The holiday season of 1998 saw what was the release of the "Big Three," three Nintendo 64 games that were highly anticipated and highly scrutinized. The first of these games, Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, withstood the hype and is considered by many to be the best game ever. The second of the big three, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, also seems to have weathered the hype. Now, the final link in the "big three" chain has arrived: Turok 2: Seeds of Evil.

The original Turok was one of the first third party titles for the Nintendo 64, and it was the game that saved Acclaim from bankruptcy. It had the best graphics of any N64 game at its release and was an instant hit. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter made an instant impact on the gaming world. The use of huge worlds, atmosphere, weapons and animation was unparalleled at the time. The game wasn't perfect, however. Criticisms of the game included snide comments bout heavy fogging and bland textures, as well as the game's platform elements, but in the end the good far outweighed the bad. Enough of course to generate a sequel.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil picks up where the predecessor left off, except now the Turok mantle has been passed from Tal'set to the young Joshua Fireseed. It seems as though when Tal'set destroyed the Campaigner in Turok 1, he threw the Chronoscepter into a volcano. This has awakened the Primagen, an evil alien long imprisoned by the forces of good. In order for the Primagen to free himself, he has allied himself with the forces of evil: Bionosaurs, the mysterious worshipers of Oblivion, and the Purr Linn. Turok is guided on his quest by the beautiful alien Adon, a custodian of the forces of light.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is a game that is a groundbreaker in many ways. Iguana, as the premiere third party developer on the N64, has really set themselves among the elite with many aspects of this title. The foremost of T2: SOE's distinctions are its graphics. T2:SOE is one of the first games to take advantage of the 4MB Expansion Pak upgrade, and uses it to add enhanced resolution modes. The Expansion Pak allows T2 to be played in standard resolution, standard res letterbox, Hi-res full-screen, or Hi-res letterbox . The main differences between the modes are the overall graphic quality, amount of screen and periphery shown, and frame rate. Frame rate is enhanced by the Expansion Pak in all modes, running optimally in letterbox mode. Letterbox also increases peripheral vision. (For the remainder of the review I will mainly refer to T2: SOE in the High resolution 640 by 480 mode afforded by the Expansion Pak. Any differences between the resolution modes will be noted.)

T2: SOE rules the graphic roost, period. No other videogame can even hope to share the spotlight now as the bar has been raised. Only high end PC systems with graphic accelerators have better graphics. Iguana was mocked and accused of faking screenshots when they posted early captures of T2. I believe all who said as much owe Iguana an apology. The actual game not only matches the screenshots (in low res!) but surpasses them (in hi-res). Textures are of an unparalleled quality, lighting and transparency effects are incredible. Animations are realistic, scary and, in many instances, gruesome. (Shotgun meet raptor, raptor meet shotgun.) The frame rate, while hotly debated on the Internet, is not a problem. While T2 isn't F-Zero X, the frame rate maintains a steady 30 fps or so, and only drops when heavy action is on screen. It should be noted that I have never experienced any of the so called bugs or crashes either. The copy I reviewed is an unshrinkwrapped copy purchased on release day, played with and without the Expansion Pak.

With T2, Iguana has also shown that they are masters of music and sound effects as well. All of the real life effects likeweapons, screams, explosions and the rest, sound genuine. The more surreal sound effects, such as the technology, more eccentric weaponry and all of the creature sounds are right on as well. Voices are also a high point. The sheer amount of vocals in the game is astounding. Each level is prefaced with a vocal intro by Adon. In-game voices blend well with the ambient sound effects and the excellent visuals to create quite an atmosphere. Especially noteworthy are the Oblivion and their voices. It is literally hair-raising the first time the blatantly evil and haunting voices of the followers of Oblivion accost Turok.

Along with stellar sound effects, the Turok 2 creative team must also be credited for their music work. The designers have gone with mainly orchestral themes for T2, and they compliment the game enormously. The sweeping score adds to the already epic atmosphere of T2's massive worlds, but never intrudes. There are several different themes that play throughout the levels, complimented, of course, with ambient effects and shifting tunes.

Control in T2 is a love/hate affair. Iguana has given gamers two different choices for control schemes. The first control scheme is the Turok (expert) setting, basically the same scheme as in the original Turok. Turok control uses either the "c" buttons or crosspad for movements, while the analog stick is used to look around. The remaining "c" or crosspad is used for various other functions. The second control scheme offered is the arcade (GoldenEye) setting. Arcade uses the stick for movement, and the "c" and cross pad for strafing. Both setups use "A"and "B" for weapons selection (there are two ways of selecting weapons), "R" for jumping, "L" for automapping, and the Z trigger for fire. While the arcade setting is initially easier to control, it is definitely worth it to learn Turok style control. Turok style control offers better accuracy, speed, efficiency and overall control-take the time to learn it. Once a player is accustomed to this style of control, and acquainted with the controller functions, many different actions can be executed.

The smaller questions of the superficial aspects of T2: SOE have been answered, but what about the gameplay? Turok 2 consists of six worlds in a first person environment. At the beginning of each level, Adon will brief Turok on the level's back story, and his mission objective whilst the game is displaying a beautiful in-game cutscene. A minor annoyance is that these cut scenes cannot be skipped. Each level has about 3 mandatory (in addition to surviving and finding and activating the exit portal) mission objectives. These objectives tie in with the individual storylines of the levels themselves and in the overall grand scheme of stopping the Primagen and his cohorts. Objectives range from stopping the siege of energy totems to the rescue of hostages ("bait" would be more apt) from the clutches of the Primagen's army.

Each level has it's own distinct air and feel. It should be mentioned that the levels in this game are big, and save points are few and far between. The size of the levels cannot be expressed, they are simply gargantuan in scope. All of the levels have scripted events that both advance the
story and impact game play, such as explosions, ambushes and the like. Weapons, ammo and health are strewn about the levels, in sparing fashion. Enemies of all different kinds, intelligence and capacity are, of course, out to get Turok.

Along with T2's many other accomplishments, enemy AI may in fact be the biggest. T2 sports what are probably the most intelligent enemies in a videogame. Enemies under heavy fire will take cover, retreat, and flank. They strafe, evade, cooperate, and do whatever it takes-either to survive or kill Turok. Some of the smarter and more powerful of Turok's foes are equipped with "Predator" style cloaking devices that render them almost invisible. They have the ability to hear, see, and sneak up on you.

Iguana has also proved themselves the masters of weaponry. There is a huge selection of weapons in the game, and most weapons have at least one level of upgrade, and, in addition to this, some have different types of ammo. Turok's standard weapon, the talon, is a two-pronged claw attached to his wrist. It can be used in close combat situations, but isn't necessarily very effective against foes. The upgraded talon, called the war blade, is a different story. Limbs and heads can be lopped off with this bladed monstrosity, and it is quite effective at dispatching even large prey. All of the weapons have their purpose and work well in conjunction with each other.

Of course the original Turok suffered when compared with GoldenEye: 007, one reason was a lack of multiplayer modes. Well T2: SOE has remedied that. T2 features 3 distinct play modes: Deathmatch, Frag Tag, and Team Blood. Deathmatch is self explanatory, and Team Blood is teamed Deathmatch. Frag Tag is an especially fun game, it is basically Tag with Turok style weapons and arenas. The player who is "it" is turned into the monkey from Turok 1 and is the sole target for the rest of the players to kill. The monkey is unarmed, and can only scream and flee. Bases are strewn about the levels, and if the person who is "it" touches base, then someone else randomly becomes it. For all multiplayer modes, Iguana has given gamers the option of several areas, and the ability to choose from texture sets, making a good number of combinations. Deathmatch stats can also be saved to a memory card-using 1 page for each file.

Has Turok 2: SOE completed the N64 holiday hat trick? Absolutely. Iguana has shown that they have the technical and artistic abilities to hang with the best in the industry, and have also madnage to set a new standard for first person shooter gameplay. Turok 2 is a must have for both first person shooter fans and N64 owners. The single player game is massive in both scope and scale, and the multiplayer game is great as well. With Turok 1, Iguana set a standard that was shattered by Rare's GoldenEye 007. With Turok 2, Iguana has broken the barriers set down by fans and competitors, and again solidified themselves as premier developers. Rare certainly has their work cut out for Perfect Dark.