Turok: A Nice Place to Visit...

I’ve finally broken down and bought an Xbox 360. I’ve been a PC gamer for years, but the price difference ($350 for the console, as opposed to $1,000 – give or take – for the tower and monitor) is something that kept staring me in my retinas. Not to mention that the 360 has many upcoming titles that the PC may not get… or will only get some months after their initial release (“Grand Theft Auto IV,” for example).

This is where you enter “Turok,” the first game developed by Propaganda Games and also the first published by Touchstone. I got word of a PC version being released sometime soon and got very excited, perhaps too quickly. I played the original Nintendo 64 release (“Turok: Dinosaur Hunter”) and found it entertaining. Although this latest game may be titled “Turok” and billed as a remake, the differences are many and the similarities few. Besides a main character named Turok, dinosaurs, a knife, and bow & arrow, this is very little like Acclaim’s much slept-on action/platformer of yesteryear. That's right, no time-warping, no platform puzzles, and a main character whose ties to his Native American ancestry is only mentioned in passing.

But back to the topic at hand. The PC version of “Turok,” I recently hear, gets pushed back from March to sometime in May. Now I will simply not stand for that. With a shiny new Xbox 360 sitting adjacent to a 52” Samsung widescreen rear-projection HDTV, I had no choice but to purchase a game I had been looking forward to ever since advertisements first began airing on TV.

Let me begin by saying, though, that if you are a fan of the first “Turok” or any of its sequels and are looking for more of the same, you won’t find it here. This game moves the character away from the platforming Native American Indian, as mentioned, and transforms him, instead, into a muscle-bound Native American former black ops assassin-like figure and actually gives the game something of a plot this time out. Sure, there are plenty of dinosaurs running loose and there are nifty knife and bow & arrow kills that you can pull off (it wouldn't be "Turok" without them), but this is an entirely different kind of game. The first had a significantly slower pace whereas this is your typical run 'n' gun shooter that more or less borrows the name “Turok” and some of its ideas and calls itself a remake just for the hell of it.

But there’s nothing wrong with that. Where else can you find a game where you can lure in dinosaurs to attack your foes or go toe-to-toe with a Raptor or T-Rex? The game moves fast and the action is consistent. Great sound design and intuitive level design make for some truly memorable sequences. Although "Turok" can be very frustrating at times, there is a sense of accomplishment whenever one gets out of an extremely difficult situation; trust me, there are many. And it is worth mentioning that that the core game play - being able to go in stealthily or guns blazing - is rewarding. And the mechanics are implemented decently enough where it works a good percentage of the time either way one plays.

Moveover, “Turok” has always been a unique franchise and it becomes one even more so now that it has moved onto next-generation consoles and, soon, PCs. The game is powered by Epic’s Unreal 3 Engine and it is one of the best uses of the tech since Epic’s own “Gears of War” and "Unreal Tournament III." Although some textures can be rather muddy and washed out, the game is good looking otherwise.

"Turok" is displayed at a high resolution and has some fantastic character models to complement it. The lighting is superb and shading is head-and-shoulders above nearly every other Unreal 3 Engine game on the market. The foliage is fantastic also and little details such as finding grass swaying in the breeze or moving as you walk through it is generally pleasing. The bloom, as per usual with an Unreal 3 Engine powered game, is in abundance. But it suits the game’s woodsy setting nicely.

Voice acting is also a plus, as the likes of Ron Perlman, Powers Boothe, Timothy Olyphant, and Donnie Wahlberg stop by to deliver standout performances that lend an air of credibility to the precedings. Though you probably won't be paying too much attention to the voiceovers, they are solid nonethless. Weapons sound harsh and realistic, and sounds of combat, likewise.

As fun as the game is - thanks to frenetic action and many truly cinematic moments - there are still things about "Turok" that didn’t quite gel with me. For one; having to aim at every single target without any hint of an auto-aim feature is unforgiveable. It ramps up the difficulty considerably and can make for some extremely difficult moments. I would’ve killed for an auto-lock feature. Two; what is with the uneven difficulty? The game kind of throws you into things without letting you adjust to the wacky control scheme or the poor aiming mechanics. There are a couple of sections found during game play that may literally have you pulling your hair out.

It should also be mentioned that with "Turok" the default right analog stick sensitivity is set way too high. It's nearly impossible to hit anything and you'll probably have to turn it down to the lowest possible setting before you can. Again, auto-aim or a lock-on feature would have been greatly appreciated, and with the swarms of enemies and their consistency, I don't see why that wasn't implemented.

And you'd think with a plethora of highly trained soldiers and dinos running amok that they'd exhibit some sort of intelligence. Though the commandos flank quite often, you can pick them off easily enough. Finding them running side to side is common and, often enough, you can snipe one with the bow, have another run over to the same spot, and silently snipe the other; perhaps even pinning him to the wall if you're lucky.

As far as the dinos are concerned; the battles are much more intense. They swarm you constantly and present a much greater challenge. Knifing them is fantastic fun and pressing the Right Trigger to cue a pseudo cut scene (if timed right) - where Turok will graphically eliminate them - is priceless. The only problem with this is you WILL get overwhelmed and you WILL get frustrated. They are far too fast for many of the game's firearms and without an auto-aim feature, trying to shoot them is useless. But hey, challenge is good, right?

No matter the intense difficulty level or the shameful controls, where else can you find a game that allows you to cinematically slice the throats of dinosaurs, cut open innumerable amounts of baddies, dual wield shotguns, submachine guns, stick enemies to walls with arrows, and a host of other cool things? The only problem with the game… it’s harder than hell and the lack of an auto-aim or lock-on feature is simply inexcusable. You may go through a section as many as 10 times just because you’ve become overwhelmed with enemies and end up restarting because there appears to be no way out of the area. Or what’s worse, there may be little tricks to completing certain tasks and if you don’t know ‘em, you ain’t getting’ out of that jam none too easy. But when it all boils down, “Turok” is solid shooter fun that falls short of greatness because of a myriad of little problems. Don't you just hate that?