Old-school shooter with some new tricks up its sleeve...
Gameplay:
Turok is pretty much an old-school shooter that takes away the aim-assists of the modern console shooter to add a new curve of difficulty. Call of Duty fans will no doubt be troubled by the loss of the aim-down-the-sights accuracy, but most old-school vets will be happy to see a return of no aim-assist, something many of them complain about when it comes to console shooters. Now, as for the new tricks, this game adds probably only one, and that would be the reinvention of dinos in FPS world. The dinos of Turok are now much more "Jurassic Park" in movement, making them feel much more real than ever before in a Turok game. The knife has also upgraded, with a new insta-kill attack when close to either certain dinos or a human opponent. The only other upgrade to speak of is the new button-mashing dino mauling, which is where the dinos and Turok get in a shuffle and you must preform the action on-screen to fight them off, via RE4's Leon and the infected.
After those upgrades, the only other thing Turok has different is that you come with a permanent Bow as well as that knife in your innovatory. Other weapons must be swiped, and you can only carry up to two, so if you want to dual-wield shotguns, thats all you will carry outside of the knife and bow. The weapons are all standard affair, and they also take a leap back in gaming time with alternate fire on each of them. The good news is that all of them are actually pretty effective weapons when used properly, including the bow, which can be the most devastating for distant shots.
But what about the online? Well, its actually really fun, except for the fact that nobody was on the PS3 version hardly. Its tough to get a match in any mode, like Co-op, FFA, and Team. But once you get in with a good amount of people, the game is pretty fun to play ,with dinos jumping everywhere and guys running around trying to get knife kills. Luckily, those said kills are hard to achieve if you don't time it correctly, and most times you die right after the attempt thanks to the victim killing you instead. The dinos were great distractions, and the Bow was awesome to shoot in this mode. Still, its only this good when you actually find some players.
Graphics:
Very Pretty graphics that suffer from a horrid loading time. The game is constantly loading the visuals, which is seen when a level starts and the visuals are still appearing as you watch a cutscene and possibly afterwards. Sure, Gears of War did this as well, but not as bad. Also, the loading screen is somewhat long, but its pretty much the same length as Gears of War. Why compare this to gears? because its pretty much the same engine, right down to all the guys looking like they are steroids. finally, the dinos look amazing, as they should, and the bosses look amazing and giant. The dinos also get wounded very accurately, with machine guns making them a bloody mess and rockets turning them into blood bombs. That reminds me, this game is very gory. It may not look it at first, but when all the dinos explode into a blood bath and blood oozes from their mouths, it can get gross for a few.
Sound:
The sound of Turok is just awesome to hear. during this one night mission, I was walking back to the base, and I remember the game just freaking me out with the amount of growls and grunts coming from the hidden raptors just waiting to pounce. The level of immersion for this game when fighting dinos is amazing and something to feel. However, fighting humans in the base is where the game takes a landslide in immersion. The sounds hear are all gunfire, and the music is boring to listen to. This game definitely needed to stay in the wild with the dinos.
Overall: 8.5/10.0
Turok is a great game that really didn't get much hype behind it thanks to its last entry "Turok: Evolution" and its many faults. The game really does revive this series pretty well, and also comes with a nice online mode to boot. For modern fans, I would say give it a rent and see if you can master it with no aim-assist. For fans of the originals, you should have already tried this game and bought it. For fans looking for a trip to old-school shooters, pick this one up, whether it be for rent or buy.