Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64, 1997)
Why You Should Play It
There have been as many arguments about
which games should be considered history's greatest as there are
stars is the sky. But few genres top such arguments as frequently as
first person shooters.
From Doom to Halo, from Half-Life to Call of
Duty, lists of the greatest games are always littered with first
person shooters, and no other genre seems to generate anywhere near
as much fervor.
But I've never been one of "those
guys". Something about FPS games has never allowed them to
resonate with me as much as they seem to do with other gamers. That's
not to say I can't appreciate them. I've had plenty of good times in
Blood Gulch, gotten many a fright from a headcrab, and teabagged a
decent number of anonymous XBox Live and PSN players. But no FPS has
ever made me sit back and say "That. Was. AMAZING." or
anything like it. That is, with one exception. And a fairly odd
exception, seeing as how no one else but me seems to give a shit
about Turok.
Come, take a walk with me back to the
summer of 1997. I'd gotten an N64 that February for my birthday, and
between Blockbuster and a few of my neighborhood friends, I'd
exhausted just about every possibility for fun on Nintendo's somewhat
awkward new machine. One more time through any Mario Kart track, one
more fatality in Mortal Kombat Trilogy or Killer Instinct, one more
second of those infinitely repeating seven notes of the music in
Princess Peach's castle, and I would snap.
So I hit Blockbuster and scoured the
shelves for something, anything. And there it was. Seemingly
innocuous, a cartridge with a dude fighting a velociraptor on it, and
the name "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter" printed above. Whoever
had last rented it had not bothered to bring the booklet back, so
what I could gather from this modest artwork was all the info I was
going to get out of it. "What the hell.", I thought. "I
like dinosaurs." In truth, I was grasping for straws, here. My
rampant infatuation with dinosaurs was something that peaked around
the time Jurassic Park came out, and had been on a steady decline
since that any my overexposure to its legacy thanks to merchandising
and home video. But nevertheless, I was desperate for some gaming
novelty, so I shelled out the dough and took Turok, whatever it was,
home with me.
Back home, I loaded the game up, raced
past the menu screen, and started playing. As soon as the game began,
I was presented with a long, narrow corridor with a disembodied hand
wielding a knife hovering around in the bottom right corner of the
screen. I was a bit disappointed. "Oh, it's one of those
games."
Let's rewind a bit
more. A few years prior, a friend of mine who had a PC introduced me
to Doom. He was going on about how it was the best game ever and I
really needed to get a computer just to play it. He let me try it for
a bit, and I didn't like it. It felt stiff, I didn't like that I
couldn't see my character, and I didn't like how the sprites
juxtaposed against the 3D backgrounds sometimes made it difficult for
me to make geological sense of what I was looking at or how far away
it was. I guess me and first person shooters weren't meant to get on
from the start. I said, "This is kinda gay." (no offense to
gay persons, just in the mid-90s, everything bad to a 12-year-old was
"gay") and my friend looked at me like I'd taken a shit on
his keyboard, and that, aside from a brief moment of Duke Nukem 3D
when I did get my own PC, was the extent of my FPS experience up till
those first few moments of Turok.
Anyways, I resisted
the urge to end my Turok experience forever right then and give it a
chance. I'm not sure why exactly. Perhaps the misty atmosphere of the
natural setting drew me in more than the rote Gothicness of Doom or
the adolescent humor of Duke Nukem. Regardless, as I took my first
few steps into the humid jungle I would soon and unbeknownst to me
call home for the next six hours or so, the corridor opened up into a
glade. My surroundings were suddenly less confining, but also less
safe, as I would soon come to realize. Then, I heard something. A
rhythmic thumping. I saw a figure slowly creeping through the mist
ahead of me. By the time the shape was recognizable, a velociraptor
had leaped out of the fog, talons first. My throaty, invisible avatar
made an agonized yelp as his health meter dropped substantially. I
backed away, firing wildly with my meager 9mm pistol, but it kept
coming. Finally, one shot in particular seemed to break the beast,
and it began writhing and groaning. As the raptor's death throes
continued, groaning turned to gurgling, and the creature finally
crumbled at my feet, throwing off one last blind and futile kick
before spilling the last of its crimson contents onto the jungle
floor below me. And from then on, I was hooked.
What followed was
at that point the most epic odyssey through a 3D landscape I'd ever
embarked on, and I didn't set the controller down until I'd used up
all of my lives somewhere in the 5th level. Sadly, Turok required a
Memory Pak to record data at save points. Without a Memory Pak, I
would have to make it to the end of the game with what lives I could
hang onto, and if I couldn't beat the game in one sitting, I wasn't
going to beat the game at all. I never did convince my mom that a
Memory Pak was a crucial or worthwhile purchase (and it really wasn't
because most essential N64 games saved data on the cartridge). The
idea of needing more than an already expensive piece of hardware and
an expensive game to properly play a game was a concept she felt to
be a bit preposterous. At least until a few years later when I traded
my N64 in for a PS1 and memory cards became an absolute necessity.
I did manage to
beat Turok, though. After doing some research, I found a few codes
for things like unlimited ammo, all weapons, invincibility, etc. Real
God power type stuff. And with any other game of my youth, I'd have
piled on the codes until the game was broken beyond recognition. But
with Turok, I didn't. I just wanted to beat the game. I wanted to see
all the sights and hear all the sounds I was missing in those last
three stages. So all I did was use the infinite lives code. I felt
that was fair, and of all the codes, I figured it would compromise my
gaming experience the least. It was an unusually mature gesture for
me at 12. Why did I care?
There are a lot of
great things about Turok. But there was something specific to it that
made me want to not just play it, but experience it. You see, Turok
was the first game that really made me appreciate atmosphere. Now,
plenty of games I've played before then were loaded with atmospheric
qualities (Super Metroid and Final Fantasy VI come to mind), but
Turok, whether because of something inherent in its design, or
because of some change I was undergoing as a gamer, was the first
game where I was consciously aware of it. I think that's part of what
set it apart from my previous encounters with the genre. Turok is
exquisitely designed, both as a game and as an aesthetic, tonal
experience. The first way the game establishes this is with its
environment, which at that point was fairly unique amidst
contemporary FPS games.
The jungle world of
Turok is a living, breathing landscape rich with history that is
etched into every brick of ruined city or every pile of bones huddled
in the corner of a Leaper-infested cave. Every screen in Turok seems
to tell a story. The level of detail and the quality of the character
models are second to none. Stack Turok next to just about any game of
its generation to see which has aged better and Turok will win every
time. Even setting the much more celebrated Goldeneye next to it is
embarrassing. Particularly effective in selling the visual qualities
of Turok is the mist. In truth, a clever way to mask the game's
relatively short draw distance, the way the mist slowly rolls back to
reveal locales or stalking enemies is magical.
But for all my
boasting of the game's visual flair, Turok is much more than just a
pretty game. Turok features eight stages of considerable length, and
every nook and cranny of those eight stages are filled to the brim
with secrets and treasures. You begin in a linear forest location
that eventually takes you to a central hub where all of the other
stages can be accessed. This is done via portals, which aren't active
until you've found all the keys needed to open the portal to that
stage. Some of the keys are fiendishly well hidden, so you'll often
need to revisit some stages to go back and find keys you've missed.
Of course, the trek
is not easy. You will constantly be impeded by soldiers from The
Campaigner's army, native tribesmen with supernatural strength and
powers, many dinosaurs, and all manner of unusual beasts. The
ferocity and persistence with which these enemies stalk you is
frightening. Particularly nerve-racking is being in a dark cave full
of Leapers, large lizard-like creatures that can scale walls with
ease and typically appear in vast numbers of varying size and
strength. The distant thumping of their leaps and the way they
quickly appear out of the inky blackness of their subterranean lairs
will menace you throughout the game. But what really sells the
Leapers and all the other creatures in Turok's world is the way they
move. The motion capture and animation used to bring the game's
polygonal models to life is spectacular.
Equally as
impressive as the enemies are the means with which you are given to
deal with them. Turok showcases an arsenal like nothing that had been
seen before. Apart from the usual assortment of conventional weaponry
(shotguns, pistols, assault rifles, etc.), Turok can wield explosive
arrows, grenade and rocket launchers, futuristic pulse weapons
crafted from alien technology, and most impressively, the last few
weapons you'll find are strange devices churning with lights and
clockwork that expel brilliant, screen-filling bursts of color and
energy that erupt into some of the longest and most impressive
explosions I've ever seen.
But you won't just
be running and gunning your way through Turok's world. Unlike most
FPS games, Turok has very dynamic level design, often thrusting you
hundreds of feet into the air, leaping from tiny pillar to tiny
pillar, from a small platform to a vine-covered cliff face, and many
other aerial spectacles. The first person perspective can sometimes
make this experience a bit awkward, but it works better in Turok than
in any other game that's attempted similar design motifs.
But Turok isn't
perfect. Punctuated in all this climbing, killing, running, and
key-fetching are merely four boss fights, and two of them are right
at the very end of the game. Given, these fights are very intense and
very impressive, but their lack of frequency definitely hurts.
Though, considering how the few boss fights that are present will
leave you completely tapped of all your resources, perhaps it's for
the best.
What else can I say
about Turok? It's an incredible and often uncelebrated game, and its
placement on this list may surprise quite a few gamers and may seem
like an oddly personal choice, but I implore you--if you've not
played Turok, give it a shot. And if you have and didn't care for it,
go back. Take your time. Pay attention to the environment and the
mood of the game, and I guarantee that you'll appreciate it for both
its attention to detail and the unquestionable marks it left on the
FPS industry.
Potential Barriers
Considering that I wasn't an FPS fan when Turok came out (and really, I'm still not), that won't be a sufficient excuse. Other than that, Turok has aged a lot better than most of the other games that came out in the late 90s. It's simple, has a good interface, and anyone should be able to jump right into it.
Current Availability
Turok was initially released on N64 and then shoddily ported to Windows. Sadly, Turok has never seen a rerealease of any kind, so an N64 or emulation are going to be your only option. I strongly vote against emulation here, as Turok has some notable visual glitches in Project 64, and you really need to play Turok on a big screen to appreciate its atmosphere.
If You Really Dig It
FPS games are in great supply on just about every platform, but Turok is a very particular experience and there have not been many games that have captured the same sense of atmosphere and sprawling, densely detailed locales. If you're like me and appreciate how Turok puts you in a lush, natural environment, here's a few games that may tickle your fancy.
Unreal (Mac/PC, 1998)
The groundwork upon which the vast majority of games would eventually be built upon, Unreal was once much more than an Engine or a Tournament, it was a fully fledged game with beautiful environments. Unreal is probably the only first-person shooter of the 90s that has an aesthetic comparable to Turok.
The rest of the Turok series
Turok's success led to it and its two sequels becoming one of the defining franchises of the N64. Iguana Entertainment really tapped the N64's potential. Sadly, the other two N64 Turok games, while great in their own right, just don't capture the feeling of the original. They delve too much into the mythology of the comic book and force a narrative into games that would've been much more atmospheric without them. After the N64 trilogy, Iguana broke up, with some of its lead designers going on to form Retro Studios, which would eventually give us Metroid Prime (and indeed, there are echoes of Turok in Metroid Prime). But Turok was not finished. Turok Evolution was released shortly into the next generation, and while it's somewhat buggy and floaty, it can be pretty fun. Much later, Turok was rebooted in a game simply titled "Turok". It's a bit less inspired than the other Turok games, but the core feeling of stalking and being stalked by dinosaurs in a jungle is still wonderfully present.
Dino Crisis series
Dino Crisis (PSOne, 1999)
Dino Crisis 2 (PSOne, 2000)
Dino Crisis 3 (XBox, 2003)
Dino Crisis is notably not a first-person shooter, rather, it's Resident Evil with a dinosaur paint job, but if you're particularly enamored with gunning down or being chased by dinosaurs in Turok, Dino Crisis may give you the same thrills.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC/XBox, 2001)
I think what I appreciate most about Turok is the level of detail and dynamic design to its locales, and the only other FPS that even comes close is RtCW. Though mostly celebrated for its multiplayer, RtCW has a fantastic and often overlooked single-player campaign, particularly in the much-expanded XBox release.
Far Cry series
Far Cry (PC, 2004)
Far Cry 2 (PC/360/PS3, 2008)
Far Cry 3 (PC/360/PS3, 2012)
Utilizing the incredible Crytek engine, Far Cry takes the idea of making your way through a natural environment to cosmic proportions, giving you immense, beautiful worlds to explore at your leisure. Sure, there are no dinosaurs, but lots of carnage and beautiful locales nonetheless.
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