Unimaginative, but fun.
What made Turok 1 and 2 so special apart from the jungle and dinosaur-theme was a number of things.
The experience was a bit like Half-Life were you just go on forward not being sure what is going on. And as you progress, the game becomes increasingly weirder, and ultimately you are fighting against aliens out in space somewhere. you don't feel like the story is being pushed on you, everything just happens naturally. I especially enjoyed the jumping, the platform game aspect. Exploring was a big part of what the gameplay was about, and contrary to most fps games, jumping really had a purpose here, being a way to explore the surroundings, as was swimming. You had to make dangerous jumps were failure would lead to death. In these aspects it was a bit like Tomb Raider. While exploring you could also find hidden places with special items, weapons and ammunition. There were time portals and extremely advanced weapons. The levels were more or less open, with big areas, so you had to find the right way to go.
The fog, which prevented you to see too far ahead due to the limit in the videogame hardware, had something positive about it in my opinion, creating the feeling of being in a vast place with no boundaries. You don't see much fog in todays videogames, but I really think fog and dim vision should be used much more to create a more natural, impressionistic view of the surroundings, were objects is not as clear and sharp when viewed from a long distance.
No originality:
This game is like the typical FPS game in all respects. Turok is a member of a military team who are working together. The stereotype main characters are very macho, and cartoonishly muscular. The levels are not open, you just go forward in the direction that's available in front of you. There are some open spaces though, but you always know in what direction to go. You can jump, but it's rarely necessary. No swimming either. No supernatural elements - time portals, crazy weapons, imaginative places with interesting architecture, strange creatures. The enemies are dark clothed humans wearing helmets with red glowing visors – I am not fascinated. The whole grandeur and mystery of the first games is missing. One aspect about the story I do find interesting though, and it is that the main companion that assists Turok out in the field doesn't like Turok at all, and thinks he is not to be trusted, so they don't get along well at all. Yet they are fighting together covering each others backs.
Environments, sound, music:
It's a pity that the originality is gone, but the game is still very well done. There is nice variation between different environments, like jungle, facilities and caves. And it looks nice, although sometimes I have a hard time seeing clearly and figuring out the perspective, particularly in the jungle.
The sound is very nice – environment sounds, sound of footsteps, occasional remarks from a companion, such things help create atmosphere. Sound effects of weapons and shooting is pretty good.
The music is very functional and mood enhancing, which works well although I prefer music with richer structure, having more melody and harmony.
Challenge:
As most games, the difficulty increases as you progress, but is surprisingly challenging at an early stage in the game. But you adapt to it, hopefully, and the challenge is part of the excitement. Enemies are very good at hitting you - they never miss, regardless if they are moving sideways or standing still. This is probably to compensate for the fact that you always heal to full health when damaged, as in Killzone. You just have to make sure you wont get hit too much at a time, because the vision gets more blurry and ultimately you die. It only takes a few seconds to heal though.
Some have a problem with the save points being far between. I think this is because people have gotten used to games were you either can save anytime or anywhere, or games were you reach save points frequently. I like the feeling of being under a threat - that I'm really afraid of my own life. At the point of reaching a new save point, it feels like an accomplishment, and is a big relief - which is a great feeling that other games with frequent save points don't give in the same way.
While the weapon arsenal is pretty standard, I like it because pretty much all the weapons are useful. You always have to consider which weapon to use since you can only carry two, apart from the bow and knife which you always have. And even choosing between these two is hard – I find myself switching a lot, being very undecisive. Which weapon to use depends on different situations, which enemies you are facing, and how you want to deal with them. The weapons kill very quickly if you aim well. So the action moments are very fun. There is a lot of suspense, and it's exciting to walk around in places with no enemies – they will show up, but you don't know who or were. You have to be ready for enemies appearing at close range, or from a distance, in which case a sniper rifle is of course a nice thing to use.
Summary:
Unimaginative story and concept, militaristic style and stereotype characters – it is not appealing. But it's very fun to play. I like the suspense. The levels doesn't involve much exploration , being easy to follow routes from one point to the other. But the environments are varied, and the action is varied and unpredictable. Visually, and particularly soundwise, it is quite nice.
As a Turok game, it's a pity that it couldn't set itself apart more from other fps games. But it is nonetheless a good fps with some nice atmosphere.