Turok
- November 20, 2007 16:16 PM PST
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Mow down Dinos 'til the cows come home in this Turok demo.
When I think of Turok, I imagine a lone Native American, silently stalking a velociraptor, equipped with only a knife and a bow. I was never such a fan of the science-fiction turn the series took in Turok II because it detracted from the sheer savagery of hunting vicious dinosaurs bare handed. I lost interest in Turok as the series became increasingly abstract. Hence my skepticism when I learned Turok was coming to the new gen. What I expected to be the crusade of a Native American fighting dinosaurs in outer-space with a nuclear missile launcher turned out to be a reintroduction to everything I loved about Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on N64; Dinosaurs, knives, and bow and arrows!
Clever girl
Turok's dinosaurs have both positive and negative aspects. The A.I..built into the velociraptors seems pretty advanced as they work in teams and often flank from several directions. One minute I'd be fighting a raptor and the next minute I'd be on the ground, having been knocked over from behind by a second raptor. By the time I'd get up, there'd be a third raptor in the fray with a fourth one tearing at my comrade's jugular. They just kept coming out of nowhere. Thankfully, Turok lets the player wield double shotguns, which may seem a little ridiculous, but when there's a frenzy of three or four velociraptors around and one's got your only bud by the throat, you'll appreciate the dual power.
What disappointed me about the dinosaurs was the ridiculous rag-doll physics and somewhat confusing behavior they employ. The raptors often got up, after being shot to the ground, to come hurdling towards me once more. A dead raptor would also bounce around for several seconds simulating somewhat of a "realistic" death. This was totally confusing and I ended up blasting dead, bouncing raptors while the not-dead ones pounced on me from another direction.
Mo' guns, mo' problems
Even the large herbivorous dinos, which I expect to fall to the ground with a mighty crash, flopped around like weightless fish. The one large carnivore I encountered in the demo was a Dilophosaurus. After it cinematically took a raptor in its jaws, it proceeded to stomp around the area unassumingly while I plastered its hide with shells. No dinosaur seemed like a huge improvement on its N64 cousin.
The very small bit of slack created by Turok's dinos is completely made up for with knife killing. We all remember those games where you've got that knife in your inventory and once you equip it, you might as well just reload from the last save. Turok's knife, on the other hand, is so incredibly lethal, easy to use and gratifying that I would often forfeit the use of guns entirely.
The knife works very similarly to the sword of Halo 2 and 3. Once you come within a certain radius of your victim, simply pull the right trigger and Turok will do the rest. A lethal kill will trigger a one or two second cinematic in which Turok grabs his victim, twists it around and drives his dagger into its chest/head/neck. With enough skill you can actually kill an entire onslaught of enemies with a single blade. The feeling is similar that in Halo when you crush a covenant's skull with a melee attack. It just doesn't get old--the more you do it, the better you get. The better you get, the more enemies you can kill at once, and the more fun it all becomes.
Okay, so the dinosaurs didn't completely blow my mind, but everything else about Turok seems very promising. The gameplay is deep enough to provide a flexible gaming experience. Once you run through an area blasting everything in sight, you'll want to replay it using only your knife. And once you fail miserably to stealth kill every enemy, you'll want to do it all over again. You can also get dinosaurs to fight with enemy soldiers, adding another layer of depth to the game's combat. In all Turok is shaping up to be a great title that will definitely not disappoint even it if doesn't hit every nail square on the head.
The knife more than comes in handy.
