11th August 2010, 10:50 PM
My favorite things about Turok are probably completely unimportant to everyone else.
A.) The A.I. of the 'Leapers' still gets me to this day. They act differently in the dark, only attacking when they hear noise or are able to smell you. They can climb most surfaces, create traps for you, lead you in to monsters and attack in packs. Not to mention that if you dive in the water, they will simply swim after you. Their dynamic A.I. still impresses me. This is also the first game I witnessed creatures fighting other creatures on their own accord and trying to CAUSE a fight can be tactically beneficial. The A.I. is shown off even more with things like the epic boss fights and that beautiful old school feeling of "I KICKED ITS ASS" which has all but been erased from today's gaming is here in spades.
B.) The epic scope. The creatures in the game, there are many times even to this day the robots and dinosaurs you face have a feeling of being large and threatening even with the immense downgrade in physics and graphics compared to today's behemoths, their scale is perfect and the combat they create is memorable - learning how to take them down and when to run. The 'feel' of attacking certain enemies is tactile, it feels like you're shooting them, or its just spraying off their armor. The areas are varied and immense.
C.) Next time you get to play, notice things like the blood spraying off the dinosaurs (or yourself), take a look at the rockets being fired at you. Its hand rendered 2-D, but it creates a 3-D effect that actually generates depth. Dont believe me? Use the invincibility to slow everything down and allow an enemy to fire rockets at you, such as the triceratops. Or fire the alien rail-gun and walk in to the rings it generates. There is awesome feeling of depth that hasn't been done in many games, it can be seen while peering around corners or over ledges. Its amazing, but its either extremely difficult to do with today's games, or it was a fluke of N64 graphical generation. Either way, it looks really cool.
D.) The sequel actually improved on everything and should be on everyone's must play list. Its only lacking feature: The feeling of being lost and alone in a surreal world isn't as prevalent, but in exchange you are getting a much better game overall. You get jungles there too, dont worry. And a frisbee of death... and a gun that shoots brain-bores and a flame thrower and well, real time lighting, actual 'flinching' of the models (hit their shoulder, it causes their arm to move) and nearly perfect hit detection... on a game that is like 60 years old. It needs to be on Virtual Console, but until then it needs a true gamer's attention on a N64.
A.) The A.I. of the 'Leapers' still gets me to this day. They act differently in the dark, only attacking when they hear noise or are able to smell you. They can climb most surfaces, create traps for you, lead you in to monsters and attack in packs. Not to mention that if you dive in the water, they will simply swim after you. Their dynamic A.I. still impresses me. This is also the first game I witnessed creatures fighting other creatures on their own accord and trying to CAUSE a fight can be tactically beneficial. The A.I. is shown off even more with things like the epic boss fights and that beautiful old school feeling of "I KICKED ITS ASS" which has all but been erased from today's gaming is here in spades.
B.) The epic scope. The creatures in the game, there are many times even to this day the robots and dinosaurs you face have a feeling of being large and threatening even with the immense downgrade in physics and graphics compared to today's behemoths, their scale is perfect and the combat they create is memorable - learning how to take them down and when to run. The 'feel' of attacking certain enemies is tactile, it feels like you're shooting them, or its just spraying off their armor. The areas are varied and immense.
C.) Next time you get to play, notice things like the blood spraying off the dinosaurs (or yourself), take a look at the rockets being fired at you. Its hand rendered 2-D, but it creates a 3-D effect that actually generates depth. Dont believe me? Use the invincibility to slow everything down and allow an enemy to fire rockets at you, such as the triceratops. Or fire the alien rail-gun and walk in to the rings it generates. There is awesome feeling of depth that hasn't been done in many games, it can be seen while peering around corners or over ledges. Its amazing, but its either extremely difficult to do with today's games, or it was a fluke of N64 graphical generation. Either way, it looks really cool.
D.) The sequel actually improved on everything and should be on everyone's must play list. Its only lacking feature: The feeling of being lost and alone in a surreal world isn't as prevalent, but in exchange you are getting a much better game overall. You get jungles there too, dont worry. And a frisbee of death... and a gun that shoots brain-bores and a flame thrower and well, real time lighting, actual 'flinching' of the models (hit their shoulder, it causes their arm to move) and nearly perfect hit detection... on a game that is like 60 years old. It needs to be on Virtual Console, but until then it needs a true gamer's attention on a N64.