We had the chance to take a look at the latest Xbox version of Turok: Evolution, which we last saw running in late January. One of the notable additions to Turok: Evolution over the past few months comes in the way of weapons. Acclaim only gave us a glimpse of what's to come,
but a few of them were very impressive. Very much like the Spider of Death (our tentative name), Acclaim Austin still has a few tricks up its sleeves for intriguing weaponry. Unfortunately they excluded the Spider of Death from this latest version. Drat.
Before we talk about a few of the new weapons, it's important to come to an understanding regarding their branching nature. Every weapon in the game has a root function. From here Turok can get upgrades to increase
their abilities. For example, in our last hands-on we told you about a simple pistol, which could fold out into an advanced sniper rifle. The weapons aren't limited to just two functions, though. You'll find Tal'Set's tools of destruction reach even three or more (though we've yet to see this).
In the last version of Turok we saw in January, Acclaim showed us hand-grenades, but their secondary function wasn't active. As we found out with our updated hands-on, the large, cylindrical hand-grenades can also be used as proximity mines. With the simple press of a button you can activate this secondary function, whereupon a set of spikes ejects around Tal'Set's hands (keeps things interesting). At this point the spiky projectile can be stuck to walls and even enemies. When they explode, they'll send those loser Dinosoids flying into the sky, literally. Getting a little more explosive the grenade launcher will return into Tal'Set's hands, which sends seemingly volley-ball sized
grenades exploding in the midst of enemies -- if your aim is right. Looking for an even faster means of ridding enemies? Just call on the power of the railgun, which will take them out very quickly. We also got a chance to view the updated effects for the flamethrower. Dave Dienstbier and his Austin-based team have included a very nice heat
distortion effect for a little eye-candy. When you hose down enemies with the fiery liquid that spews forth it will set them ablaze, running around frantically as they futilely attempt to calm the flames. Sadistic, yes, but definitely called for.
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