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REVIEW: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

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Fred McCann

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May 18, 1997, 3:00:00 AM5/18/97

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Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was originally scheduled to be released in
December. At that time, it would have been a guaranteed hit. As the first
first-person shooter for the Nintendo 64, out months before any
competition, it would be a required choice of all fans of this type of
game. Well, Acclaim decided to delay the release a little bit to touch
the game up. So here it is, the beginning of March, and Turok has finally
hit the shelves. Success is much less certain, since Goldeneye and Doom
64 are both breathing down Turok's neck with release dates later this
month. So the question is: Was it worth the wait?

In Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, you take on the role of Turok, protector of
the boundary between the Earth and the Lost Land, a place beyond time
infested with dinosaurs, aliens, and evil forces intent on breaking down
the barrier between the Lost Land and the Earth. You are fighting against
The Campaigner, who is attempting to assemble the pieces of an ancient
weapon that he will be able to use to conquer the Earth. Your goal is to
assemble the pieces of the weapon to keep it out of his hands and then to
defeat him in battle. This works out to mean that your goal is to shoot
anything that moves while collecting progressively larger weapons, like
any other game in this genre.

This game certainly succeeds in giving you both a wide range of weapons
and a worthy variety of opponents. You start with the traditional weapons
of your people, a big knife and a Tek bow capable of shooting explosive
tipped arrows. You rapidly accumulate more powerful weapons, starting
with conventional weapons like a shotgun and assault rifles and moving
into weapons that can do real damage, like the pulse rifle and quad
rocket launcher. There are 14 weapons in all, and the big ones are
capable of doing massive property damage in addition to shredding
anything that moves. Your opponents also range in power, starting with
humans packing pistols and raptors which can be brought down in with 2
shotgun shells, and ranging up through triceratops armed with rocket
launchers, aliens, and cyborgs with impressive quantities of fire
power. The big ones can shrug off grenades and aren't even damaged by
your shotgun. Nasty.

The game ranges over 8 levels, ranging from the jungle through villages
to the Lost Land itself and the alien world. Each level has its own
personality, with its own style to its layout and the types of landscape
encountered and its own group of opponents. Although 8 levels may sound a
little small, rest assured that these levels are huge. There is plenty of
territory to explore. The first level leads to an area that allows you to
go to any of the following levels. But you can't just jump from the first l
evel to the last. Not only would you likely be woefully under equipped,
but you need to collect the appropriate keys to get from each level to
the next.

The game takes you through tight corridor complexes, large open areas,
and through underwater passages. Swimming can get claustrophobic,
especially if you start running out of air and can't figure the way out,
but the open spaces are the place for full blown paranoia. Fog limits the
distance you can see, so you never know which way the dinosaurs lie or
how many of them there might be. The game also creates panic attacks
through its tendency to replace creatures that you have killed. Sometimes
after you kill something, a new copy will materialize. This is a great
way to make you waste ammo and keep you moving. I don't know how many
times I've backed into a completely new area while trying to escape from
the things that keep coming back behind me.

Dealing with all the dinos can be tough. Fortunately, the game gives you
regular opportunities to save to a controller pack. Like most console
games, you can't save anywhere you want, but you do get opportunities to
save during levels, not just at the ends of them. Generally, when you
have a chance to save, it's a warning that something unpleasant is just
around the corner.

When I first heard about the controls, I was a little surprised.
Using the joystick to look and the C buttons to move qualifies as a
little exceptional, but as I thought about it, I realized it has some
definite advantages. This arrangement lets you look while you move, and
lets you turn while you strafe. For people who haven't played games with
that freedom before, it may seem unnecessary, but I find that games like
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire that do not give that kind of control
are restrictive. The controls take a little practice, but you get used to
it fairly quickly, and I predict that the controls used by Turok will be
a model for other games in the future.

Aside from the layout, the controls work very well. The game gives you
tight, responsive control over Turok, so you move when you want to move,
and stop when you want to stop. This doesn't mean that you will never
miss a jump, but that getting jumps right is a matter of practice and
judgment rather than luck.

This is one of the best looking games to come out for the Nintendo 64.
Although the game isn't as bright and happy looking as Super Mario 64,
the overall graphics quality is higher. Waverace 64 is still the game
that I most want to look at just to look at, but Turok is very close. The
textures are very good, but what really makes this game a pleasure to
look at is the transparencies. Not only is the fogging well done, but
there tend to be layers of mist over the ground and in the air, and there
are wisps of things blowing in the wind that make the game look like it's
a real and complex world. The special effects are very well done as well.
Not only do the big guns do lots of damage, but they look great too. The
game also looks good in small ways too, ranging from the real-time
lighting on your weapons to the slight distortions that appear when
passing through the surface of water. And the solar lens flare is another
effect that doesn't call attention to itself but is worth checking out
anyway.

The character animations are excellent. Everything in the game is fully
3D, and the big payoff is in the realism of the characters. Whether
running, attacking, dying, or just standing still, everything just looks
great. This brings up one drawback of the game. Turok has an ESRB rating
of Mature (Ages 17+) for animated blood and gore and animated violence,
and it earns its rating. When things die, they don't just die. They
bleed, they scream, and they thrash around. The game does give you the
option of turning the blood off, but it doesn't really help. The
creatures still act out their deaths, and they are still unpleasant.
While the level of violence in a video game is a matter of taste, Turok
will clearly be too much for some people.

The sound is excellent. The sound effects are all in your face,
appropriate to what's happening, and high quality. The background music
is also a key part of the game. The music is based principally on
percussion and sound effects, with occasional melodies, so it supports
the action without calling attention to itself. Like
Super Mario 64, the music responds to where you are and what's happening
to great effect. When you're just exploring the jungle, the music
encourages you onward, but when you're entering a mysterious tunnel
complex, the music enhances your trepidation.

In all, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter delivers everything I look for in a video
game. Turok looks great, sounds great, and plays great. It immerses you
in a large, interesting, and varied world. Acclaim is evidently very
proud of Turok, based on the manual, which has brief section on the
development experience and describes some of the technical
accomplishments of Turok. They should be proud. Turok is the game that
demonstrates that third party manufacturers can indeed produce great
games for the Nintendo 64. I have no criticisms of Turok, but I have one
reservation. The level of gore in this game is not appropriate for everyone.

The delay in the release on Turok raised the possibility that it might be
endangered by Doom. Now that Turok has raised the standards for
first-person shooters, it is up to Doom to respond. If it does, the
Nintendo 64 may well turn into the premier platform for first-person shooters.

Score on a 10 point scale: Violent 9

- Matthew (mrm...@worldnet.att.net)

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