Turok first arrived on home consoles way back when on the much loved Nintendo 64. At the time the cartridge based console was marketed as the most powerful console on earth with its 64 Bit technology. The console had many great games that can be fondly remembered and among the adventure shenanigans of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and the shooters such as Goldeneye/Perfect Dark Zero; Acclaim brought us two very well received Turok titles, with Turok 2 like Perfect Dark using the N64's add on graphics chip thingy. What I liked about the two Turok games was the vibrant locales that went from tight interiors to more open outdoors, often boasting some ornate feature such as huge forgotten statues. The Turok games were very much a solitary affair and had a great combination of exploration, platforming and of course shooting up enemies; let's also not forget the rather excellent selection of weaponry.

Fast forward a few years and Turok made a final appearance on PS2 and Xbox. With the series still keeping the "dinosaur hunter" tag line, the third and final game from publishers Acclaims somewhat deviated from the first two games (with some abysmal flying sections) and somehow failed to live up to expectations for such an established and loved series. Acclaim liquidated and it felt like Turok would be buried with it, yet Propaganda Games decided to resurrect the native American hero and propel him into the current generation, with the imaginatively and original titled Turok.

Gameplay:

Turok is a first person shooter to join the ranks of similar titles on the system, yet rather than following the tried and trusted formula, the game does try and incorporate some unique qualities into the mix. Keeping in theme of its predecessors, Turok features plenty of dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes alongside some regular human adversaries. What is unique about their inclusion here, is the fact that players can actually use the dinosaurs to their own advantage. This means that often it's wise to hang back and watch gleefully as your enemies get eaten or mauled to death. There's also the option to fire off flares using the shotgun's alternate fire mode. The flare not only distracts the dinosaurs, but with a well placed shot, you can lead them into an enemy camp and let them soften your targets up a little. This mechanic lends itself well to the gameplay, as players can make choices as to how they approach a given situation. The majority of dinosaurs are fairly easy to take down, especially if you opt to use the combat knife against them, and so using them effectively as part of your arsenal is a welcome tactic.

Turok also allows players to adopt a more stealthy approach by sneaking around and either striking up close and personal with the combat knife, or from afar using the silent bow. I found u sing the bow to be far more effective, as it's hard to not be discovered moving into an enemy camp and stealth killing enemies. I often went in for the quiet kill, only to have a couple of guards looking at me and then all hell breaking loose. I guess, the fast paced nature of the game, diminished my patience for the moments where I could try and be stealthy.

Turok, (the character) is joined by several other marines where by the team are sent on mission to take down a rogue agent. The mission goes wrong from the offset, as their transport ship is shot down in orbit and they crash land on the planet. What is nice, are the moments where Turok (the character) partners up with the rest of the team and they fight alongside him. It's certainly a deviation from the solitary experience from the other games in the series, but Propaganda Games have stated that they wanted to create an all new Turok experience rather than rehash the old games.

Turok is a fairly linear experience in terms of navigation and this is something that is a shame, as one of the cool elements from the first two games was being able to fully explore the environments and back track if needed. Turok seems to provide places where if you drop down to continue, there is no means to go back again. This does feel somewhat restrictive, but it helps prevent you from getting lost, and keeps the action flowing smoothly.

The weapons are also fairly tame compared to the first two games and where you are able to mount weapons, you can no longer grab a triceratops and shoot down buildings and crush foes whilst riding its back ( a great feature from Turok 2). There's no overpowering nuke type weapons either, and everything is tipped towards a more realistic flavor rather than the sublime. I had no problems aiming with the weapons but I did find that the shotgun and knife became my favored weapons for any given situation. When an enemy is close - then an on screen prompt appears and you can perform a one hit kill with the knife. This was very easy to accomplish and made light work of packs of dinosaurs who would tend to constantly knock you for six (causing much disorientation in the process) if you used guns. The swap to a 3rd person view of Turok stabbing or slicing away at the creatures is a nice feature, and I was surprised that it didn't get boring seeing the same animations over and over.

Graphics:

Graphically, Turok looks pretty decent as there are some nice effects used here and there, although some of the texture work could have been a little more detailed. There's really not much variety with the locales as it's jungle (wet and dry) and then repetitive interior locations, with a slight subterranean moment here and there. The jungle is conveyed well, with a decent selection of foliage that sways in the wind and litters the levels. The character models are pretty decent and especially some of the larger creatures you come across. Again, I was pleased that there was enough variety of enemies to keep things interesting.

Other than some texture loading problems which happened occasionally, everything ran pretty smoothly throughout. My only gripe, and I guess this is more a gameplay gripe, was the spinning the character around after being grounded. It might be realistic, but in gameplay terms it sucks! When you combine this with a blurry screen when being hit and you might as well put the pad down and reload the checkpoint.

Sound:

Turok features a star studded cast of voice actors and I especially liked the performance from the character Slade (Ron Pearlman). The guys for the most part sound as beefy as they look in game and although the dialogs doesn't have much depth, the performances were spot on. The other in game sound effects are pretty decent and it's nice being able to hear approaching footsteps from an enemy giving you an indication that danger approaches. The music drives the game but isn't anything memorable as far as I'm concerned.

Longevity:

The single player campaign can be beaten between 8-12 hours, depending on your skill, and there are several levels of difficulty to test yourself should you want to jump back into the world once you've beaten it already. For players connected to Xbox Live, you can play some adversarial modes and a few custom levels of co-op. The online portion of the game , like the single player introduces the same dinosaur element to spice things up a little, which is a neat feature.

Overall:

I wasn't overly impressed with the demo when it hit the marketplace, but the full game seemed to offer some charm that I failed to take note of before. The dino killing in third person is cool, as is the semi free form combat which is a welcome inclusion. The story is very simple, but I felt it was handled well and kept things flowing nicely. Turok is nothing like the previous games in the series, bar the similarities with the name and of course the dinosaurs being a feature. Propaganda Games have done a fairly decent job of making a first person shooter in such a crowded genre, but I feel that had they stuck more closely to the game's roots, we'd have a far more engaging and memorable experience. As it stands, Turok is a good game, that should be taken at face value, because if you are expecting the next Halo or COD 4, then you might be a little disappointed.