral Bore there's a Tranq Rifle. The game really loves its locational damage system too, to the point where even the good guns can feel totally ineffective if you're not headshotting enemies, leading to a lot of frustrating inconsistency. I shudder to think how people dealt with this with an N64 controller, KB/M was bad enough.
Turok 2 could be enjoyable, in parts, but its highs are nowhere near high enough to justify its lows. It's a prime example of taking a solid formula and warping it into something completely inferior to the original. After getting increasingly bored while playing Hive of the Mantids, I just realised any fun had long since stopped, and that's when I did too.
Nice music though, I'll give it that.