After slaying a few dozen raptors with the knife, it becomes apparent that Turok really lacks character and variety.
Turok puts you in the role of Joseph Turok, a new recruit in the military team Whiskey Company, who with his team crash land on a distant planet riddled with angry dinosaurs. Upon awakening, Turok must find his team. The catch is that Turok's former commander Kane is out for leadership on the planet and it's up to Turok to find his team, take out Kane, and get off the planet. The story is typically a brand new story, with little connection to the original Turok games. Turok learns many of his abilities through flashbacks of his work as Kane's subordinate. The story isn't anything special; cutscenes are short and simple. You quickly realize that Turok's history isn't the best and that some of his team is out to get him. It's fairly interesting for a while, but the story doesn't pick up much at all.
Controlling Turok can come down to your tolerance for its controls, which can run from being solid to over-obscure. The first thing that I noticed was the look sensitivity, whose default is through the roof. It also is a bit confusing that the crouch action is mapped to the Y button instead of clicking the left thumbstick in. Fortunately, the rest of the game's controls work pretty well. B is the main action button, which lets Turok interact with the environment in ways like opening doors or climbing vines. The left bumper is for grenades, and the triggers can be used for raising a better sight on enemies or dual-wielding, depending on the situation. Switching weapons with the D-Pad can be a bit clunky when moving, but works pretty well. Although you may find the controls a bit different from other FPS games, they are functional and work well in combat.
Turok lets you carry up to four weapons, although two of those are always the knife and bow. Each weapon also has two methods of firing, which can be changed using the right bumper. I'm not going to deny it; killing with the knife in Turok is fun. There's a sense of violent elegance in sneaking up behind an unsuspecting victim and getting an instant kill. It's a captivating feeling that manages to last throughout the entire game. However, they play a lot like the Energy Sword did in Halo 2; it's fun to use, but in multiplayer, it can be extremely unbalanced. This leads to a majority of multiplayer games being similar to Swords matches in Halo 2, as to who can get a quick-kill first. The bow, on the other hand, is best used as a quick sniping weapon. You can choose between the typical two modes of fire: regular and exploding arrows. The bow, though not as visceral and useful as the knife, delivers a satisfying method of taking out enemies. The rest of the weapons, however, are your simple FPS arsenal. You get your pistol, shotgun, along with grenades and such, but none of them manage to go the extra mile. If you see it in Turok, you've probably seen it before in another FPS. Fortunately, the weapons that Turok actually takes seriously (a.k.a. the knife and bow) work extremely well and although they don't make up for Turok's simplicity in its arsenal, are pretty fun to implement into taking out enemies.
Speaking of enemies, there are basically two types: soldiers and dinosaurs, which makes for a really big problem when it comes to avoiding repetition. Sure, slaying a velociraptor with your knife (which you'll be doing a lot) is fun the first few times, but having to take out a whole pack of them can run down the path of tedious. Fighting regular soldiers is even worse, considering that they can range from either completely dumb (hiding behind a rock that you can easily peek behind) or annoyingly bloodthirsty (attacking in packs, ironically, like velociraptors). Although some of the soldiers pack some nice weapons like sniper rifles or RPG's, many of them will use the typical SMG or some simple weapon seen in some other first-person shooter. An interesting aspect of Turok's two types of enemies is that they will actually attack each other. Even cooler is that you can actually MAKE them attack each other, with well-timed shooting or good weapons particularly. It's rewarding to see your handiwork of seeing a nearby raptor attack one of the cookie-cutter soldier enemies, something that makes the enemy type idea work.
Graphically, the game looks okay. There's a degree of clipping, but for an Xbox 360 game, it looks respectively good. The outdoor environments are rich and lively; lighting effects shimmer through the trees and reptilian enemies animate well. The indoor environments, however, are extremely generic. The soldier enemies are simplistic and while they also animate well, look alike at times. The quick kills with the knife are animated extremely well, with dinosaurs pouring with blood and Turok's killing animations being smooth and natural. The sound is pretty much on the same level; it's good. Not great, but good. The voice actors do a respectable job under each role. The sound effects are engaging and well presented. Sadly, like the gameplay, the graphics and sound of Turok just seem to nail the "okay" mark. Don't expect a groundbreaking presentation; just expect lots of blood.
Pros
+ Nice environments
+ Is a completely passable FPS
+ Multiplayer is okay
+ Slaying dinosaurs is cool
Cons
- Gameplay is completely by-the-book
- Storyline is annoying and boring
- Weapons and challenges are too simplistic
- Slaying random soldiers is not cool
Although Turok makes some pretty strong pushes towards distinguishing itself in this crowded genre, what remains is a very average shooter whose only real significance is the dinosaur killing. The story is annoying and the entire presentation feels tired and completely irrelevant. The overall gameplay has its moments of being inventive and generally over-the-top (mostly the dino killing) but the rest of the game has been done before many, many times over. You'll hit switches, guard bases, and use a variety of by-the-book weapons that you've seen in many other games similar to it, all while listening to a bad story and passable voice acting. The environments are actually pretty good looking, though right when you begin complimenting the jungle world created by Turok's developers, you'll eventually find yourself in the same dark, gray-walled bases that can be seen in nearly every other first-person shooter seen before. So what can be said about this new version of Turok? Well, it's not bad. Turok isn't a game that I expected a ton from, and in retrospect, I can see why. It's far from horrible and it's completely functional, but there's a degree of wasted potential in Turok's gameplay. FPS fans will find Turok to be passable, but will most likely go back to playing some other much better shooters. Any skeptical gamer who wants to see how Turok's return turned out will find it to be a good rental, but a shaky purchase.