You, yes you, are a Native American body builder with some arrows, an astigmatism and about 20 seconds to live. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the first FPS for the N64, was a smash when it was released in 1997, and with good reason. Here were big environments that you could run around in like a rabid wolverine. You roam at will, encounter charming locals, and kill them in colorful ways. It was like Dark Mario. Enemies screamed, clutched something relatively near where you shot them, and died in a pool of their own blood. This was heady stuff back in the day. Nowadays the game seems archaically quaint, but give it another try. Turok has a lot of cool stuff in it that todays programmers would be wise to steal. Pardon me - emulate. Classics are called that because of their longevity. If you have sworn off the franchise after the sorry, sorrier and sorriest sequels, go back in time, blow $4.99 at Gamestop, and see what the fuss was all about.
And featuring James Bond as Yoshi. At its most basic, Turok was a cross between Super Mario 64 and Goldeneye. (The former released 5 months before, the latter 6 months after.) Hop around from pillar to pillar like Mario, shoot the squareheaded guards like Goldeneye. But Turok was a technical advance on both of these games. In Goldeneye guards just stand there - even after you blow away the guy right next to them. In Turok the enemies often run right at you in spazzoid bonzai charges. Sometimes, and this was drooly stuff back in 1997, more than one bad guy at a time! Turok also features the spinning widget feature, which is now Universal in gaming. Anything you need - weapons, health, ammo, a clean loincloth, the key to Adon's titanium bra (oh wait, that was the sequel) will be spinning slowly on the ground. If it rotates go pick it up - you probably need it. Even things that are hidden behind bushes will be spinning so you can find them, which doesn't make any sense, now that I think about it. At the time of release though the wildest feature was the new method of movement. Instead of the central wigglestick for direction you move your little muscle-bound Indian via the yellow 'C' buttons. Up for forward, down for back and so on. Sound familiar? Yep, its the patented Resident Evil "Human Tank" set up. The difference though is that RE tried to do that with a third-person perspective on static backgrounds, and failed (or should I say 'flailed') miserably. With Turok you are first person in a true 3D environment, and it works smoothly and efficently. Or, switch to Left Hand mode and do it on the gray D pad over on the other side. Oooo-Aaaaah......!
New, Cool-Ranch flavored Turok.
Turok was a new game on a new system in a new dimension. This means that some 2D features were still present. Extra lives are awarded not through experience, or areas cleared but rather through picking up lines of golden triangles scattered about. (A concept copped straight from Pac-Man.) Not surprisingly, given the eternal munchies that most gamers experience, these became known as the "Sacred Doritos". Here's a tip: after buying Turok at your nearest bargain bin, use the change from your $10.00 to buy some Doritos. Just have 'em ready, because the craving WILL arise as you play. 100 Doritos and Turok gains a life. And you gain another pound. You'll know you have filled your Dorito bag when a 5 second cut scene plays where you flex, sneer and utter your one complete sentence; "I. Feel. Pretty." No. Wait. That was in Mary-Kate and Ashley: Sweet 16. Always get them confused......you say "I. Am. Turok." With a voice like James Earl Jones with a bladder infection.
Maps you aim through. Oh, I can see where that would.....HUH? Not every innovation worked, of course. That's the price you pay for imagination. Some of Turok's features entirely failed to stick to the wall. There IS an on screen aiming point available, and would be very handy in a game where you are constantly trying to bring down banzai charging mercenaries in a close environment with no reserve of ammunition. But the only way to bring the cursor up on the screen is to enable the map. This simultaneously shows you where you are on the map and allows you to shoot more accurately. That's the idea anyway. The reality is that the map is six times as bright as the action behind it, meaning that if you bring the aiming cursor up, you can't see the bad guys that are right in front of you. Trust me: leave the map off and just back up slowly until the dinosaur is coming straight at you - that's where the aim point is. Then unload with whichever one of your Big !@#$%& Guns is the !@#$%& biggest.
More fear than a Pauly Shore Movie, more fog than a Queen concert. Standard FPS rules apply: the areas get tougher, you get more hit points. The monsters get bigger, your big !@#$ing guns get !@#$ing bigger. Each area is slightly different from the last: #3 is a city in ruins, #4 is catacombs, #5 is a treetop village of wooden bridges. But each is laid out extremely well and offers a good mix of fighting, platform jumping and simple puzzles to solve. And dying of course. You'll do a lot of that. You'll be gobbling every Dorito you can find - and you'll need the max of ten lives for the epic final Boss. What is consistent throughout is that feeling of Fear that is so missing in this age of graphical eye candy. Every step you take could reveal a sniper hiding in the ever-present fog. Every step could lead you into a gory boobie trap. Every step could have you plummeting off some Wile E. Coyote rated precipice. Every step could have a T-Rex materializing behind you. Dread, horror, and eventually outright panic await all who dare enter the Lost Land. You'll love the Rocket-launching Triceratops. You'll hate the yard long mosquitos. You'll never get tired of the blubbering yells of the bad guys as you pour explosive shotgun shells into them. Dead? Maybe. But throw another grenade at the corpse to see it flail and yell one more time. Encore kills - gotta love 'em. Almost as narley as the head shot baddie with the spurting blood jetting out from his ear. (Your choice of blood color, too.) Mostly though you'll savor a real challenge in a video game. Devious enemies, few save points, First person platform jumping (always a hoot), and boss battles that'll have you filling your pants in no time. This is no wussy, watered-down fun time game for every demographic. This is primeval, no respite, kill or be killed. So go get Turok for $4.99, plug in the fog machine, and open up the Doritos. It's dinosaur huntin' time.
P.S. and if it gets too hard, just type in NTHGTHDGDCRTDTRK. You'll thank me later. (wimp!)
Summary: Old, but tasty. A classic, in all senses of the word, and better than any of its sequels, regardless of platform.
Already played it? Trade it for another game at
Systems: Nintendo 64
Genre: FPS/platformer/Adventure for the Nintendo 64.
Setting: It's Mad Max in Jurassic Park, Teotihuacan! Completely flat plains and towering canyons, all done in four shades of green and brown, and populated by square headed, heavily armed maniacs. State of the art 1997!
Mood: Grim. No friends, no help, no sidekicks, and at any moment a T-Rex could pop out of the ether and eat your head. Not a whole lotta laughs. You want laughs, go hang out with that Italian plumber fellow.
Story: You are the latest in a series of Turoks, and you need to seal up the hole in the space/time continuum so the Lost Land (I.E. Dinosaurs and suicidal mercenaries) does not continue to spill over into our reality. But you really don't have to think that hard: Basically you are a point of view with a variety of weapons. If anything moves shoot it, grab the swag that jettisons from the corpse, and try not to fall off the cliffs.
Graphics: Yes. There are graphics. Before there were fully destructible environments we were happy to have any environments at all. Count your blessings. The look of FPS games has advanced exponentially. The FEEL of them however has advanced incrementally. In Turok you'll see greens, browns, the odd random palm tree, and a thick wall of fog 20 yards away in all directions. But you'll be too busy staying alive to notice, or care.
Music/Sound: Decent tribal drums and chants for the game. Great death yells from your victims. Set it on pause and only random jungle animal noises will emanate. Great soundtrack addition for parties.
Voice Acting: Three words: "I am Turok." Which you say in a booming stage whisper every time you earn another life. Other than that you just yell "OW!" when the 3ft. mosquitos bite you.
Script/Dialog: See above. "I am Turok." and "OW!" The former when you gain a life, the latter as you are losing one. And really, what more do you need than that? 'I am alive' or 'I am in pain'. The human experience is rarely so eloquently summarized.
Similar Games: Basically everything that came after it. Most better, except the sequels to this very game.
Gameplay: FPS, with some platformer elements thrown in: Sometimes you kill, sometimes you hop.
Strengths: Mood, immersive environments, visceral feeling of menace that is all too rare now-a-days.
Weaknesses: The aforementioned wall-O-fog is a classic last-minute programming "fix" (no you do you not have an astigmatism). Weak graphics, rudimentary enemy animations, the occasional lost-in-another-dimension moment when the camera darts inside a rock or hillside. Steep learning curve, few save points, hungry dinosaurs who love to warp in behind you.
Depth: Turok is a big game, full of big spaces. (Hence the wall-O-fog when they couldn't quite pull THAT off.) Each level is an endurance contest all by itself. Each time you stagger bleeding back to the central hub you will do so with a sense of accomplishment.
Length: About 20 - 30 hours, if you survive long enough to reach the end.
Pace: Oh, you'll find it. There is a certain rate-of-exploration range. After a few gore-soaked miscues you'll find the tempo between going too fast and getting skewered on a boobie-trap, and going too slow and having your recently dispatched enemies reconstitu
Difficulty: Challenging. Real challenging.
Control: Smooth and innovative for it's time; left handed option available.
Learning Curve: Steep.
Replayability: Pretty tough going, even with an extensive training area. Replayability means you start it over and this time try to survive till the end. Beyond that, not so much. Dig it out every year or so for a nostalgic bloodbath.
Will keep you up until (a.k.a Fun
Factor): You stumble across the next save point (I.E. "Dawn").
Notable Features: I love the wall-O-fog myself, but I can see where it could be a little disturbing for others. Turok is also one of the few games to have a left-handed option. (Shadowman for the N64 is another.) Instead of movement with the 4 'C' buttons, you switch hands
Fav. Character: The giant robot Tyrannosaurus Rex boss you fight late in the game. There is something very symmetrically pleasing about a boss that is the futuristic representation of a prehistoric beast. Especially with green blood pulsing out of its ear.
Instant Classic: At the time, absolutely.
Publisher: Acclaim
Developer: Iguana
Release Date: 1997-02-01
Players: 1
Multiplayer: No
ESRB: Mature, but 9 years on Turok looks more like the Wiggles.
Target Audience: Manly Men. (*grunt*)
Recommended For: Anyone who wants a real challenge.
Not Recommended for: Casual gamers, people with a Fog phobia.
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| PlayerPlaza Games
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