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During Summer Game Fest, we got an opportunity to sit down with Turok: Origins, the next entry in the legendary dinosaur hunter series. Having only ever been exposed to the rebooted and mildly disappointing Turok from a couple of decades ago and the cute chibi game they did, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as Origins takes the franchise in a completely new direction, all the while maintaining its spirit.
The first thing that jumped out to me is that Joe Turok is nowhere to be seen. In his place are decorated warriors from the Turok tribe, all hailing from the elite Fireseed lineage, which ties it to the existing canon in a neat enough way. With our hands-on experience catapulting us right into the game, I didn’t get a sense for the characters they are, but you’re able to pick from three classes, inspired by indigenous spirit animals.
What’s exciting is that, regardless of the animal you choose, your biomorphic suit will harvest DNA from both dinosaur and alien adversaries, evolving your skill set, passive traits, and ultimate abilities in real-time.
It sounds as though there’ll be a bit of freedom with regards to team composition; even a trio of Ravens, for example, can have wildly different builds, so there are plenty of options and paths to go down in crafting the play style you want. The Bison archetype is something of a heavy hitter and tank build, Cougar is built with mobility and DPS in mind, while the Raven carries the series’ signature bow and arrow with a precision focus. Over the course of the stages we played, I was able to try out two of the three, and I was pretty enamoured by how varied they were.
The big marketing point for Origins is that it is a co-operative campaign for up to three players and, for me, it slots snugly into the void left by something like Outriders, which offered some explosive fun during its time. Of course, it doesn’t seem to have any of the same live-service trimmings, which’ll come as a relief to those who just want to enjoy the action. With that said, it’s apparently just as viable for those who prefer to run solo, and the game scales its difficulty up or down depending on the player count.
Origins kind of lets the gunplay do the talking, as objectives and goals are kept relatively simple. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but I do hope there’s a bit of variety in how levels unfold. If it ends up being the same half dozen objectives on loop, I worry the experience might become a bit monotonous. Despite that, the gunplay feels nice and balanced, and abilities, although far from novel, add another layer to the overall experience. It does try quite hard to reduce the friction for the player; for example, ammo is universal and in ready supply, as it, along with health, can be absorbed from the planet’s flora.
The moment-to-moment moves the action from one arena to the next, and after a few short objectives, you’ll be met by an unmistakable boss arena. Unlike other arenas in the game, and even some mild platforming sections, which have a satisfying verticality to them and let you attack from the high ground, the two boss encounters I experienced were kind of flat in both geometry and mechanical depth. Big lumbering bullet sponges haven’t really scored a pass mark for a while now, even if one of them is a rad looking T-Rex with a metal faceplate. So, I hope that perhaps the final game has a bit more variety in this regard.
Another key point of difference in Turok: Origins is the fact that you’re able to view the game in either first-person or third-person, which is an option for the first time in franchise history, having traditionally kept to first-person. While I so often fall into the camp that prefers that first-person vantage point, third-person is a much better fit for the game Origins is. It’s better for spatial awareness, and things like dodge rolls actually work. In first-person, they’re simplified to a static slide, perhaps in an effort not to disorient the player.
All in all, Turok: Origins is good, honest fun, and I expect it’ll make for a fun weekend when gamers are looking to take a break from all of the self-serious military shooters on the market. And after the Tomb Raider hands-on, I’m definitely in a position to declare the age of dinosaurs is back again. Through games like Turok, the burning passion of the nineties gets to live on, for better or worse.