When I was a strapping young lad I loved two things; dinosaurs and guns. Every boy did, we fell in love with Jurassic Park and James Bond, guns and dinosaurs. Then came along a Nintendo 64 game named Turok: Dinosuar Hunter that combined the two and gaming bliss was created. Then a sequel later Turok: Evolution was made and it sucked, and the Turok franchise that I loved so much faded away into obscurity. A decade has passed since the first Turok saw the light of day and developers Propaganda Games in their first project as a studio have remade Turok in next generation form and the boyhood fantasy of guns and dinosaurs has been reborn again.
The next generation Turok however has removed itself story wise from the previous games in the franchise, Turok is still of native American descent and he still has a bow, but otherwise its a whole new ball game. You play as Joseph Turok who is an ex-member of an elite squad of mercenaries named Wolf-Pack but now aligns himself with the military as a part of Whiskey Company. Whiskey Company has been sent to a far off planet with the objective of catching the leader of Wolf-Pack, Roland Kane, who has gone rogue and is developing some sort of chemical weapon which is the reason that Turok left.
Before getting a chance to put their plan into motion however, your ship is shot down in orbit and you and your team are thrown head first into a survival situation, having to re-group, re-plan and re-organise. It’s here where the game proper starts and you head off into the jungle to find your teammates. The game’s story is told both in real-time as you progress through the game and in flashbacks in Turoks mind which tell the story of why he left Wolf-Pack and how heartless Kane really is.
As you may have guessed, through out the game your enemies consist of dinosaurs and Wolf-Pack mercenaries, but these two parties are not a team, they are completely neutral to each other and will attack on sight, as they do to you. This brings up an interesting gameplay mechanic, you can play the two against each other to make your life considerably easier. There are many ways to do this, using the flare on the shotgun (which dinos are attracted too), drawing enemies into the path of dinosaurs or even shooting some raptor eggs in the presence of mercenaries and promptly hiding leading the raptor to the mercs. The mechanic is intuitive and works well, it makes the game a lot more interesting.
Apart from this, and a few select parts in certain missions, the campaign is quite linear with generally only one way to go and your teammates pushing you forward, but this isn’t actually a bad thing as it keeps the pace of the action pretty well on track and you never find yourself bored.
The campaign itself is broken up into 13 chapters ala Gears of War with each taking about 45 mintues to an hour to complete depending on difficulty which is basic length for a FPS and it uses the Halo mechanic that is found very often these days of autosave checkpoints through out each chapter which prevents you from having to back track too much when you die. The set pieces are delivered brilliantly as well whether it be fighting the T-Rex or a Wolf-Pack spider tank they are all undeniably fun.
The campaigns settings range from lush jungle locations, to Wolf-Pack bases, underground caves and the edge of volcano’s, giving the game a real feeling of travel as you try and find a way off the hell you’ve crashed into. Graphically the game is both brilliant and lackluster. The jungles look great at some points, but some foliage and trees do look bland which breaks the realism. One thing that always looks great is the character models, whether it be human or dinosaur, they always look fantastic.
Sound is also good with 5.1 Dolby bringing the jungle alive. Dinosaurs moving around, trees bristling in the wind and of course guns sounding the part, apart from the shotgun which sounds a little weak, the sound in Turok is top notch. Voice acting for the most part is also good with the only down point Turok himself, which sometimes sounds a little forced.
Weaponry includes the basics you’d expect in an FPS; SMGs, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Plasma Rifles, Mini-Guns and Rocket Launchers as well as Turoks bow and knife but Turok games have always been known for their larger-than-life weaponry and things like the cerebral bore are sorley missed. Nonetheless using the knife to stab and slice dinosaurs to pieces is a gift that keeps on giving. When you get close to an enemy in an indicator appears on the bottom of the screen which upon pressing sends you into an animation of knifing the enemy, be it human or dinosaur. Turok can at any one time carry four weapons, though two are always his bow and knife with the other two being up to your discretion.
The campaign isn’t the only thing to do in Turok, it also has quite a comprehensive multiplayer component, nothing on Halo 3 of course but it is still impressive. There is a selection of seven maps with more to undoubtedly come through DLC which range from jungle battlefields to Wolf-Pack structures. Gametypes include FFA, Team Deathmatch, CTF and a War Games which is an objective based mode ala Counterstrike which is a nice change of pace. The biggest factor in mutliplayer though is the inclusion of dinosaurs, which like in campaign are a neutral party which can be used to your advantage. Turok also has a co-op mode but it is not co-op campaign, you play on specially created maps with specific objectives to complete, such as capturing enemy intelligence.
Overall Turok is a return to form for the franchise. Taken a face value its a fun run-and-gun FPS set in the future with a fantastic gimmick in dinosaurs and a compelling story. It doesn’t try to revolutionise the genre and doesn’t really have to, the objective set was for the game to be fun and Propaganda Games have done just that.
Visuals: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Sound: 8.5/10
Longevity: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Great review for a great game.