Bethesda Softworks Battlespire Roleplaying Review

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Summary:
This very informative review is dedicated to my cousin Shaun.

Turok: Evolution.
This is my first time writing a review for a game so it might not make to much sense...but here it goes. I suppose with any game the way you start a review is to point out it's good points, even though there aren't much, here are the good points of Turok: Evolution (what a crazy name don't you think?) anyway Turok: Evolution is in some ways, Some Ways, a good game such as the graphics for the environments. not the weapons graphics or what the weapons shoot, just the environment graphics are good and I know that some people are probably screaming, "the graphics suck!" but that is only because of the fogging and for those of you who are familier with the Turok games already know that there will automatically be fogging with any Turok game... now for the cons:
Starting at the top of the list Turok has always, and probably always will, be a ridiculous dinosaur hunting game, DINOSAURS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! With ridiculous guns, by the way I will be reviewing more about those things they call guns later, I am giving those of you who are Turok lovers(even the slightest bit Turok lovers) no chance to say" well it BLA...BLA...BLA...BLA!!!
I suppose by now most of you are saying to your self "I he hates Turok so much then why did he give it a rating of two instead of one? What can I say I am a nice guy so can't just flat out say "This game sucks" (even if maybe it does!) and plus like I said it has good graphics. Now for those of you who complained because the raptor filled fields are no where to be found and there is nothing but "lizard men" to fight then you have GOT to ask your self, is there a difference? and I will guarantee you that if you think really hard about that you will probably find that you agree with me. However there are those of you, SHAUN!, who would say that they are different because:
1. They look different.
2. They act different.
And
3. They have guns.

But then I shoot right back saying:
1. They look the same to me.
2. They are still just as stupid.
AND
3. The dinosaurs in Rage Wars, and, Turok 2, all had guns, excluding the raptors but they were still stupid.
Anyway, on to another topic... I know... how about the pterradon level? Ha, Ha! I knew you Turok fans would cringe when I said that, but the fact is, those levels are just so amazingly...STUPID that I have to say something about them.
Turok's programmers have decided to spice up game play a little and add a couple of levels were you are flying through very dangerous obstacle courses that makes you wonder, if you can control this pterradon than couldn't you make him fly a different route and avoid being killed? Hmmmmm? Oh... the way you die... the way you die is so frustratingly stupid. First one brush of an object almost immediately results in death, and the way you die is... you smash into tiny pieces?!? What is this?!?

Most Turok fans will be happy to know that all of the ridiculously high tek guns are back including the VERY CLEVER design of the cerebrial bore, also albiet in a new form, along with the-supposed-to-be-originated-to-be-an-original-gun the shot gun, the hand gun, if you can even call that high tek thing a hand gun, and of course the all important tek bow, which instead of firing straight ahead it seems to fire straight up for no apparent reason. Another thing about the Turok games' guns is the fact that they always have to have some kind alternate attack such as the tek bow has different types of arrows, the shotgun, which only has four barrels,...only?, has over 15 shells and it has an overcharge move, you pump it up many times and boom...but wait...were did the shells go?!? the pellet holes are in the wall but the shells are always in the gun...it's magic! What about the war hammer? you swing it and...what's this? It has purple smoke coming from it... hurrah! another great trick. Sadly, but not surprisingly, Turok is filled with such anomalies.

For those of you who have friends and/or family members that are fans of the Turok lineage then I know you can relate to this review because I have such a friend, and you know that they can go crazy with the high tek guns and gore and… wait a minute…I forgot about the blood!!! Well the blood in Turok: Evolution is not really blood at all, it looks more like the thing you shot or whatever has a spray paint can inside them and when you shoot that spray paint goes every which way.

In closing I feel I have one more not to untie with the flame thrower… I have never in my life seen fire that burns purple and blue. Have a good day everyone.


Adrian Pansky

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Summary:
Ok let's try this again, the other post was botched, my bad. I am a hardcore Role Playing Gamer
and so I was eagerly anticipating Battlespire, Bethesda's newest release. The screen shots looked
great and it promised to have 3dfx support which had me drooling. Alass, it was not to be. To be
blunt, Battlespire is a major disapointment for this gamer.I know I will probably catch a lot of heat about this but it's the truth. Battlespire just doesn't
follow through on all of its promises. The xngine which Bethesda uses to render all of its Elder
Scrolls games should be scrapped. With Battlespire, which uses the same engine, you still get
caught on corners when trying to navigate your surroundings and yes, you still end up in the
dreaded void occassionally. An example, I armed a bow and turned to the right. WHAM, wait a
second where did my bow go. Patience grasshopper, continue the turn and the bow returns to the
screen. Problem, the bow disappeared into the wall while turning to close to it. The xngine still
has trouble with collision detection. The monsters are sprite based and pixilated terribly when you get to close. They are also limited
to very few, 3 or 4 at most, screens of animation. Where did all those gorgeous monster shots
you've been seeing on various web sites come from you ask? They came from the conversation
or dialogue mode which is a seperate static screen that you switch to when speaking to one of the
Battlespire inhabitants. Granted, the creatures in this screen look great but it is a tragic form of
misleading the concumer, i.e. gamer, i.e. buyer, i.e. .... well you get my point. The graphics are
just unacceptable when compared to the kind of technology which is out there. Even Hexen 2,
which uses the old and now dated Quake technology (Ok with a few minor tweaks added.) is
superior in my opinion. Plus we now have games like Turok Dinosaur Hunter and Quake 2, with
games like Prey and Unreal right around the corner which Battlespire can not compete with
graphically. Furthermore, there is no 3dfx support which was highly advertised throughout production. It is
even rumored that there will not be a 3dfx patch released at all. Then there is the fact that it is all
done in 15 bit svga. Why? I don't know but you new video card owners will have to download a
patch before you play. Yes that's right, a dreaded PATCH. Because guess what, here's another
thing which you will not want to hear, Battlespire CRASHES. The game has a lot of bugs,
almost as bad as Daggerfall when intially released. Now a few things about content. The vaunted character creation and advancement of Daggerfall
has been included but modified. The point system which you use to create your own unique
character is first rate and has even been improved. You now have a certain number of points to
use to determine stats, advatages, disadvantages, and starting equipment. The downside is that
you can not advance your character to a higher level until you first clear or finish the game level
you are on, major disappointment.The monster AI is very good and the conversation mode moves the game along nicely. The
background story is superb, which one has come to expect from Bethesda. The music is very
good and sets the mood nicely. The few good points just don't make up for the bad ones. I
won't even talk about how poor the multiplayer aspect is, trust me you don't even want to know.
The fact is, to many things just fall extremely short for me to recomend this game to anyone
besides the diehard rpg fan who needs something to help satiate his or her craving.

I.B. Chance

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Summary:
I might review this one some day. I might even play it. Who knows, I might even get Bethesda
to answer my numerous emails telling me how to get Creative Lab's new Extreme Blaster card to
run this game. I usually don't like taking pot shots in game reviews but this is well deserved. If
you have any of the new
generation video cards then be prepared to have patch files ready. You'll need them. For now, I
give Bethesda a 1 star across the board until I can actually play the game. When a game doesn't
run even after installing a patch file that they say will make it run then it's time to issue a
warning. If you have some of the older vid accelerator cards you'll probably be ok.