KNIFE!
Now, over a decade later, the beloved franchise, once thought dead, has returned to the next gen consoles in a big big way. Yes, Turok has returned in a well executed manner, full of plenty of ferocious action and tight production values.
The story of the game is perhaps the furthest departure from the original series. Here, you'll play as a new "Son of Stone" named Joseph Turok, a Native American soldier with a shady past. Apparently, Turok used to be in a ruthless black ops team that went by the name Wolf Pack, whose methods were... less than savory. Long story short, Turok abandons his command and the company leader, Roland Kane, eventually goes rogue, taking his elite team and holing up on a backwater to brew some evil plan involving chemical warfare.
The good guys, now using Turok as their insight into Kane's operations, are coming to pick Kane up when their spaceship is shot out of the sky, and the team is either killed or scattered about the planet, which, due to the various experiments taking place there, has a super acclerated eco-system where dinos run wild and giant bugs are all waiting to snap up the unlucky soldiers of Whiskey Company, whose mission has become to simply survive. The story progresses in a nice Hollywood-esque arc that is a combination of Jurassic Park and Predator, and thought not the SMARTEST story, gets the job done well with plenty of action and tough guy moments.
As for the presentation and sound, Turok looks and sounds great. The environments are the real star, ranging between sweltering jungles, to futuristic bunkers and claustrophobic caves. The dinos look and animate great, but some awkward transitions can lead to them looking lost from time to time. Player models look appropriately macho and the Unreal engine makes sure everybody flies off appropriately with explosions and blunt force trauma. As for sound, dinosaurs would and weapons sound like you'd expect, but the real stellar part of the soundtrack is in the games epic score and the talented voice cast. Turok's voice actor is great, and you'll see stars like Ron Perlman, Timothy Olyphant, and Donnie Wahlberg all provide some spectacular voice and personality to squad members Slade, Cowboy, and Shepherd, and Powers Boothe does an excellent general as Kane himself.
As far as gameplay, Turok hits hard in all aspects. Shooting is impactful and satisfying, though their is a conspicuous absense of auto aim, which isn't a problem while you're picking off targets from afar, but can get annoying in close up conflicts. The weapons on hand aren't anything TOO spectacular, but a few are either direct descendents from previous Turok weapons or are expanded to a greater role. You'll get SMGs, shotguns, and RPGs, but you'll also get the series staples Pulse Rifle, and the trusty bow which is funner to use than ever. Overall, these tools all help in getting through the game's treacherous campaign. The dino enemies are great to fight against because of their ferocity and sheer numbers, but human enemies get annoying with cheap tactics and laser guided bullets. Overall, the game has some tense and challenging battles that will literally have you fighting for your life, and the few boss battles in the game are fantastic and over the top.
And speaking of over the top, the one weapon I've failed to mention is the game's knife, which is the single most awesome aspect of the new Turok game. It far surpasses the classic knife in that, it can be used to perform awesome scripted stealth and insta-kills on any enemy up to the size of a raptor, and simply needs for anything bigger than that to be knocked to the floor before you unleash a flurry of stabs to finish them off. The kills all are awesome, and there's just something greatly visceral about sneaking up behind raptor, jumping on it's back and slitting it's throat, or kicking the legs out from a soldier and knifing him in the head before he can get up. It really gives Turok a lot of personality, especially since many of the games sections have you with nothing but the bow and the knife, allowing you to explore Turok's heritage of cold-blooded up-close fighting. It's really something every gamer should experience.
Turok's single player campaign is short, but rewarding because of a punishing difficulty. After that, you can replay on higher difficulties, or explore the game's multiplayer suite which includes Co-op. The co-op is a great addition, and although the multiplayer seems pretty rudimentary at first, you'll find some unique modes like "War Games", and also, each map has dino inhabitants in them that are basically wild cards who will attack either team and have to be contended with (much like the single player). Also similar to the multiplayer, all the awesome knife kills can be executed on dinos and other players, giving the game a uniquely awesome vicious streak that really just bumps up the fun which is otherwise a standard multiplayer game.
Altogether, Turok is a great, if not short and frustrating FPS effort. It's nostalgic effect might not be felt by anyone, but those who are happy to see the dinosaur hunter back will definitely get a kick out of his new adventure. Although the story isn't the best you'll likely see, and the shooting not revolutionary, it's got enough ferocious fun and high production values to keep any FPS fan stabbing dino skulls for the next few months. 8.0