Story:

The controls are as follows:

A=Change weapon
B=Change weapon
R=Jump
Z=Fire weapon.

Control Stick= Lets you control the view as if you were inside of Turok's head. The Control Stick allows you to look up, down, aim your weapon, and steer Turok.

C buttons= Control movement. The C buttons are used together as a second digital control pad. Up moves Turok forward, down moves backward, left makes Turok step to the left and right makes Turok step to the right. Note that these buttons move you, but they do not change your view. For example, pressing left is like taking a step to the left, without actually facing left. If you wish to face left, you must use the control stick to do so.

Control Pad= Any direction on the digital control pad switches between walking and running mode.

L button= Brings up the game's useful map display. The map is laid over the screen like a heads-up display, with your current position at the center of the screen.

Start= brings up the game's pause screen, giving you access to many different options.

The game includes an excellent training mode that lets you get the hang of the control scheme.

The first level involves you making your way to a stone hub that provides portals to the rest of the game's levels. Each portal is activated by special keys. These keys are spread throughout every level for you to find. In every stage there is also a piece of the Chronosceptor for you to find. When all of the key's and Chronosceptor pieces have been found, you are all set for the final show down with the Campaigner.

There are lots of evil henchmen and wild life out to stop you from succeeding. All of these enemies can be destroyed using one of the games many weapons. Each weapon (except the knife) requires ammo, which cam be found scattered in each level or by taking out enemies. New weapons can be found in the same manner.

There is also an in-game option to enter codes for different bonuses. The manual doesn't say where to get these codes (I'm guessing they're in the ending of the game), but on-line sources have already found quite a few cool ones. Check out the Daily Web update for March 3rd for a link to one such source.

What's it like to play?:

The actual gameplay in Turok isn't much different than in Doom. In fact, the goal of Turok is to retrieve a bunch of keys and weapons, and blow away the bad guys in the process. But unlike Doom, the action in Turok is slower paced and the levels are considerably longer. This game isn't as much of a stress buster as Doom either. While the assortment of weapons is by far the coolest I've seen (the fire shockwave of the Fusion Cannon just has to be seen to be believed), the best weapons take a long time to fire. This makes it impossible to have the "go-in-guns-ablazing" appeal that was key to Doom's appeal for many people. Changing weapons during combat can also be a pain. You can scroll up or down through your inventory to select a weapon, but it is very likely that while doing so you'll be critically wounded by an enemy. A method of weapon changing similar to Zelda's (where the game pauses and goes to a sub-menu) would have been preferable.

The control is responsive, and after playing through the training mode, the new layout will become almost second nature. The idea of being able to use the control stick to move Turok's "head" independently from his body is what makes the gameplay in Turok stand out. Typically, when jumping in other games with "in-the-head" views, gauging jumping distances is extremely difficult. In Turok, you can actually look straight down before and during your jump. This makes jumps extremely realistic, and much easier to pull off.

The whole sense of movement in Turok is realistic and smooth enough to give even the most iron-stomached people motion sickness. This is where Turok's excessive level length, far spread out save points, and lack of an internal save feature really becomes a pain. It's hard to play Turok as long as is necessary to get anywhere without becoming overwhelmed by the disembodied motion of the game. Playing on a full stomach helps considerably, but it's not a cure.

Turok is the first third-party game for the N64 that even comes close to the quality of a Nintendo developed game. The detail and smoothness of the gameplay shows that a lot of time and care went in to make sure that the game doesn't seem shoddy or slipshod. The game has a well polished feel to it. Trying out the gallery code (THBST), I could closely examine the astonishing detail of the game's enemies. For all the detail put into these enemies, it's a shame that the only way you're likely to notice this detail during the game is to let an enemy come right up and kill you -- which is what will happen if you let an enemy get anywhere near you.

In the three days that I rented Turok, I was unable to get any farther than the start of level 2 in one sitting. Unfortunately, I have not shelled out the $20 for a controller pak, so saving my game was not possible. The necessity of an NCP for saving a game really made me angry. Turok's ROM is the same size as Mario 64's (8 MB), and doesn't include a battery backup. There's no excuse for the game's MSRP of $79.99. Add the cost of an NCP and the total comes to $99.99. That's right, $100. If you have other games you can use an NCP with (or you have an NCP already, then Turok may -- just may--be worth the high retail price.

With three difficulty settings, great weapons, awesome graphics, long levels, and the game's cheat menu, Turok offers a lot for fans of the first-person shooter genre. My gripe with Turok is simple: even though all of the elements are in place for a great game, I just didn't enjoy exploring Turok's world enough to justify purchase. For a shooter, the balance of action and visceral thrill just isn't quite right. As a 3-D exploration game, the levels just aren't a whole lot of fun to explore. Quite honestly, I enjoyed playing Shadows of the Empire's first-person levels considerably more than I did Turok's, despite Shadow's game elements being inferior to Turok's in almost every way.

So what's the bottom line? For fans of Doom and other first-person games, Turok is one to rent before you lay down your money. For everyone else, Turok is a definite rental at the least. The rental price alone is worth just seeing that the N64 can pull off such graphical feats. If you like Turok a lot and can't afford the high retail price, but can't wait for a price drop, here's an idea that should work quite nicely (and upset Acclaim considerably): Buy an NCP and rent Turok. You don't have to worry about losing your saved game, and you can rent Turok a considerable number of times before spending anywhere close to the amount required to purchase it.