After a lengthy hiatus, the TUROK franchise is back! The new title, published by Touchstone and developed by Propaganda Games in Vancouver, BC, promises to bring back many of the elements that made the original Turok a winner way back when on the original Nintendo 64. The original Turok gave us the first truly fun first-person shooter experience on the console and offered a unique world filled with dinosaurs as we explored it through the eyes of our Native American Hero, TUROK. We dropped in on Propaganda Games’ pre-launch event to play the game and find out where some of the inspiration for the new game came from.
There Must Be Dinosaurs This Time…
The last few TUROK games really took some weird turns, getting far away from the dinosaur thing. During our tour of the office, it was quite apparent that dinosaurs would be an integral part of the latest TUROK. In addition to that, you’ll find large bugs and AI tweaks that would allow our predatory friends to act on their instincts instead of walking by your foes and ignoring them. The new game is powered by the Unreal Technology engine, which gives it that dirty and gritty Gears of War and Unreal Tournament look, while managing to keep the characters “Steroid Free” and in normal human proportions.
The man himself, Turok, would also receive a bit of re-imagining. Although I’m pretty open minded, I’m sort of glad that they didn’t carry through with the route that they initially wanted to take as illustrated above. Instead, Turok would return as a man known as Joseph Turok, a former black ops commando, now part of an elite special forces squad known as Whiskey Company. Turok would also maintain his Native American status and is quite handy with the bow and arrow. In addition to that, he also gets some pretty cool cinematics when going in for stealth kills using just his knife or he can go guns-a-blazing with an impressive array of realistic looking weapons.
If you haven’t already grabbed the game already, you can take a peek of the opening sequence of the game below with a bit of commentary from the peeps at Propaganda Games…
As you can see, and maybe hear as well, the game takes advantage of some great sound effects and visuals to punch the point home. Turok’s partner also foreshadows how important the rest of Whiskey Company will be as the game progresses. The strong story definitely keeps things a bit more interesting in the single player campaign.
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The Developers Speak…
The folks at Propaganda Games worked very hard on this title as evident by the sleepy time supplies. Like any game, lots of hours were put into testing and building the levels to ensure a great gameplay experience.
Many people were responsible for putting this game together and to find out how they did it, we’ll segue to some videos. In this one, the developers talk about level design, art and animation:
In this next video, the developers talk about how the sound effects and audio in the game as well as the weapons that you’ll see in the game. Gameplay experience both single and multi-player are also covered:
As you can see, there are lots of steps to building a game like this. However, at the end of the day, if the game isn’t fun, there’s no point in making it. However, based on the buzz from the staff, and the stories of them staying in the office all night to just play speaks volumes on just how fun a game Turok is.
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Frag You…Frag Me…
It’s clear that TUROK was built to offer players a strong cinematic experience with a deep plot and storyline without being overbearing. One of the things that the team worked hard as well was the multi-player experience. Combined with the easy to learn controls from the single player game, the multi-player game is just as fun, if not more fun. A costume change does give the players an “Ala Crysis” look but I was assured by the developers that stuff like that happens all the time where you get an idea, implement it, then see someone else doing the same thing, or something similar. I guess Nano Suits are the hot fashion accessory for FPS shooters this year.
The experience also combines elements from the single player experience like the dinosaurs, which you can lure into becoming your allies and sicking them on your unfortunate buddies. Gruesome cinematic stealth knife kills as well as the bow and arrow are also great in the multi-player, to create a highly entertaining experience. Up to 16 players can go stealth kill crazy in online play, but unfortunately, there is no co-op or multiplayer action in split screen mode at home. Oh well…
Even though I was getting pwned on a regular basis by the Propaganda Games team and the other players due to my Rock Band Hiatus, I really did enjoy the in-game experience both multi-player and on the single player missions. The options to go stealth or guns a blazing along with an AI that actually reacts to you, instead of milling around and talking about the weather, gives the game a unique spin on the gameplay experience. The enemies will flush you out if you’re hiding and the dinosaurs like meat…any meat…even enemy meat.
The Bottom Line on Turok…
I have to admit, Turok might finally break me out of my no FPS shooter funk. The game really is a lot of fun in both multi-player and single player. The ability to go stealth or guns go wild adds a different flavour to the gameplay while the unique AI gives a new challenge as well as new opportunities for completing the missions. But most importantly, the dinosaurs are back, and they are bigger and badder than ever, plus you can make them your allies by getting them to eat your enemies or you can blow them up yourself.
On the weapons side, I’ve never seen a game that makes the knife such a kick ass weapon. I mean, usually in any other game, getting the knife means you’re screwed or out of ammo. You also get to see your enemies (even dinos) sliced and filletted in a few different ways thanks to the cool knife kill cinematics. The bow and arrow, along with the knife, makes this game too perfect for a Rambo shooter. The question is, how long will it take for dinos, knives, and bow and arrows to get old. I guess I’ll have to go back to finding out!
TUROK is currently available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and should be available in stores right now. PC Gamers will be able to join in on the dinosaur hunt this Spring as they are already working on the console to PC port. For more information on this game, check out the official website. For more pictures from our tour, check out our Propaganda Games Turok Pre-Launch Tour Photo Gallery.
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