E3 2002: Turok Evolution preshow report

The much-anticipated next installment in the Turok series will be showcased in playable form at the 2002 E3 this week. Thus far, only the Xbox version of the game has been publicly displayed, so E3 will be the first time the press and public will be able to spend time with the PS2 and GameCube versions of the game. The game's cross-platform engine has been built from scratch for the project, and Acclaim has certainly talked a good deal about how detailed and reactive its AI system will be. As with previous installments in the series, Turok Evolution will be designed around both stealth and combat elements, and new flight-oriented scenarios--which take place atop the backs of flying pteranodons--be included as well.

Turok Evolution is set in the state of Texas, circa 1886, and it stars the progenitor of the Turok lineage, Tal'Set. Tal'Set is one of the last living members of the Native American Saquin tribe, the remnants of which have been under unrelenting assault by a certain Captain Tobias Bruckner. At the game's outset, you'll find yourself in Tal'Set's shoes, fighting a pitched battle against Bruckner's men. Then, suddenly and out of nowhere, some sort of temporal rift opens up and sucks both of them in. Tal'Set emerges in a place referred to as the Lost Lands, and the natives of a colony named River Village nurse him back to health. He learns that the inhabitants of the village are seeking refuge from an evil being called Lord Tyrannus, who's taken it upon himself to "cleanse" the Lost Land by means of war and savagery. Soon enough, Tal'Set learns that Tyrannus has appointed a new general in his army--none other than Tobias Bruckner.

The environments this will all take place in will be modeled after prehistoric Earth, with flora and fauna modeled on a larger-than-life scale. Packs of dinosaurs will inhabit the world, some docile, others hostile, and the very environment itself can be used as a weapon--you can knock trees over with swipes of your club or with shells from your firearms, for instance, in order to take down enemies many times your size. According to Acclaim, more than 30 forms of life will be featured in the game, including reptiles, mammals, insects, and oceanic life-forms. The creatures' AI systems will purportedly react to all manner of stimuli within the gameworld, including but not to limited to hostility, and the game's squad-based AI system (called the "squad dynamics system" by Acclaim) is being touted by the company as the best in the industry. All manner of classic Turok weapons will be included in the game as well, on top of some newly refurbished favorites, including the gravity disrupter beam, the baby nuke, and the swarm bore. The latter is, presumably, based on the series' ever-popular cerebral bore.

Acclaim is promising tons of multiplayer levels and play modes on top of the single-player experience, though none have been revealed as of yet. The publisher has announced, though, that the game will support the Dolby Digital and Dolby Surround Sound standards, which it plans to exploit with the 3,000-odd sound effects it's recorded for the project.

We'll have more information on Turok Evolution, including hands-on impressions, from the E3 show floor.