Turok was unquestionably one of the major N64 titles. At that time, the publisher Acclaim, as we knew it, was in great shape and could afford to offer some exclusives to the Japanese manufacturer. It didn't take long for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter to quickly become a benchmark for first-person shooters, and if the software quickly lost its crown to GoldenEye 007, the publisher constantly pushed the vice of dinosaur hunting by releasing a new opus in its series every year. Then followed Turok 2: Seeds of Evil and Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion, interspersed with a resolutely multiplayer title, namely Turok: Rage Wars in 1999. It was not until 2003 and with the sinking of Acclaim that Turok : Evolution left a sour taste in our mouths. But our Indian is tough-skinned and here he is again four years later, ready to do battle with those pesky saurians… But not only that!
An Indian in the Jungle
Forget everything you knew about Turok, from his Native American origins to the "Campaigner", to the "Chronosceptor", the "Lazarus Concordance" or "Primagen the Elder". The hero of this opus signed Propaganda Games has nothing to do with that of Iguana Entertainment. Apart from his origins and his surname, the Turok of 2008 exchanged his panoply of the perfect little dinosaur hunter for that of a former mercenary hired by the elite commandos of the Whiskey Company to put an end to the actions of the members of the Wolf Pack, a rebel organization led by Kane, your former mentor. You suspect that things will quickly turn sour, when your device crashes like a fly following a missile strike on the planet sheltering these dangerous criminals. The mission is the mission and no matter the vagaries of the job, you will carry it out. Only problem in all this, the planet on which you are stranded is full of enemies even more dangerous than the mercenaries you have at your tail. We do not change a formula that has proven itself for more than ten years. The dinosaurs are always there. Only this time, they are not armed with futuristic guns. They simply play their role of carnivorous saurians and that's more than enough to give you a hard time. Of course, before being chased by a horde of hungry raptors or being chased by a dangerous T-Rex, you will encounter a few herbivores quietly settled in this ecosystem. The parasaurolophus graze not far from some diplodocus acting as a backdrop, but this peaceful fauna is only an exception in this wild universe where prey and predators blend into a hostile jungle.
Hmm… Charal !
It's hard to predict what role you'll play in Turok. Sometimes you will become the four-o'clock of a long-toothed dino, sometimes you will be taken in dislike by a heavily armed soldier before he gets eaten raw by a hungry raptor. This is perhaps the whole point of the game, to know how to make allies at the most opportune moment. Besides, as the old saying goes: "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". It should not be forgotten that it is possible to exterminate enemies in several ways. Those who prefer to talk about powder will use the many firearms in the game, whether submachine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, grenades, missile launchers or plasma cannons. From this point of view, they will be served with, for each of the weapons, two different firing modes. On the contrary, players wanting to be discreet will prefer to use the ORO C9 Perforator bow. The more you bandage it, the more your arrow will hit a distant target, all in dead silence. Convenient so you don't get spotted. For close combat, nothing is more lethal than your combat dagger. If at first glance, this weapon seems ridiculous against Kane's minions and the dinosaurs, it is undoubtedly the deadliest weapon in the game. of your enemy. When the blade of your knife points upwards, it's time to draw blood through a cut-scene of rare violence. However, when tackling dinosaurs, timing will be everything to bleed out your prey. The latter will not hesitate to retreat, you jump on the corner of the muzzle or climb trees to avoid ending up in tournedos. Strange as it may sound, Turok's dinos are a lot smarter than the rebels you're chasing. Humans are foolishly content to hide behind a crate, whether they are in cover or not, to reload their weapons in front of you or even worse to stare at a grenade which falls at their feet. Undeniably, we will prefer the games with the saurians reserving their share of surprises. The creatures ingeniously use the vegetation to hide there before jumping on your carotid artery. Then follows a different QTE depending on the attack, Quick Time Event in which you will have to hammer the triggers or the analog stick to get rid of certain death. The only problem is that over the hours the game pattern hardly changes. So we could summarize Turok in three stages: fight against the dinosaurs, confrontation with the mercenaries and potpourri of all this beautiful world. Add to that a few scripts here and there and an omnipresent linearity camouflaged by vast landscapes.
Bad attitude
Let's talk about level design. There too, there is finally nothing to jump to the ceiling. The first levels are a perfect preview of what awaits us throughout the game. A dense jungle, centuries-old trees as far as the eye can see, misty swamps, a few stifling caverns, desolate rocky plateaus, long grayish tunnels and two, three ruined military camps. The panorama is certainly attractive but quickly off-putting because too often identical. The developers of Propaganda Games have not made the effort to renew the landscape and the visual effects that go with it, so much so that we have the impression of going in circles. Aesthetically, we expected better and it is the same for the character-design of Turok and his compatriots cut to the pruning hook. Since we are talking about production, note that the game offers a dubbing in French which could have been better made if an effort had been made on the synchronization with the lips of the various speakers. If the solo will keep you spellbound for a little less than ten hours, it's hard to be thrilled by the multiplayer aspect of the game. Rather complete with the modes "Everyone for himself", "Team Deathmatch", "CTF" or "Attack / Defence", the title unfortunately does not attract crowds and you have to get up early to meet people and deal with unsuitable servers and significant connection lags. We will then be satisfied with the cooperative option, which is much more stable but which remains only an option because it only offers three small levels to be torched. It is not tomorrow the day before that you will drop Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or Halo 3.
