game review: Turok (Xbox 360)

In Turok, players are encouraged to create "meat fountains." When you shoot a large dinosaur with a rocket or bomb, it explodes into a couple of big, gory pieces. These chunks fly high in the air before landing on the ground with a wet, heavy thud. If you approach the carnage for a closer look, you'll notice that the bloody slabs are still discernible. Think: 'Hey, the raptor's leg is over here! And there's part of its face!' What, ultimately, do meat fountains add to Turok, beyond shock value and visceral thrills? Well, nothing. But perhaps that's a stupid question.

Turok puts you in the role of the title character, who first appeared in comic books as early as the 1950s and arrived on video game consoles in 1997 with Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the Nintendo 64. Turok is a Native American, and like so many of his brethren, he sports a Mohawk, loves the rugged outdoors, and is mean with a bow and arrow (he's also comfortable with flamethrowers and plasma rifles). The game's story follows Turok and a band of intergalactic commandos who have been sent to a remote planet to capture an escaped war criminal. Upon entering the atmosphere, their ship is shot down and they find that the jungle planet is crawling with hostile soldiers and genetically engineered dinosaurs. Turok must slay everything in sight in order to survive. There's a little more to it (a very little), but that's the basis for this action packed first-person shooter.


Frequent and beautifully animated cut sequences give the game a cinematic quality and advance the plot. They depict Turok and the other camouflaged testosterone freaks in-fighting and shouting taunts like "Why don't you grow a pair!" These videos don't slow down the action, but act as quick, welcome transitions between the various stages and objectives. And while in some games there's a jarring disconnect between story clips and playable action, Turok blends the two almost seamlessly, due to its uniform, excellent graphics. The lush jungle, the explosions, and of course, the dinosaurs, all look great. It makes one wish there was more innovation and variation in the character and level designs; the enemy soldiers all look identical, and the settings--a cave, a futuristic military bunker--while very pretty, are all things you've seen rendered in 3D before.

The action is typical of a first-person shooter. You choose from an assortment of weapons (a balanced array, but, unfortunately, the guns aren't quite as ridiculous as in previous installments), and have to determine which ones are most effective in a given circumstance. Similarly, you're forced to weigh your strategy depending on the number of enemies and their positioning: occasionally you use stealth to sneak up on your prey, while other times you duck behind cover and pop up to shoot during a pause in enemy fire; and when in doubt, you can always just run in with guns blazing. The enemy A.I. for the soldiers (not so much the dinosaurs) is very high--they, too, can judge when to hide and when to take their shots, and this makes for a more challenging, enjoyable experience.


Turok lands in a crowded field of first-person shooters, and lacks the depth and fine-tuning of premiere titles like Bioshock, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. There's really not much going on here beyond running around shooting guys and knifing dinosaurs with a massive blade; the game forgoes even the most rudimentary puzzles in favor of non-stop action. And sometimes that's enough. Turok is a fun, mindless action game with great graphics, solid controls, and buckets of gore. Where else can you find a meat fountain?