Been There, Done That, But I’ll Do it Again
Turok for the PC is a fun romp that shouldn’t be taken too seriously. It can easily be torn apart or shot full of holes from various standpoints, but as a mindless arcade shooter, it fits the bill nicely. As you can well imagine I find it a refreshing change from strategy sims.
Big Joe Turok, with bow in hand, stalks and defends himself against human, dinosaur, and various mutated species just to find his way back home. He’s definitely not in Kansas anymore, but he doesn’t have the luxury of being able to click the heels of his red slippers to magically take him home. He’s got to do things the hard way, and that’s where the fun comes in.
Joe, or let’s call him Turok since that sounds more dangerous, was once part of a ruthless mercenary component known as the Wolfpack. After his conscience got the better of him, Turok joined Whiskey Co. and decided to use his talents for less nefarious purposes. Having forsaken his former gang, there is no love lost between them. His old comrades are now his new enemy, and he’s on the hunt for his former mentor, Kane. The chase leads to a mysterious planet where Turok and his mates find themselves at the mercy of deadly life forms, which include dinosaurs and other strange, wondrous, and murderous beasts. And that’s about it for the storyline, folks.
Capturing Kane is all but abandoned by Turok and his team in favor of making it off the planet alive. There are many things to contend with including enemy Wolfpack soldiers, but they are typically relegated to guarding armory compounds. These bases are a great source of weapons, and that’s what you’re going to need in order to mow a path through the dense jungles of death.
There’s more to Turok than just shooting, but let’s not overlook the ability to wield dual machineguns. There are also elements of stealth in which the bow and arrow and the dagger play very prominent roles. I’ll get back to the blazing pistols soon enough, but the melee weapons, because of the required stealth strategy, give the gameplay a degree of sophistication. Albeit a very small degree. This isn’t Splinter Cell, but it has more depth than the average first-person shooter. At the same time, it doesn’t sacrifice action for depth.
The bow and arrow, as well as the dagger, are both silent killers and come in handy when you want to knock off a guard or two without alerting the others. They also come in handy when you run out of ammo, which happens from time to time. Bases on the planet that belong to Wolfpack typically have a good arsenal of weapons and ammo. These bases can be used somewhat like checkpoints, in that you can use them to help you advance to the next one where more goodies await thee. Get past the guards, and you’ll get your hands on some really fun dino-eradicators such as machineguns, chainguns, shotguns, bombs, and other explosives, projectile launchers, and incendiary devices.
To operate the bow and arrow, you simply engage the action button to draw back the bow while you line up your shot through the crosshairs. The longer you hold the button, the further back the bow will be pulled for a more powerful shot. It’s not unusual to pin the enemy to the back wall with a powerful arrow. The dagger requires more close-quarter contact. You can sneak up on a guard, grab him, and sink the knife into his skull. It can also be used to slit the throats of dinosaurs and other monstrosities if you can get close enough.
There are four slots for weapons, and you can practically dual-wield any combination of them. Each weapon has both a primary and secondary component. For instance, you can turn a machinegun into a turret, which can be set up at a particular chokepoint to fire automatically at intruders. The sticky bomb gun also has a minefield component that comes in quite handy. Once you shoot a sticky bomb at an enemy and detonate it while it’s attached, you can then litter the area with bombs, which you hope the enemy will walk right into. Great fun.
The human A.I. aren’t all that intelligent, but what they lack in brains they make up for in resilience. While they may run right into your line of fire, they aren’t so easily killed. A headshot will typically take them out, but if that fails, you’ll have to resort to a spray of firepower to kill them. It’s not the controls that make headshots a problem, it’s just the nature of the game, since both sides are moving around a lot and there is all kinds of cover and obstacles in the way. Despite all the great weapons and the game’s encouragement to exploit them at all cost, you still can’t run-and-gun. You can walk, jump, and crouch, but you can’t run. I just find it kind of odd, and more than a little frustrating when trying to escape the jaws of a terrible lizard.
The dinosaurs are a Turok staple. A Turok game without dinosaurs is like Kraft without the Dinner. While there is no point in pretending that the actual gameplay is not redundant, it’s extremely well-blended with the variety of weapons and range of beasts. The dinosaurs include huge horned triceratops and small, but deadly, raptors. Each puts up a different fight. Ultimately you’ll be pulling the same tactics with your knife when you run out of ammo, but going after different beasts seems to freshen things up a little. Unfortunately you’ll be going after a lot of the same class of monsters as well.
Turok looks a lot better than it did on the N64, but it could sure look even a lot better. The jungle can get claustrophobic. At times I felt like I was in a theme park as opposed to an actual planet. The flora has a flat, fake look to it. The monster character models are good, but there is a lot of repetition as these same monsters recur in swarms with little variation. Slowdown is experienced on occasions when things get a little heavy onscreen. The sound effects are good, and even though the voiceacting isn’t terrible, even DeNiro couldn’t make this script believable. The story falls apart as soon as the premise is laid down.
Turok is not a masterpiece of gaming. It already had its day. I consider this a revival of sorts but to suggest that Turok is getting a second lease on life may be taking things too seriously, and I already warned you about that.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.0 Graphics
I expected better. Scenery looks flat and fake. 4.5 Control
Lots of fun weapons to use. Solid, smooth controls. 2.8 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Cornball dialogue. Music is decent. Average sound effects. 4.0 Play Value
Pure shooting fun, with only a little bit of brain engagement. 3.5 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
Game Features: