This is undoubtedly one of the best first-person shooters released for the N64 and the best game in the Turok franchise.
Joshua Fireseed, nephew of Carl Fireseed, is transported to another dimension known as the Lost Land, where an alien named Adon recruits him to take up the mantle of Turok and stop an alien warlord called the Primagen from escaping his lightship by destroying five energy totems, which in turn will destroy the universe. There's a bit more voice acting and a more immersive story this time, making the game deeper than just another gory first-person shooter.
You'll travel across five huge levels that are far more exotic and detailed than the first game, and the lack of distance fog allows you to navigate and experience them much more thoroughly. On each level, you'll not only collect level key pieces to unlock the other areas, but you'll also be given with additional objectives, such as rescuing captured children and prisoners, destroying enemy equipment or weapon/ammo storage, etc.
The weapons are even more hardcore and awesome than the first game. You'll wield advanced guns like the Shredder, Firestorm cannon, and the infamous Cerebral Bore, which fires an explosive dart that homes in on an opponents skull, drills down into their brain, then explodes!
The graphics were amazing and ahead of their time. The levels and enemies were beaitifully designed and textured, the movements of the latter were smooth and lifelike, and all of the sound effects were top-notch, especially the weapons.
The enemies are more diverse and creative as well. Instead of mere dinosaurs and human poachers and soldiers, you'll battle genetically altered dinosaur hybrids called Dinosoids, visious one-eyed Flesh Eaters, underground Blind Ones, giant sentient insectoid Mantids, and many more. The AI is a step up from the first game, and some enemies will take cover and evade your attacks, making them much more challenging than before. The bosses are also much tougher and more difficult to beat, especially the Primagen himself during the final showdown.
The soundtrack is the best part of the game and easily surpasses the one from the first game. Every level has heart-pounding action music that will keep you pumped. Despite it's difficulty, "Lair of the Blind Ones" soundtrack made up for it by being the best music in the game.
Unfortunately, the framerate is choppy at times, especially when there's multiple enemies on screen at once. The sheer size of the levels make them easy to get lost in, even with the map turned on. The Lair of the Blind Ones is especially infamous for this. Plus, the mission objectives required an annoying amount of backtracking at times. Finally, the multiplayer was pretty lackluster and inferior to other games at the time.
Still, Turok 2 unquestionably marked the peak of the franchise and it's still enjoyable today.
