Another developer group that expects too much from an uncreative, forgettable budget product
Let's begin the review.
*_____Story:
The storyline in Turok has close to zero logical proofing to it, and this is given example to in many different ways. I will give a bulleted list of two examples:
*For some strange reason the unit Turok enlisted in stations themselves in space and take up suicidal missions as they meet their intergalactic quotas set by an unknown government that directs them. It is not explained what country this unit represents and why they should have to go such unrealistic extremes. In addition, this unit has no outstanding technological makings of any kind -- they simply have 21st century guns and armor, which obviously aren't enough noting how practically every member of your unit will ride the waves of River Sphyx before you complete the game. The developers simply wanted a mixture of Gears of War, Halo, and dinosaur but didn't have the brain, time, or care to come up with a sufficient storyline.
*Kain, who is the main enemy in the story, chooses to establish his military in a world completely infested in dinosaurs, and the only reason the developers provided was that he aimed for a knowledge of evolutionary development that he might be able to put to use in his idealistic goals of industrial growth. Nonetheless, Kain succeeds with his industrial goals and his army is so capitally well-off that they have access to dynamic spider-tanks, futuristic armor and weaponry, gas masks with the purpose of looking cool, and make up close to 1,000 in number.
As you can see the developers aren't the best writers -- far from it to be frank.
*_____Graphics/Sound:
In the world of the dinosaurs that Turok and his companions are adventuring in there won't be anything close to original or memorable from the environments. Every environment is plain and doesn't consist of much outside of the view of a terrain of overgrown trees and water; the characters look average, they are not likable and make no attempt to be likable; and you will run into one glitch after the next.
As for sound: the player will hear a roar from a dinosaur and the stamping of its feet at times--which might cause the ground to shake in synchronization--but you will never hear any music playing, and if there are any, they are very uninspired and have zero emotional influence.
*_____Gameplay/Controls:
The gameplay is simple: if you see a strange man wearing a cliche gas mask and darkened armor shoot him, and kill any dinosaur that just generated on one side of the screen and chooses to run around in circles because of its grade D AI track programming.
You will have access to a creative weapon or two, but the 'creative' only lives in so far as seeing what alien technology Kain was able to make by inventing blue pulse wave shots over bullet cartridges.
As you play through the game your best friend is right or left stick + A, which causes Turok to shift his body four feet in either direction to help avoid dinosaur bites; if you didn't have this mechanic there would be no tactic on your behalf to save yourself from the enemy + the environment. Why? The cursor sensitivity is uncontrollably bad, such so that you will need to rely on the Left trigger at all times to precision your gunfire. Secondly, the environments are useless to you and will only serve the purpose of movement obstacles. Thirdly, you don't even have a map and the screen will blur if you move it too quickly. With that aside the controls are standard so there isn't very much to speak in that regard.
*______Achievements/Replay Value:
If you're an achievement hunter and want to enjoy the experience of the grade D writing through Story you won't see your gamerscore increased by much more than 100G if you limit yourself to that mode. The online play is where the achievements and the replay value lay, but the objectives and the mediocre images of the environments sour the type of enjoyment you would otherwise see in far better FPSs like Halo 3.
*_____Conclusion:
Since FPSs are the common hit among 360 and PS3 games a player has a right to be quite judgmental with what he sees, and because of that competition, and standing by all objective considerations, this is worth nothing higher than a rental. If you plan on buying it I'd recommend crossing it off your list and going for Halo ODST or Section 8 instead.
My final rating: 6/10