Played from a first person perspective, the three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics and style of play combine elements of the run-and-gun computer game Doom with exploration mechanics of Tomb Raider. Players begin the game in a central hub level, which contains portals to seven other stages. The player must find keys scattered across the stages. When enough keys have been inserted into the lock mechanisms of a hub portal, that level is unlocked. Players explore the large, typically jungle-based levels by jumping, swimming, climbing, crawling, and running.
One of the player's main objectives is to find pieces of a relic known as the Chronoscepter; there is one piece on each level. In exploring the levels the player fights various enemies such as poachers, gunmen, indigenous warriors, dinosaurs, demons, and insects. Turok features 13 weapons plus the Chronoscepter, ranging from a knife and bow to high tech weaponry. All weapons except the knife require ammunition, which is dropped by dead enemies or picked up in the levels. Enemies and boss characters have multiple death animations depending on what body region the player shot. Because items dropped by fallen enemies rapidly disappear, players must engage foes from close range.
The player character's health is shown as a number at the bottom of the screen. When the player is at full health, the meter reads 100, while dropping to 0 subtracts one life. Gathering "life force" points scattered across the levels increases the player's life count by one for every 100 points accumulated. Players restore their health by picking up powerups, which can increase their health above full. Players may also gain health points by shooting deer or non-threatening wildlife.
Plot
The player assumes control of Tal'Set (Turok), an American Indian time-traveling warrior. The mantle of Turok is passed down every generation to the eldest male. Each Turok is charged with protecting the barrier between Earth and the Lost Land, a primitive world where time has no meaning. The Lost Land is inhabited by a variety of creatures, from dinosaurs to aliens. An evil overlord known as the Campaigner seeks an ancient artifact known as the Chronoscepter, a weapon so powerful that it was broken into pieces to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. The Campaigner plans on using a focusing array to magnify the Chronoscepter's power, destroying the barriers that separate the ages of time and rule the universe. Turok vows to find the Chronoscepter's eight pieces and prevent the Campaigner's schemes.
Reception
Turok was a critical and commercial success, earning rave reviews from video game magazines and becoming the most popular title for the Nintendo 64 in the months following its release. On the aggregate review web sites Metacritic and GameRankings, the console version of Turok has an 85% and 86.6% rating, respectively, each figure based on scores from thirteen contemporary and recent reviews.
Douglass Perry of the multimedia website IGN compared Turok favorably to other first person shooters, saying that the title distinguished itself by allowing a level of 3D movement not possible in other members of the genre. Scary Larry of GamePro, who gave Turok a perfect score in all four categories (control, funfactor, graphics, and sound), similarly said "Turok has more firepower, more control over its environment, and more gruesome graphics than other corridor shooters." While agreeing that the game offers greater freedom of movement, a Next Generation reviewer opined that first-person platforming does not work since the player cannot see their character. He found this strongly contrasted with the game's "top notch" shooting elements. The Australian's Steve Polak wrote that while Turok was highly derivative, the game was evidence of the evolution of the genre, offering more graphics and gameplay options. Video game magazine Edge said that Turok contradicted the prevailing notion at the time that only Nintendo could create superior games for the console. In contrast, William Burrill of The Toronto Star wrote that Turok offered nothing new if players had tried a first-person shooter before, and Next Generation Online said that its similar gameplay essentially made the game "a very pretty Duke Nukem". The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly remarked that while the graphics and animation are stunning, the controls and level design are lacking. Speaking to Shacknews in 2007, Propaganda Games's Josh Holmes said that while GoldenEye 007 is commonly considered the standard-setting console shooter, Turok pioneered the console shooter first by offering open environments and deviating from the corridor-based shooters that were the standard until then.
Reviewers found that Turok's controls generally worked well. Perry, Scary Larry, and Next Generation all noted that while many players would not initially like using the Nintendo 64's analog stick for weapon movement, they would become adept at the control scheme. The Electronic Gaming Monthly review team, however, said they wished the controls could be reconfigured to a scheme that was easier to master. Polak wrote that the joystick let players aim with a remarkable amount of precision. George Mannes of The Daily News found the controls to be easy to learn and simple to keep track of in comparison to PC shooters, but said the joystick control could be disorienting: "the only problem is when you look up in the air and make the slightest twitch to the left or the right, you can end up like a tourist staring up at the Empire State Building and whirling like a dervish," he wrote. Reviewers found that the game's included tutorial helped players adapt to the controls.
