This is a pretty good game.
To be honest, I played this mostly because as a kid and teen I played it a bunch, beat a bunch of levels (maybe the whole game, who knows), just found its aesthetic fascinating enough to replay it so often. As an adult I had to learn to love it. I played on Hardcore with tips turned off, beat it in maybe 12 hours.
First, the aesthetics are really nice. Different levels have significantly different themes and architecture, enemies have a wide variety and the - underused - type mixing is a nice touch. Of the 6 levels, each has a design pairing that creates some interesting stylistic clashes. Port of Adia's wide-open spaces and giant statues clashing with the River of Souls linear canals, or the villages in the Death Marshes standing polar opposite the claustrophobia of the Blind Ones. Nothing looks like quite like Turok 2. It's great.
On that topic, there's some criticism to go around. Most people would default to "the levels are too maze-like" and there's some truth to that. The levels are extremely large, some missions taking close to 2 hours to 100%. The game's signposting is poor and the in-game map is only available as a local 2D toggle. A proper 3D map, accessible both statically (in-menu) and dynamically (real-time) would go a long way to making this game work. Unfortunately, we don't get that. Alongside, some maps run a lot of very tight corridors without any particular hub or point to backtrack from. If you're easily confused or directionally-challenged, this is going to be brutal.
That said, I think it's sort of a skill issue. Use your eyes, pop the map every once in a while, turn on tips if you really need them. Part of the fun of the game is finding the loops in each level and using your previous knowledge to speed up your movement.
The campaign is set up in a somewhat non-linear structure where different levels may be tackled at different times, or even tackled half-way and then returned to later. This isn't perfect, it's not Demon's Souls or something, but it's a nice trick and I did get some enjoyment playing in my own order.
The scenario design is also helpful in this regard. There are maybe 2 set pieces in the game, and no specific boss or mini-boss structure built into the levels. Functionally this means you'll be running through dozens of encounters just playing off the basic mechanics. For someone novelty-focused this would be dreadful, but I'm a mechanics enjoyer so getting to spend 98% of the game engaging only basic mechanics is a real treat. Especially because the game is actually designed with this in mind. As a simple example, the stun gun is completely busted against organic targets. So a natural use would be to pre-charge the stun, zoom at everything and stun them before they can move. Which the game lets you do for a bit - but then non-organic targets come out, often in very dangerous and unexpected areas, completely negating this strategy.
Speaking of the stun gun, weapons are all over the place but mostly really good. The more I played, the better I got at managing resources, the more I saw positives to each weapon. By the end of the game weapon and ammo drops too saturated for my liking - you can totally just spam the best stuff - but even when I had thoughts like "The Machine Pistol is useless now" situations would still come up with some where I found myself using it. That's good design, bravo.
The Remaster itself has its ups and downs. Performance, options, etc. are great. no complaints. Among other things levels were changed, weapons were rebalanced, and the explosion/limb system was reworked. I'm not a fan of changes, and these aren't all harmless. The changes to explosives in particular turn the Tec-bow into unusable territory and the Explosive Shells into an absolute God-buster. The limb hit-detection system, which in the original was pretty reliable for generating staggers, just isn't as consistent anymore. This is kind of a shame, especially in the early game.
Further, Hardcore sucks. Free saving trivializes death, and the game is absolutely not built for a single life run in the first place. The lack of diamonds provided for extra lives really undercuts part of the joy and experience of exploration. The arcade-y element of pushing perfection between checkpoint stations just completely falls apart in the overpowered structure of free saving. I could go on. I don't like the free saving and I don't like Hardcore, because I don't really get how either of those are structurally beneficial. Rebalancing life drops or adding in modes with extra Checkpoint Stations would have been far preferable to basically erasing half the game's difficulty.
I'd recommend Turok 2 to people interested in old-school exploration-based FPS games. If you like the concept of experiencing alien worlds and getting lost in nooks and crannies, you'll probably like this. If you can't stand systemic friction, you'll probably hate this. If you desperately need the "true Turok 2 experience," buy this and play the Rok Match mod. Good luck, you're gonna need it.
