Should you travel back to prehistoric times or stay put?

Tork has gone through what seems to be a long and painful development cycle after being delayed and eventually dumped by Microsoft for publishing under the Microsoft Studios label. After its fall from grace and publishing cancellation by Microsoft it seemed as though Tork would never see its way onto store shelves. But fate had other plans for Tork as Ubisoft took over publishing responsibilities and the game finally made its. Has it been worth the wait? Should Tork have been saved or left to die? Read on to find out.

Features

• Change into three spirit animals: Yeti, Armadillo, and Flying Squirrel.


• Fight your way from the Stone Age to the Age of Fantastical Machines.


• 13 levels

Gameplay
The story behind Tork is as unoriginal and uninspired as they come. After witnessing his village being destroyed and his father’s abduction by the evil Orgus, young Tork sets out on a quest to defeat Orgus and save his father. Before he can defeat Orgus Tork must gain new abilities and powers spread out across three different time periods: Prehistoric, Middle-Ages, and the Modern Age. In each of these time periods Tork will battle against waves of enemies populating the many standard platformer levels that make up each time period. All and all it is a rather basic story that players will have to plow through with Tork: a rather basic and equally uninteresting character, completely void of personality. This is a rather sad yet funny fact given that the full name of the game is Tork: Prehistoric Punk. Using “punk” to describe Tork couldn’t be more inaccurate.

The levels that Tork will be playing through, while offering alternate paths and hidden areas to explore, are very straight forward. In some ways the structure of the levels feels like an evolution of the Crash Bandicoot formula. This is made more apparent by the lack of a camera that will allow you to move a complete 360 degrees. This is very frustrating at times as you will be forced to sometimes walk blindly towards the screen unable to see what is ahead of you.

The gameplay behind Tork, like its levels, is also very simple. Tork has two moves at his disposal: attack enemies with his bolo up close, or throw his bolo at enemies a small distance away. That’s it. You will not find any additional attacks at your disposal or any sort of rewarding combo system. On the bright side, gameplay is given a much needed boost by Tork’s ability to transform into one of three mystical creatures, each with their own moves. This is a really cool feature and adds greatly to the game by requiring the player to fill up his/her Fury meter in order to transform into the needed creature. While this is a great feature, it is hardly original. Despite shipping before Rare’s Kameo, this system had been known about in Kameo since it was announced back in 2000 for the GameCube. Given its longer development time and greater focus on transformations, the system just works a lot better for Kameo. This is not to say it is not a fun feature for the game, it is and it is the saving grace for the gameplay.

Overall Tork is shallow and can often seem very slow and repetitive as you push away at the A button. As you progress through the game you will be treated to some more enjoyable moments, but they are too few and far between.

Graphics
While Tork is not completely drab, it doesn’t quiet measure up to the luster of other games either. Had this game been released earlier in the systems lifespan it would have been something to write home about graphically, but as it stands it does not impress. Levels are generally confined, lack greater geometry, are low on polygons, and are layered in basic textures. Character designs on the other hand are well done and interesting to look at. Players will find that the game sports a large number of enemies to battle against, each with its own look. However, like the environments they populate, their texture work falls on the bland side for the most part.

Sound
Again like the graphics the audio is mediocre. The score is always fitting and never grating, but lacks any real memorable tunes. Sound effects get the job done and again are fitting to the environments they are in. Voice acting is decent but some of the voices will have you cringing a bit. Perhaps if the dialog you were listening too was fleshed out more the voice acting would have been better. It is true that if the script just isn’t there the voice acting will suffer. Overall Tork never really offends your ears, but like the rest of the package it could have used a bit more work.

Closing
After playing through Tork it becomes clear why it was placed on the chopping block by Microsoft. Nothing about the game makes it standout from the many other platformer alternatives out there, especially to be released as a first or second party title. The story is unoriginal, the main character is dull and uninteresting, and the gameplay that tries to hold it all together is uninspired and repetitive. If you are a diehard fan of platformers and must play Tork, then rent it before investing in your own copy. For everyone else out there, look elsewhere for your platformer fix.