For an old console multi-shooter, it plays very well.
Rage Wars
Designed as the console answer to Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, Turok Rage Wars's gameplay is not hard to describe. You go around with weapons, in small arenas, and search for other players to brutally massacre. Yo can choose from up to 17 characters from the Turok series, although most of them must be unlocked by completing several single-player campaignes. The single-player is not bad, but most of the objectives are too easy. The multi-player is the real core of the game. You can also play against bots, but they aren't too smart. Still, at the max difficulty level, they do offer somewhat of a challenge (not much, mind you, but enough to stay interested). There is a large array of arenas to choose from, and a very big arsenal featuring some fan favorites like the Automatic Shotgun or even the Cerebral Bore to an extent. The controls are as usual in FPS games for N64, they play quite well. You don't have the option to use the D-Pad to move.
Design choices
Unlike many other shooters, you don't have the chance to bring that much ammo with you, so it's impossible to stick to a single weapon for the while game, unless you frantically go around to pick up always the same type of ammo. It adds variety to the game, and discourages campers (although encouraging another type of campers, those who wait for ammo to reappear). The arenas are quite small, meaning that you'll easily meet other players,m and won't have many pauses between a kill and another. All the more reason to not go around and search for ammo, because you might never know when someone will take you as target. There is only one power-up per level, but it changes costantly, so you can't simply plan strategies or something. Apart from the usual Death-Match, Team Death-Match and Capture the Flag, there is another mode called Monkey Tag, which is definitely the best one to play. A random player becomes the "monkey", with only 10 of health, and must try to reach the safety spot before loads of people gang up on him. Priceless.
Geometric features
Anyone who has played Turok 2 will see at first glance that the graphics aren't quite as good. Many of the models are simpler, and the arenas don't feature complex textures. However, it must be pointed out, this allows for a steady framerate. The game almost always goes at full speed, and even if it does slow down, it's not nearly as bad as the previous game. I sincerely prefer this to good graphics but bad framerate. This is also possible because of the small, claustrophobic, geometrically simple arenas (compared to Turok 2's giant levels). It does make the levels look a bit too similar, but it's not a problem. The animation aren't anything special, but you won't care much in the heat of the battle. But I don't see why the Juggernaut should have the same arm model as Turok. The sound too, is not much. Musics are almost inexistant, but the grunts of players are decent. The weapons do make some interesting noises, but that's pretty much it. Still, it does its job, and doesn't interfere with the gameplay.
Letterbox not letterboxing
Ah, here comes the real reason why I wrote this review. See, as I told you before, I originally got the game because I wanted to see how widescreen looked like on N64. However, after trying it for the first time, I saw that the widescreen option doesn't work! Well, I don't really know, but it doesn't do what it should. In Turok 2, the letterbox mode shrank the visual area so that the game would have had less of a strain on the hardware. This also made the game playable on 16:9 monitors. In Turok Rage Wars the letterbox option is still present, but doesn't do anything! Or at least, not anything good. After trying it on a 4:3 screen, I saw that this option actually only thins the HUD, while the image has the same visual area. Actually, the image itself will be stretched horizontally, and you'll need to zoom on the TV to get the normal ratio. Now, image that on a widescreen TV. I have to play this with Zoom Mode on Hires, but the HUD is a bit cropped up. Is this an error from Acclaim's part or something?
Overall + Easy to pick up and play + Large arsenal of weapons + Strong framerate + Monkey Tag and Death-Match are quite fun even against bots + Cerebral Bore - Arenas looks similar - Not the brightest bots around - Graphics are a step backward from Turok 2 - Widescreen not working?