Turok (2008) Review - Aliens with dinosaurs.

By Sam Coles:

Turok is a game franchise that has been dormant for almost a decade, sure we had updated versions of Turok Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2 on the PC, but we haven’t got a dedicated sequel/reboot since 2008. Turok was a reboot of the series that was released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 back in 2008, this game gets a lot of negative attention, but I really like this game as it did a lot of unique things that other shooters were not doing at the time. Is the game flawless? No of course not but what game is. Let’s get into it.

Turok is about a band of space marines traveling to another planet to track down a war criminal named Roland Kane who is the leader of Wolf Pack. Wolf Pack’s original intent was a rogue unit within the military which consisted of soldiers who disobeyed orders, but instead of exiling them they used their untraditional skills for suicide missions where they are not expected to come back. However Kane goes insane, and they become the most wanted organisation in the galaxy. You play as Turok a former member of Wolf Pack and he is brought in as an expert, this creates tension between him and the other crew members where he is shunted at first which he then proves himself and earns the respect of his fellow crew members.

The game is a first person shooter, coupled with stealth elements it’s one of the first instances of play it your way where you can sneak through or go in all guns blazing. Areas are generally big and wide open which can be traversed however you choose, with different nooks and crannies you can sneak or shoot through. You mainly fight Kane’s soldiers, but humans are not the only occupants on this planet; you have dinosaurs roaming the jungle which kill and eat anyone that gets in their way. The A.I is dynamic in this regard as dinosaurs can randomly pop out and kill you or the enemies, this can be used to your advantage as you can wait it out and let them kill each other off. 

You have a vast array of weapons to suit each situation, for stealth kills you’re going to be mainly using the bow which is a lot of fun as it can pin enemies to walls and it has an alternate fire mode with explosive arrows. Most weapons can be duel wielded except for the weapons that need two hands to use such as the minigun and plasma rifle, I found that the duel pistols broke the game a bit as they are extremely powerful against most of the enemy soldiers.

Presentation wise for a game that was a released in 2008 with consoles in mind it still looks surprisingly good, with stunning environments which reflect back on to you, I could feel the humidity of the jungle as I slogged through it. Dinosaur models look fantastic with excellent animation when they are roaming around or trying to rip your throat out. Character models of the humans have not fared as well as they look rather blocky, but sometimes they can look good with a decent use of depth of field during some cutscenes when they are interacting with each other.

Are there any issues with this game? Yes, first off is the aim sensitivity is ridiculous you have to be very gentle with it or otherwise you’ll find yourself doing a 180 every time you nudge the right stick slightly. The other issue is that the game is really bad about telling when you’re about the die because the visual ques on screen are so subtle that you’re not sure how far away you are from death.

Overall Turok is not a bad game, I don’t understand the negative attention surrounding it, yes it has its flaws but overall it is an enjoyable first person shooter. You can pick the game up for relatively cheap these days on the Xbox 360 and PS3 so give it a go.