Turok: Evolution, GameCube

Released for the GameCube in 2002, Turok: Evolution is the fourth game in the Turok series (fifth, if you count the non-canon Turok: Rage Wars), and serves as a prequel to Turok; Dinosaur Hunter (the first Turok game in this series), and will appeal to those who want a First-Person Shooter with dinosaurs in it. Because that is exactly what this game is!

Developed by Acclaim Studios Austin (fka Iguana Entertainment), and published by Acclaim, Turok: Evolution sees you playing as “Tal’Set“, the pseudo-Native American, all-action caveman, on a mission to release the seer, Tarkeen, from a curse. This involves infiltrating a large city inhabited by hostile aliens, called ‘The Sleg‘, and destroying their airship. And then their city…

The opening levels introduce you to your four main enemies: aliens (The Sleg), velociraptors, large dinosaurs, and crocodiles (which are arguably the worst out of all of them). All of which you need to kill with extreme prejudice. You can do this with your two standard weapons: your club, or your bows and arrows, or you can collect and use new weapons as you find them (you can cycle through all your available weaponry by pressing the ‘X’ button).

Turok: Evolution follows a fairly standard game structure, with boss battles punctuating certain parts of the story, but the production values, ideas and playability elevate it above the norm. The music is very Jerry Goldsmith-like in places (particularly inspired by his Planet of the Apes score), which just goes to show how good those production values are.

With the controls properly set-up, Turok: Evolution is a joy to play. And it still looks great, too. Adults and children alike will marvel at the sheer number of dinosaurs in this game, although you do have to remind yourself that these are romanticised versions of dinosaurs from the “old way of thinking about them“. This game is a parody of caveman/Native American Indian characters anyway… Just… don’t take any of this as anything other than pure video-gaming fantasy… 🙂

The split-screen mode offers a surprising number of different types of games – twelve in total: regular Deathmatch; Team Deathmatch; One Flag; Last Man Standing; Turok Fight; Team Turok; Warrior Rage; Blood Bath; Beginner DM; Sniper Match; Monkey Tag; and Flight. The only real downside to this is that only two players can play at the same time. There’s no facility for four-player split screen, that I could find anyway.

Turok: Evolution was also released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and a PC Windows port was released in 2003. A separate, side-scrolling action game was released for the Game Boy Advance under the same title. Turok: Evolution also served as the blueprint for the 2008 “Turok” reboot by Propaganda Games.