Turok Review (Xbox 360)

So, shooting dinosaurs sounds like your kind of thing? Turok may just have something for you. In this lovely dinosaur killing spree, you are (interestingly enough) a man named Turok. As you are flying along in space with your fellow marines your ship becomes damaged and you and your crew are forced to crash land on an unknown planet. As you quickly find out, the planet is populated with insanely realistic dinosaurs. This is where your journey begins.

The moment your step from your ship you are on your way to search for survivors of the crash, and look for more ship wreckage. The dinosaurs lurking in the shadows around you have no plans of your success unfortunately. The dinos you fight are tough, and can pack quite a punch once you start fighting tough ones like the Dilophosaurus and T-rex. Sure, you only fight the T-rex twice, but he is a great force to be reckoned with. Other dinosaurs range from velocaraptors to Stalkers, which are dog-like creatures that climb trees and run really fast.

There are a few factors that bothered me with Turok. The story in the game is rather bland. It feels as if the developers just kind of wrote the story as they went, and just doesn't get as good as it should have. This is unfortunate because the voice acting is pretty good, and gets the feelings of the characters across well. You will find that dinosaurs aren't the only thing you fight as you progress. There is also an army of soldiers fighting against you that have decently smart AI. They can at times prove to be quite a challenge and quite fun to hunt with the combat knife.

The controls in the game also are a bit difficult to get used to. Yes, they are about the same as any other shooter on the market, but Turok moves so fast that aiming can be a bit tedious at times. I found myself irritated at missing good head shots because my character wouldn't move more precisely. The game has ways to turn down the sensitivity of your movements, but I never really saw much of a difference. It takes getting used to, but gets easier as you go.

The graphics in this game really deserve some compliments. The dense forests are very well detailed and have some-what spooky feeling as you progress through them. It really does make you feel like you're exploring a lost world filled with ravenous creatures. You also get to explore some cave environments too, which are outright nerve-wrecking at times. They make you feel very congested in the tight spaces they put you in, with eerie lighting all around you. The dinosaurs are well-detailed too. Even as you get close up to them the textures remain very grainy and realistic.

Overall, Turok needs work on it's story elements and some gameplay improvements, but it makes a truly great dinosaur killing experience that you should at least rent to see for yourself.

Score: 7/10