Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (PS4)
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is bigger, bolder, and more adventurous than Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, which is something you think a fan would be excited to hear about a sequel to a successful game. There is such a thing as being too ambitious though, and with Turok 2 starting to smooth out elements like the distance fog from its predecessor, the game decided to get bold and create enormous labyrinthine levels often too large for their own good. While the excellent Nightdive Studios tried to alleviate this some with their remaster of the 1998 first-person shooter, to eliminate the game’s attempts to be impressive in its vastness would be unfaithful, but the fact it got a loving remaster is also a sign that not all is lost just because Turok 2: Seeds of Evil reaches a bit too high in its design.
The Native American warrior Joshua Fireseed has assumed the mantle of Turok following the events of the first game, an alien woman named Adon calling him to the mishmash of the past, present, and future known as the Lost Lands to tackle a new threat. A fearsome being that’s existed since the beginning of the universe called the Primagen threatens to escape its prison and destroy the Lost Lands and perhaps much more, the Primagen already deploying minions to try and weaken the forces holding him at bay. Turok must not only foil the servants of the Primagen but also see if he can rid the universe of this threat once and for all, the warrior facing all sorts of strange creatures along his journey. Some are prehistoric creatures, Turok living up to the previous dinosaur hunter in sometimes facing down raptors and compsognathuses, although a singular level section does see a helpful dinosaur for a change as you ride on the back of a Styracosaurus outfitted with machine guns and missile launchers for some fighting that is cooler than it is challenging. However, most of the opposition in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil comprises of alien races like the reptilian Sleg and the insectoid Mantids. These alien creatures are able to use weapons similar to your own as well as packing their own tricks, but a good deal of focus is also put on smaller foes like spiders, leading to firefights where you often have to juggle trying to not use your strong tools on weak enemies but not being able to afford to burn through weaker ammo on the big guys who can shrug it off.
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil does balance its enemies and encounters well in that regard, and when you are playing through a level initially, you are pushing through encounters that keep you on your toes. There’s no need to worry about reloading in this shooter, and while your ever-expanding arsenal can become a bit meddlesome to gradually rotate through when you need a weapon in the game’s often high energy battles, you can open smaller weapon wheels. Unfortunately, while some weapons do get upgraded, their weaker versions clutter the inventory still, but you shouldn’t lose too much time despite the inconveniences. The weapons are at least a strong set, Turok’s bow eventually getting an upgrade to Tek Arrows that detonate. The pistol gets a new version that fires more shots at once so it can better wear down a foe, and while there are some duds like the unimpressive tranquilizer gun you’ll likely wish you never found, there are also tools like the incredibly strong Plasma Rifle, the rather effective flamethrower, and the laser minigun known as the Firestorm Cannon that is actually more manageable than its bullet-based counterparts usually are. The Cerebral Bore is a particularly memorable addition though, firing a dart that digs into the head of a target before killing them instantly. It has some limitations, it can only be fired if you have a lock on the target, and in the game’s main Quest mode its ammo is quite rare, but its homing factor doesn’t gel the best with the multiplayer where weapons repeatedly appear scattered around the small arenas. Many a multiplayer fight can boil down to a player going on a tear with the Cerebral Bore, although since the online mode can go up to 16 players, the bores are going to be less effective when danger is coming at that player from all sides.
The weapons and enemies end up in a strong relationship in the single player at least, most weapons having at least some role in helping you clear out specific foes so you can balance out ammunition usage and keep your powerful tools for when they’re really needed rather than them undermining the regular play. The action in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil does its job well in providing danger and thrills, but it is the levels where things start to fall apart a bit. Turok 2 only offers 6 stages, something that sounds like a small amount but the game is longer than the original Turok game and for good reason. Each of these stages will take hours to complete, levels so large the game has to break up sections of it by way of teleporters. The teleporters end up one of the most damaging elements of Turok 2: Seeds of Evil though when it comes to actually navigating the environment. While you will have plenty of enjoyable firefights while moving through the levels, what ends up less exciting is trying to actually find everything you need to keep moving forward. Levels have many branching paths with switches and hidden routes that can often be hard to notice. You might be meant to go down multiple paths and then go back to check out the other route from much earlier, all of them important thanks to switches or important objects to collect. Exclamation points do appear when something of importance is nearby, alleviating a potential issue that would have been caused by how often important levers and the like can blend in or are hidden in cheeky spots. You can pull up a transparent map that shows the walls of every room, but it won’t show the teleporters, other areas, important items, or other helpful info that would help you navigate these spaces that will inevitably need to be retread because of an unfortunate choice involving Turok’s powers.
The first time you visit a level, you will have a few objectives to complete. Things like saving prisoners, placing explosive charges in key locations, or clearing the very easy Energy Totem defense missions. However, there is also the Primagen Key needed to face the final boss, and save for technically the final stage, you cannot grab these the first time you go through a level. This is because Turok will gain a new power in each level, but it is always a power that would have benefited you to have in the last level. These powers are almost always just about being able to cross areas you couldn’t otherwise, something like a large jump for clearing large gaps only usable in set spots while being able to swim in poison water or walk on lava ultimately sees little use since the areas it open up rarely contain substantial challenges. There are checkpoints in the form of technological pyramids in each level that let you refill ammo, heal, and warp to other checkpoints, although this doesn’t help with the backtracking too much due to their rarity and the not so helpful names in the warp list. Areas for ability usage aren’t specially marked on your map, but this remaster at least includes not only the ability to save most anywhere, but you can also make quicksaves, something useful for moments where you might want to investigate alternate paths without potentially being able to go backwards for a while. Secret routes can be hidden just as well as important places in some levels, a barely visible underwater route or tunnel that doesn’t stand out in a large cave sometimes holding an underwhelming secret like more ammo for a strong gun you’ve probably not used often just as often as they are a vital route with a switch or level objective to complete.
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil doesn’t start off too maze-like at least, but level 4, Lair of the Blind Ones, and Level 5, Hive of the Mantids, feel particularly egregious. Hive of the Mantids suffers mostly from so many halls and rooms feeling similar, meaning if you miss something important it can be hard to even guess where you are or where it could be. Lair of the Blind Ones though is comprised of a multi-leveled subterranean cave where you keep plummeting deeper and deeper, any backtracking inevitably tedious because even though teleporters exist to take you back up a floor, reaching one often requires clearing the area in reverse to reach. The good news is many enemies remain defeated, and for the most part, you can reduce the amount of level visits for each stage down to two. One time through to clear the objectives, grab the feather collectible, possibly face the forces of Oblivion to gain a part for the somewhat underwhelming Nuke weapon, and then face the boss of the level should it have one. After you’ve got the last ability in level 6 (after the point where you would need it so there’s backtracking even in that final stage), you can then work on the return trips to other stages, but navigation of the more egregious levels isn’t great even on the first visit and more straightforward levels like the cleaner progression in The Death Marshes only counterbalances the obnoxiously long levels so much.
The competitive multiplayer does give the game a bit more life though. The 16 player online deathmatches actually get the sizing of their levels down pretty well compared to the main campaign. Featuring stages from both the N64 and PC versions of Turok 2, this remaster is able to feature tight levels where players are constantly running into each other as well as larger areas with more room to run about collecting weapons before you encounter someone. Some are sections from the campaign transferred over and working quite well without major alterations while there are some truly unique ideas elsewhere. While you get a memorable fort from the Death Marshes, the main gate from the Port of Adia, and a graveyard where you fought the undead in solo play, you also get oddities like H 2 Whoa!, a level where walls are covered in modern windows, the ceiling has painted on stars, and to move between the different elevations of this small stage, you swim through physics-defying shafts of water where you can end up firing on the people on dry land for an interesting dynamic. You can also choose not to fight each other but instead try to earn more kills in Raptor Fest by repelling waves of enemies, only the Cerebral Bore feeling like it hampers the longevity of a multiplayer mode where stage design, the weapon mix, and even the enemy variety can keep things entertaining.
THE VERDICT: A few obnoxiously labyrinthine levels means Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is unfortunately not the excellent sequel it should have been. With each of the six stages taking hours, ones that fill that more with confusing layouts and backtracking do damage the experience, but at least most of the action still provides some exciting encounters thanks to a strong weapon selection and enemies who test your management of those guns well. Levels like the convoluted Lair of the Blind Ones will test your commitment to seeing the game through, but the multiplayer gives you a freer place to enjoy the carnage and some helpful features of the remake like quicksaves and helpful indicators do mean you can lessen what was once even more tedious exploration and area rehashing.
And so, I give Turok 2: Seeds of Evil for PlayStation 4…
An OKAY rating. Enforced repetition by the weak approach to extra abilities, the confusing layouts enabled by teleporters, and the hollowness of return trips is what lets down a game where it feels like the only other major issue of note is the Cerebral Bore being a bit imbalanced in small multiplayer groups. When you’re moving forward through many levels in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, you are facing many battles that work well in the moment as a test of your movement and aim but keeping your weapons well stocked is important in such large levels where ammo and health are a finite resource. Weapons like the Firestorm Cannon are good for quick action or more involved fights, but tools like Tek Arrows have their role too and you’ll likely be revisiting most of your options to keep fighting efficiently. Areas end up too sprawling though because there isn’t enough reason to return back to them when you do get those extra abilities, and with some areas having important paths that are hard to spot on a first time through even, you might end up backtracking when you reach a level’s end and realize you missed the feather or even failed to complete the objectives. Lair of the Blind Ones unsurprisingly has this the worst, it even disguises the entrances to the rooms with vents you need to close as another floor drop that you might be reticent to leap down. If the map you can pull up better explained how areas connected, maybe marked spots where you use abilities so you can easily relocate them later, then it could alleviate some of the empty periods where you’re walking around hoping to find where to go, but that ignores the more apparent issue. The abilities are practically pointless additions, not really opening up the game world in meaningful ways and often more like keys to small areas but ones for levels you already cleared. It’s unnecessary and unexciting to go back and use powers that don’t open up any real possibilities, and while Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is often doing so well with its action elsewhere, you’re going to end up spend too much time away from it and not even engaging with the kind of interesting navigation that makes areas work when you’re still figuring them out on the first visit.
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil didn’t even completely mess up the level design so much as having a few too many egregious cases where its choices benefit it in no way. The game can better handle periods of exploration elsewhere, gradually fighting your way through more intriguing areas and finding if danger or vital tools to progress await you as you check every nook and cranny. When the challenge is just returning to a level you played hours ago to find the one spot where you use a bland power or heading back up through Lair of the Blind Ones because you’re not sure where the barely noticeable tunnel to the side with something important is, it’s a lot of lifeless walking that’s keeping you from better action. Beyond an unfortunate glitch where the final boss would sometimes get stuck to the ceiling when I loaded my save, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil usually runs well. It packs some strong first-person shooting against the game or other players and even can pull off area design in miniature, but the goals of the campaign lead to obtuse designs that lead to the experience feeling unfortunately dragged out.