Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

The Good

• Ridiculous in the best way possible
• Fluid animation and terrific graphics for the time
• Good sound and ambiance
• Various novelties keep the game from getting dull
• A plethora of weapons to play with
• A lengthy campaign and good boss fights

The Bad

• Cumbersome controls
• Tedious and confusing level design
• Distance fog is annoying
• Platforming sections can be a pain

The Bottom Line
Apparently, Turok is based on a vintage comic book series called "Turok: Son of Stone." I found a few of those on my parents bookshelf as a kid, and they were relatively tame and fun stories about the titular Turok and his friend Andar going into a land full of dinosaurs they dubbed "Honkers." Unless there's a different Turok comic that I don't know about, it's clear that the developers of the game didn't pay much mind to the source material in making this the only similarity being that Turok is native American and that there are Dinosaurs in the game. The comics lacked the extreme violence and gore, let alone all the weird science that permeates this games universe.

Turok was actually a pretty big deal when it came out, the first person shooter genre was falling out of flavour around 1997 and the fact that Turok managed to stand out of the crowd was a shocker to most, especially considering the primary platform for the genre was PC and the fact that consoles simply couldn't power most shooters due to their graphic intensive content which required far sturdier hardware. Turok managed to garner attention by taking some fresh spins on the genre, without straying too far. The industry sadly ignored shooters that tried to be different at the time, with classics such as System Shock being buried and lost in time until much later on.

The premise and universe of Turok is absolutely ridiculous but that's a massive part of the games appeal. You play as a time traveling red Indian (Who proclaims "I AM TUROK" and seeing as the game is called Turok, I would assume is named Turok but hardcore fans of the series keep saying his name is actually Tal'set) who must stop some evil something or other named The Campaigner from dominating the universe by going into the past and breeding a race of Cybernetic Dinosaurs and using his advanced technology to arm said Cybernetic Dinosaurs, mutants, and regular humans with devastating weapons of mass destruction.

I'm not joking. It's juvenile and it definitely reeks of the 1990s, but who cares? I don't. The game wouldn't nearly be as fun without the insane background and events, because the game has numerous flaws and one of the largest ones can make the game incredibly tedious and dull: The level design. The levels are confusing, disjointed, and annoying. It doesn't help that there are numerous random encounters that lead to ethereal platforming sections or labyrinthine caves and sometimes you will accidentally step into one of these random events or you will be forced to go in simply because you need the ammo and health that lies within them.

In each level you must collect a series of keys to unlock the next section of the game, and you will have to run all around flipping switches and exploring every nook and cranny. It pads the game out and it can get extremely boring, especially when you kill most of the enemies and are only treated with more baddies to fight when the game decides to randomly spawn some in. This isn't helped by an awful distance fog. Apparently Turok has a severe case of near sightedness because you can only see about 3 feet in front of you at the most.

Despite the distance fog, the graphics are actually very good for the year it came out, let alone the platform. While not on par with Quake II the graphics are on par if not better than most PC FPS games released that year. The jungle is well detailed and you'll see wildlife such as deer, monkeys, and the like interacting with the environment realistically. The animations are extremely fluid and thanks to the animation, death scenes are a cathartic joy to watch and are actually still fairly impressive in a strange way even today.

The AI is surprisingly good as well, the enemies have a surprising range of behaviour and there is a great variety in them. Raptors are speedy and viscous, and if there are multiple raptors in the area they will rendezvous with each other before attacking you. Later on in the game, trained dinosaurs will work together with their human counterpart and their behaviour will change based on the status of one or the other. They all put up a good fight and challenge.

While the challenge is often fine, I will take issue with two elements of challenge that are quite annoying: Control and platforming. Your first instinct is to use the analog stick, right? Wrong. So how do you move Turok? The D-Pad? Nope. To move you have to use the camera buttons, and even then you need the stick to aim and the D-Pad to strafe. At least the A button jumps and Z button shoots. This is probably why Goldeneye didn't let you aim in real time, because controlling a shooter like this with that set up and that evil N64 controller is a pain in the ass.

The platforming sections are frustrating in part of the controls and in part to the distance fog. If a platform is more than 6 feet in front of you, you will have to squint just to recognize its faint outline if you can even make that out. Thankfully there is no falling damage (Though there are bottomless death pits), but it is still a pain to fall down a 50 foot drop, walk around until you find the climbable wall, and restart all over again.

On the whole, Turok is a mixed bag. It's certainly not as fun as it was in 1997, but for 1997 it was a very good game and its still fun to play for its violent and silly novelties. Cybernetic dinosaurs and weapons that put the BFG 9000 to shame keep the gameplay interesting, and if you have a thirst for blood the game has plenty of giblets and horrific death sequences. It should come as no shock that this game was controversial and even I was a little shocked back in 1997 to see such a fluid animation of a man grasping his neck as blood squirted out of an artery and dripped down his body. It's juvenile, silly fun, but time has not aged well regarding the controls, platforming, or overtly complex and confusing design.

The Good
This game was one of the first action games to come out on N64. It was pretty basic none the less. Set in a different world, you are Turok who must defeat the bad guy at the end, with the minions trying to stop you. Set in a jungle setting, stages usually depict either some part of a jungle or a temple. Thrown into the seen are some modern aspects, such as present day weapons (and a hummer boss), as well as futuristic weapons like things they make you explode! This gives us the hint that Turok does not take place in our own world..

One thing to say for sure in this game: There were plenty of weapons. I mean dozens. Anything ranging from a pistol to a huge plasma cannon. It was pretty cool just watching the guys explode all over the place.

The sound was done extremely well. Guys made extremely funny sounds when dying, the weapons sound real, you can hear yourself swimming underwater, and you can hear footsteps and breathing when you, or the enemy, is running. Better than most of the games in its day. The music is composed pretty well, too. Tranquil music underwater, fast paced in the jungle, and creepy when inside the catacombs. This added to the atmosphere of the game.

The graphics are done nicely, with little details such as pigs and monkeys to add detail. However the graphics are brought down terribly by fogging that you may hardly notice this.

The AI is nothing to brag about. Basic "if they see you, charge you with a spear or club, or shoot you from afar." Bosses are basically the same thing too.

The Bad
The most major issue in this game is the lack of varying gameplay from start to finish. The main concept is to get keys from the prior world to unlock the next world. Now, sometimes you could choose between worlds from a nexus, but inevitably you would have to collect them all. Each world pretty much consisted of killing hordes and hordes of seemingly endless bad guys to find three well-hidden keys in each level. And then after about an hour of searching your completely tired of the game. There's 8 worlds of this, too. Not much of a game. There's just one word to describe this game: Basic. Run, shoot, run, shoot. That's really all there is to it. There's not much in puzzles except figuring out where to go and the occasional jumping puzzle. There's bosses, but the AI just makes them tougher enemies.

The other big problem with this game is that the graphics are brought down so, so much by the FOGGING that comes with most FPS games from the N64. The machine didn't have much power back then, and so the fogging was needed to be put in to preserve frames. This is a shame, because truly, up close the graphics are astounding for their time. No fogging could have redeemed this game so much.

Another problem this game had was its camera angles. It was in First Person view, but it felt like the camera was two feet in front of your face! Every time (I mean every time) you had to jump from cliff to cliff it seemed like you could walk on air for two or three paces on thin air before you actually needed to jump. Also, the camera leaned left and right and seemed to skew a lot from the game.

The Bottom Line
A game with nice sound, music, and graphics brought down by fogging, lack of story, and mediocre gameplay. This is THE basic shooter for the N64 with lack of story and typical run, shoot, run, shoot concept. Unless your a game collector, or this was your childhood favorite, it is probably not worth it to buy. There are better N64 shooters out there such as Goldeneye which makes this game seem...well...basic.

The Good
Turok is a living oddity, a good console fps? A good console fps by Acclaim?? Has the world gone mad? Have I smoked too much of that wacky tobacky? Nope, brace yourself man, because believe it or not, for as dreadful as it may sound... Turok is a blast!

Based on the now dead Acclaim comic of the same name Turok: Dinosaur Hunter casts you as Joshua, the latest in the line of "Turoks", ancient native-american guardians of the balance between our earth dimension and a wacky Lost World-like dimension where dinosaurs roam the earth and a wide variety of hostile humanoid creatures reside.

As usual some bad ass mofo nicknamed "The Campaigner" has decided it's time for earth to go boom by using a Chronoscepter thingie to rip the universes apart, so it's up to you to traverse the dino-world collecting the keys that will unlock the portal to the Campaigner's citadel and kick his ass for good.

Got that? Complex I know, but serviceable enough. The game progresses as a standard hub-based fps where you start from this portal node that takes you to different locations in the game world thanks to Turoks plane-shifting powers. This structure helps mask to a degree the linearity of what's basically a traditional shooter, and gives you the opportunity to re-visit each level in case you missed a health boost power-up or a key weapon.

The levels themselves are very impressive in their architecture, sure most consist simply of open areas, but even the simplest level in the game is filled with winding hills, strange structures, twisty underwater caves and all other sorts of imaginative landmarks. Believe it or not, it makes exploring the game a truly unique experience, as you explore every nook and cranny in search for a new weapon, or whatever may be in store for you with a true sense of interest and not just to see what the hell lies ahead or what monster awaits for you in that strange temple-like structure. Turok's world is one of the most visually interesting places ever conceived for a traditional fps and makes each location a gameplay bonanza of epic proportions as you dart through jungles and cliffs, or strike dark temples and imposing bunkers.

And speaking of monsters, Turok was one of the earlier fps games that included really amazingly animated beasts, featuring motion-captured moves on every humanoid creature that makes them run, attack and die in very realistic ways (watch what happens when you shoot someone in the neck!), and a collection of very imaginative enemies that can pose some serious challenges (the missile-launching triceratops that squashes it's rider when it dies and the T-Rex boss near the endgame take all the awards alone). And all rendered with a smooth, fully polygonal engine that sports such flashy effects as camera tilting, image distortion and particle effects, and even a pre-Max Payne bullet-time wanna-be effect which is caused by a power-up that makes you hyper fast and puts the whole world in slow mo!

Of course, no fps would be complete with a hefty dose of action, and Turok delivers by truckloads. You'll face hundreds of varied enemies in a wide variety of settings, and contend with challenging jumping puzzles as well as truly challenging boss fights (once again the T-Rex takes the award). And just how do you take care of those wackos? Rough language? Hell no, guns baby!! 14 of them to be exact!!! Turok was the first game that I could remember that had a truly massive arsenal, everything from an explosive bow (take that Rambo!) to a chaingun is here, complete with bitching sound and visual effects and some cool death animations and damage effects. Oh, and as demanded by international fps laws, you also have the requisite "ultimate weapon" that puts all other toys to shame... and what a weapon it is!! The Chronoscepter has to be assembled by collecting all eight of it's pieces around the game world and has only 3 shots, but once you fire it up you see why the baby kept you waiting! Launching all sorts of particle and lightning effects, the Chronoscepter causes shockwaves to ripple all over the screen as pillars of light emerge from the target area, the whole level shakes and comes alive with lightning bolts and everything that was even remotely in it's firing direction just dies, in a word? Kickass!!!

The Bad
The worst flaws in Turok come courtesy of it's console roots. First of all, as a way of maximizing the small save game space of the N64, the save game keeps track of your stats, items and unlocked areas, and allows you to save only in the hub area. So in essence we have 3D Megaman, as every baddie just comes back from the dead in the exact same spot as the game respawns every area over and over again. The game uses a live-based system that allows you to continue a level from one of their various checkpoints if you die somehow, but if you lose all your lives you have to start from the beggining and redo the whole thing until you get it right and save your progress...I don't know about you, but with counted exceptions I hate these sort of cheap-o systems, more reminiscent of an 8-bit famicom game than of a next-generation 3D game...

Then there are the jumping puzzles, they are quite a bunch, and they can pose some serious challenges, and they may rub you the wrong way if you don't get used to them early on. After all I don't need to point out the difficulties these puzzles pose when viewed from a first-person perspective.

And last but not least.... the fog....

THE FOG!!!

Let's see, you have an underpowered 64-bit console only good for Mario games and a game with lots of open areas, so what do you do??? You extend the draw distance about 12 feet from you and just obscure the rest of the world with a fogging effect... greeeeeeeaat.... And nevermind the fact that this is a conversion based on a much more powerful platform that can be upgraded, so why would they bother to rework their engine so that you could control the draw distance instead of hardwiring it to the lackluster N64 specs if it's much easier to just carbon copy the damn thing as it is?... bastards....

Oh yeah, there's also the fact that the game doesn't exploit the Turok character much. In the comics he's a witty Spider-Man like renegade hero that would rather weasel his way out of any responsability than be a superhero. In the game he's just a generic asskicker out to save the world... Oh well...

The Bottom Line
As you can see the game really shocked me when I got my hands on it a while after it hitted the PC platform. If there's anything I expected from a first generation N64 fps game believe me that it wasn't for it to be fun, challenging and imaginative. Sure, it also comes with plenty of console-related problems, but one can clearly see after giving it a go why Acclaim is still churning out sequels to this fantastic shooter. A definitive blast for action fans.