Turok Review

[Anayo]

I bought Turok for the PC for $5 brand new at Gamestop. That's a pretty amazing price for a game that came out 2 years ago, especially at a place like Gamestop. Here's what I think:

History lesson: Turok first became popular on the Nintendo 64, back in the 90's. In the N64 version, you play a Native American warrior who kills dinosaurs. Back in those days that was original and neat enough to be a big deal. It plays a bit like Quake, but with some weapons thrown in like a bow and arrow, which can shoot explosive arrows. The game features lots of blood and enemies that gurgle and scream when you blow their heads off.

After Turok 1 the series went downhill. Turok 2 had superb graphics and amazing weapons and enemies, but the levels were headache-inducing mazes with lots of backtracking. I couldn't beat it without cheating. I never played Turok 3 so I can't comment. There was a Playstation 2/XBOX/Gamecube Turok, but it was pretty deplorable too.

The 2008 TUROK is a reboot. Instead of a Quake-inspired dungeon blaster with dinosaurs, demons, and cyborgs, the new Turok is more like Gears of War meets Peter Jackson's King Kong, with space marines and giant animals that want to eat you. The characters, a bland cast of space marines without any necks, annoy the hell out of me, and the storyline sucks. All the dialog totally goes through the motions, serving only to point out obvious things I already knew (EG, a guy points at a T-Rex and says, “Look at the size of that thing!”) I didn't warm up to any of the characters of find them endearing or memorable in the least. The script made me throw up in my mouth. Look at this dialog:

(Turok's old commanding officer, who is evil): You're a traitor, Turok! I knew I couldn't depend on you.
Turok: You told me to kill innocent civilians! That's wrong.
Evil guy: I was FOLLOWING ORDERS. Like a good soldier is supposed to!
Turok: Well, a soldier follows orders, but a warrior follows his heart!

Then I went and brushed my teeth.

Other than the fact that 2008 Turok tries too hard to be Gears of War, it had its moments. The graphics are modern-looking, with lots of detail. Occasionally the game made my heart rate go up, like when 300 pound scorpions burst through the floor and I use up all my ammo fighting to survive. The firefights in the game were a lot of fun, with plenty of grenades, plasma blasts, and impaling people with arrows. Also, this game has probably the most beautiful looking dinosaurs I've ever seen in a game. I couldn't help but stop and study the scaly guys after killing them. The weapons include shotguns, flamethrowers, plasma rifles, miniguns, sniper rifles... nothing new, but it does the trick. The only weapon that lit my world on fire, ironically, is the bow and arrow. It made me feel strangely macho to kill a high tech space voyager with a stone age weapon.

I doubt anyone will remember this game five years from now, but it gave me something to do in the evenings. It's worth $5.

[Reprise]

Great review thanks! I had no idea that they did a Turok reboot in 2008. Doesn't surprise me it's not too brilliant though lol.

The original Turok was amazing. What I loved so much about it though, was how they used the hardware limitations to their advantage and tried to make it the best game they could. For example, in terms of the graphics, what would normally be horrible "fog" that the N64 was plagued by, this actually worked great on Turok. It gave you a great sense of danger, not always being able to see, but also made the jungle much more atmospheric.

Turok 2 I also have, and it was great (and looked absolutely gorgeous at the time), but agree, it gave me a headache too and I've never finished it.

I skipped 3 as well, but I used to own the 4th one, Evolution I think it was called? Yeah it was pretty bad, but I picked it up cheap in a bargain bin, and it was fairly fun. In comparison to the first 2 though, it was kind of embarrassingly bad. It had its moments though.

[Anayo]

I remember Evolution. It was one of my first Gamecube games and cost only $5. The 2008 Turok is better, but it doesn't recapture the spirit of Turok, instead it just tries to be Call of Halo of War.