With the decline of the arcades in the late 90s, Acclaim was in a bit of trouble, as much of their business during that decade was centred on delivering home ports of popular arcade titles. Salvation came in the form of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the Nintendo 64 in early 1997. The game (which was based on a relatively obscure comic license) hit in the middle of one of the console's infamous software droughts, and its impressive graphics and non-stop dino-blasting action proved to be immensely popular. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil followed in December 1998, well and truly outselling its predecessor and receiving much critical acclaim for its amazing graphics and solid multiplayer mode (though many of those reviewers now claim they do not like the game despite the scores it received).

Things began to fall apart for the Turok franchise after the second game. Many key staff left Acclaim to form Retro Studios (later bought by Nintendo). A multiplayer-centric title, Turok: Rage Wars, was released for the 1999 holiday season, but received mixed reviews and failed to match the success of its predecessors. Turok 3: Shadows of Oblivion was released late in the Nintendo 64's life, and bombed hard at retail despite a more positive critical response. Turok: Evolution for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube proved to be the nail in the coffin for the series. It was reflective of a distinct departure of quality in everything that Acclaim had developed since about 1999, and tends to be remembered more for its absurd "Name your kid Turok" campaign than for its horrendously glitchy, uninspired gameplay.

Many believed that Turok would die with Acclaim when the company sank in 2004, but Disney saved the franchise from the abyss. They handed development duties to their new Propaganda Games studio, made up of ex-EA employees, who set out to distance their game from the previous ones. It's Turok in name only; but had they been honest and called it "Yet another UE 3.0 shooter with bald, gruff space marines – but this one has dinosaurs", nobody would buy the thing.

Joseph Turok, a distant relative of the original Tal'Set, has just joined up with an army unit called Whiskey Company, having defected from a mercenary group called Wolf Pack. It just so happens that Whiskey Company is sent on a mission to take out Turok's one time mentor and Wolf Pack leader Roland Kane. Of course, Whiskey Company is suspect of Turok's involvement with Wolf Pack, especially given his recent defection. The most distrusting soldier is Slade (voiced by Ron Perlman in another "it's the guy I played in Blade II but slightly different" phoned in performance), whose brother fought alongside Turok in Wolf Pack, but was killed when Kane went crazy. Being a first person shooter, story is about as vital to the experience as Brendan Nelson is to the Australian Liberal Party, but that doesn't mean they don't try to force it down your throat with all sorts of touching flashback sequences such as Kane teaching Turok knife techniques, or Turok reacting to Kane shooting innocents.

After a heavily scripted introductory scene, Turok finds himself planetside. Minutes into the experience, you realize that this iteration of Turok actually offers nothing new or vital to the first person shooter genre, but is just another run through the same old stuff. Well, except with dinosaurs, a bow and a knife. Despite using the Unreal 3.0 engine, Turok's visuals are actually behind the 8-ball. The game has a certain muckiness at times, yet can also look very sterile despite its dense jungle locale. The character design revolves around your typical steroid laden space marine crap, though certain designs, such as the spider tank, are actually pretty cool. Levels are extremely linear, never really offering more than a single path, nor do they ever offer any sort of exciting twists and turns. The frame rate gets bogged down consistently, particularly during the scenes in the rain. Turok's sound is also surprisingly lacking for a next gen game – weapons often sound weak, and most of the dinosaurs don't sound particularly threatening. B-List Hollywood talent such as Ron Perlman and Donnie Wahlberg (Ed: You callin' New Kids on the Block B-list?) provide some voice work for Whiskey Company, but it's nothing more than the usual gruff space marine crap.

Turok's gameplay is majorly burdened by extremely loose gun control; it's almost impossible to play with guns effectively without turning the sensitivity down to its lowest levels. Once you've got the weapons under control, you'll quickly discover that most of them are just standard FPS fare, though the rocket launcher does have some pretty cool effects. Fortunately, the game doesn't require you to rely on firearms, offering alternatives in Turok's bow and knife. Using the knife is actually quite lethal due to its one hit kills, though the resulting cutscene does leave players exposed to gunfire from the opposition. The bow is effective in most situations, provided an arrow can be released at full speed, which will result in a one hit kill, and if positioned correctly, will stick your opponent to an object. Tek arrows offers up a degree of explosive fun though are limited in quantity.

Whiskey Company has two main adversaries: Wolf Pack soldiers and dinosaurs. Soldiers come pretty thick and fast, and are actually pretty clever by today's first-person shooter standards. Variety of human enemies is a little limited, but one tends not to worry about that when they're being fired upon. Most dinosaurs are neutral, but are rather territorial and retaliate to any violence in the nearby vicinity. Usually this results in them trying to chomp on your head (which you can fight off with some button mashing), but a carefully aimed flare or some clever dodging can turn a dinosaur into your temporary ally. There are occasional moments where you'll be roaming around the thick jungle and be caught off-guard by a huge, carnivorous dinosaur. The game also packs in a number of boss fights; most of them are pretty cool, but the final battle can be particularly infuriating.

Anyone with a smidgen of skill should blast through Turok's single player game in a day. The development team put a lot of emphasis into the multiplayer side of things, as evidenced by the achievement system (two-thirds of which are attributed to multiplayer). Unfortunately, that means servers are filled with people playing to get the achievements, rather than playing seriously. At the time of playtesting, the multiplayer infrastructure was a little lacking, as it usually took about 10 minutes before we found a game with a decent number of people. A pretty standard selection of multiplayer modes are on offer – Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, WarGames and Assault Capture the Flag, but the game also throws the dinosaurs into the middle of the action to mix things up. A co-operative mode is also available for four players. The game's latency is generally good, but you'll certainly feel it when it's not. The issues with gunplay from the single player side of the game also weigh in heavily in multiplayer – I had a great degree more success playing with only the knife.


Overall, Turok fails to offer a compelling experience. The story stinks like a pile of dino droppings, most of the gunplay is broken at the basic level, and the multiplayer just doesn't compare to other titles out there. There are occasional cool moments, but you have to wade through knee-deep tedium in order to experience them. It's a rental for the curious, but everyone else would be best to steer clear.