Title: Turok
Platform: Xbox 360 (review platform), PlayStation 3, and PC (April 15th release)
Publisher: Touchstone Studios
Developer: Propaganda Games
Rating: M for Mature
It seems like it's been generations since Acclaim's famous Native American warrior made his first appearance in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on the Nintendo 64 console back in 1997. The game seemed to come out of nowhere, pitting players against dinosaurs in a first-person perspective, using a wide range of weapons spanning from a bow and arrow to your standard shooter arsenal. Although Turok: Dinosaur Hunter played like most FPS titles of that era, recycling "the sacred key hunt" widely popularized by id Software's DOOM franchise and every clone thereafter, Acclaim also threw in a bit of platforming and adventuring fun to keep things fresh. The company also relied on distance fog to stabilize a high, fluid frame rate. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was well received by the gaming press and thus sparked a long line of sequels, some better than the original (Turok 2: Seeds of Evil), and some not fairing quite as well (Turok: Evolution).
Now with Acclaim out of the picture, the infamous Turok mantle is in the hands of Touchtone, the interactive media publishing arm of Disney. While it may seem strange to think of Disney behind the scenes of a first-person shooter game, the largest concern here is not with Mickey Mouse's influence, but that this newest Turok game really has nothing to do with the original comic book series (Western Publishing, Valiant Comics and Acclaim Comics) or the other games in the long-running franchise. Gone is the Lost Land of old, now replaced with a Jurassic Park-type planet; in fact, much of the preceding Turok mythology is gone. Consider this game as "reboot" of the franchise, a handy trend that seems to be the rage in Hollywood as of late. As Turok passed from publisher to publisher, the protagonist and his environment changed in the same manner, and thus this latest installment is just another phase of the metamorphosis. If we didn't know any better, we'd think Turok was actually Doctor Who.
Turok is back, and this time he's tackling renegade soldiers on a dinosaur-infested planet.
This time, our protagonist is none other than Joseph Turok, a culmination of all action movie heroes but without any witty one-liners. While this character is actually a descendant of Tal'set, you'll never hear him shout the infamous "I AM TUROK!" slogan loved by players of the original games. The franchise has somehow lost any originality in this new incarnation, degenerating to your typical military Rambo-like scenario with comrades that have the intelligence of a tomato. Every now and then, these crackpot heroes can pick off an enemy or two, but gamers will find themselves fighting the battle alone despite the present company. But then again, it's safe to assume that developer Propaganda Games purposely dumbed-down your fellow soldiers' brain capacity to make you look good and to make the game that much more difficult.
With that in mind, welcome to the jungle, baby. If you've seen the movies "Predator," "Aliens" and the aforementioned "Jurassic Park," then you've summed up the epic scope of what makes Turok tick. If you've ever played id Software's Doom 3, then you've also figured out the root of its gameplay. Because a good portion of the game remains outdoors in an open, heavily vegetative environment, it's easy to fall into the trap of running through the woods without taking in the surrounding area's little secrets. In fact, you might as well turn off the lights and creep around with a flashlight, because ignoring any preliminary precautions can lead to immediate death. The movies mentioned above are perfect examples of this, whether they relate to daytime or nighttime: watch carefully, and take things extremely slow. Really slow.
Because you're in an environment breeding with ferocious hostiles - sometimes with extremely large predators - the run-and-gun scenario doesn't work, and because of this game mechanic, Propaganda Games turned a short, perhaps ten-hour romp into an even longer, grueling experience. Move into a wooded area and you can quickly become a juicy snack, finding yourself surrounded by a quick horde of Velociraptors (meaning "Quick Bastards"). Let us not forget that glorious Tyrannosaurus rex, an awesome beast in this virtual world that will bear down on you with its long strides and scoop you up in one vicious bite.
Lurkers, meanwhile, are as menacing as their names, crawling up trees and pounding the player from above. The Dilophosaurus will leave you alone unless antagonized, slapping you around with its big tail. The Soldier Bugs are nothing more than giant scorpions, and are highly susceptible to fire (this is your "Aliens" reference). And if the environment wasn't enough to deal with on its own, Turok and his merry gang deal with the main conflict of the story: Roland Kane and his merry clan of black ops renegades.
Kane and Turok were once members of the infamous Wolf Pack, a military regime that eventually turned sour, killing innocent people for whatever the reason. Turok abandoned the group during one of its missions, suddenly haunted by his conscience. Now, as a member of the elite commando team Whiskey Company, Turok must hunt down his former mentor and bring the war criminal to justice for his sadistic crimes. Whiskey Company tracks Kane and the Wolf Pack to a mysterious terraformed planet filled with dinosaurs and lots of jungle terrain. The commando force's spaceship is shot down and Turok is forced to team up with the irritable Slade (voiced by Ron "Hellboy" Perlman) to locate the other Whiskey Company members and take down Kane.
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