Played using the PC re-release. Much, much better than the N64 original, thanks to a smooth 60fps frame rate and other minor conveniences.
Y'know, when I first began playing Turok, I was really pleasantly surprised. Back in this era of gaming, my expectations for FPS releases are really low. Games like Wolfenstein and Doom don't appeal to me all the way, because of their over-reliance on mazes and keycard hunting shenanigans. It's no fun to have your demon-killing spree be interrupted by 20 minutes of "fuck, where do I go next?" That's why I generally prefer more linear campaigns, the likes of Half-Life and such.
Turok's first couple stages hit a different stride than the likes of Doom or Half-Life though. It's a type of level design that reminded me more of a race track, with platforming elements thrown in. The stages are a series of long (and i mean LONG) stretches of pathways, the length compensated by a sense of flow that allows you to zoom your way across them at a bit of a ridiculous rate. Once you figure out that diagonal movement makes you twice as fast, you become the fucking bishop piece of FPS games, there is simply no other method of movement you'll be wanting to use.
I really, really liked this part of Turok. It was far from the most complex FPS design I've played, but what was there really filled out that "comfort game" part of my brain. Hunting down collectibles, secrets, vibing to the percussion-heavy drum beats while mowing down dinosaurs, with weapons that honestly felt really good to use. It was mindless, but in a very polished and easy to get into kinda way. I'd be down to revisit those parts of the game again at some point.
Buut, there are other parts that I would genuinely love to have a skip button for, and they rear their ugly head in the 2nd half of the journey. The temple level. A nice change of scenery at first, until I realized that Turok was no longer doing the thing that was setting its level design apart from others. This is a maze. An obnoxiously big one. You do have a map! But it's not going to help here. I got lost, and that dragged the pacing of the stage so hard that I almost considered stopping there. The next stage right after though somewhat returned to the more standard level design from before, so that was thankfully a one-off.
Well, it was a one-off as far as "maze levels" go, but it's not the only bad stage in the game, there's an even worse one. I don't use these words lightly, the final level deserves nothing good in its life. The previous stages were already pretty long as is, but this final one seems to be doing everything in its humane power to pad the distance between you and the credits. Miles upon miles of copy-paste level design, it is an excruciating test of your patience, and a clear indication that the developers just gave up right there and then. They ran a pretty good marathon, and shit on the track just before the finish line. A genuinely terrible shame, for what was honestly a mostly pleasant FPS before then.
There's a couple other nitpicks I have, like the concept of putting extra lives into an FPS is pretty silly. I didn't really like that enemies respawn, and that ultimate weapon that you can unlock was a huge waste. You're only able to get it about 5 minutes before the game is over, at which point I guess you could... replay stages with it? But I'm not doing that. I've beaten the game. There's nothing else to do. Imagine only getting the BFG at the final boss, this is what it felt like.
To summarize, Turok could've been a potential 4/5 if it kept the quality up all the way through, but man, those 2 stages out of 8 are so repulsive that they risk ruining the entire thing. I know for a fact that my opinion was soured, and my fondness runs dry after the 1st half of the game concludes. But as much as I'm tempted to go with a score of 2.5, I really want to give Turok some slack, because the parts that WERE fun about it, really did hit the sort of dopamine I'm looking for in these sorts of games. I only wish the experience was consistent, and that the developers could've been more concerned about the quality of the journey, rather than a mind-numbing quantity.
Y'know, when I first began playing Turok, I was really pleasantly surprised. Back in this era of gaming, my expectations for FPS releases are really low. Games like Wolfenstein and Doom don't appeal to me all the way, because of their over-reliance on mazes and keycard hunting shenanigans. It's no fun to have your demon-killing spree be interrupted by 20 minutes of "fuck, where do I go next?" That's why I generally prefer more linear campaigns, the likes of Half-Life and such.
Turok's first couple stages hit a different stride than the likes of Doom or Half-Life though. It's a type of level design that reminded me more of a race track, with platforming elements thrown in. The stages are a series of long (and i mean LONG) stretches of pathways, the length compensated by a sense of flow that allows you to zoom your way across them at a bit of a ridiculous rate. Once you figure out that diagonal movement makes you twice as fast, you become the fucking bishop piece of FPS games, there is simply no other method of movement you'll be wanting to use.
I really, really liked this part of Turok. It was far from the most complex FPS design I've played, but what was there really filled out that "comfort game" part of my brain. Hunting down collectibles, secrets, vibing to the percussion-heavy drum beats while mowing down dinosaurs, with weapons that honestly felt really good to use. It was mindless, but in a very polished and easy to get into kinda way. I'd be down to revisit those parts of the game again at some point.
Buut, there are other parts that I would genuinely love to have a skip button for, and they rear their ugly head in the 2nd half of the journey. The temple level. A nice change of scenery at first, until I realized that Turok was no longer doing the thing that was setting its level design apart from others. This is a maze. An obnoxiously big one. You do have a map! But it's not going to help here. I got lost, and that dragged the pacing of the stage so hard that I almost considered stopping there. The next stage right after though somewhat returned to the more standard level design from before, so that was thankfully a one-off.
Well, it was a one-off as far as "maze levels" go, but it's not the only bad stage in the game, there's an even worse one. I don't use these words lightly, the final level deserves nothing good in its life. The previous stages were already pretty long as is, but this final one seems to be doing everything in its humane power to pad the distance between you and the credits. Miles upon miles of copy-paste level design, it is an excruciating test of your patience, and a clear indication that the developers just gave up right there and then. They ran a pretty good marathon, and shit on the track just before the finish line. A genuinely terrible shame, for what was honestly a mostly pleasant FPS before then.
There's a couple other nitpicks I have, like the concept of putting extra lives into an FPS is pretty silly. I didn't really like that enemies respawn, and that ultimate weapon that you can unlock was a huge waste. You're only able to get it about 5 minutes before the game is over, at which point I guess you could... replay stages with it? But I'm not doing that. I've beaten the game. There's nothing else to do. Imagine only getting the BFG at the final boss, this is what it felt like.
To summarize, Turok could've been a potential 4/5 if it kept the quality up all the way through, but man, those 2 stages out of 8 are so repulsive that they risk ruining the entire thing. I know for a fact that my opinion was soured, and my fondness runs dry after the 1st half of the game concludes. But as much as I'm tempted to go with a score of 2.5, I really want to give Turok some slack, because the parts that WERE fun about it, really did hit the sort of dopamine I'm looking for in these sorts of games. I only wish the experience was consistent, and that the developers could've been more concerned about the quality of the journey, rather than a mind-numbing quantity.