Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64) - Real Person Reviews

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Sam Lilly

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Published on July 6, 2016 9:01:49 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZIV5eoTVYw

Game:

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1997)

Category:

Review

Duration: 21:42

85 views

4

There's a reason they went extinct.
Written review: https://hubworldhq.com/2016/07/06/turok-dinosaur-hunter/
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Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a first-person shooter for the Nintendo 64. It’d make sense to start with the plot here, but unfortunately I do not have the manual nor am I familiar with the comics. So while I’m sure there’s some type of story to explain what’s going on, the game itself offers no explanation. Then again, it’s not a big deal because this is a more classically styled first-person shooter. All you have to really know is that you get guns, you shoot down enemies, and you get through the levels. It’s some pretty basic stuff set in a prehistoric themed world.

The gameplay is fairly standard. You run around levels picking up items such as guns and ammo. You use your weapons to gun down enemies, which include an increasing variety of types. There are the human soldiers that brandish all kinds of weapons, gigantic primordial insects just begging to be exterminated, and of course a selection of the titular prey that can either stay out of your way or say hello to extinction. As is normal for these older FPS games, you can carry an arsenal of weapons which will grow as you explore deeper into the large levels. You can get health pickups that heal you, but certain ones will allow you to actually exceed your standard health amount up to a higher cap. Defeated enemies tend to drop ammo and/or health and will sometimes respawn to offer a chance at more. There are also sacred triangles littered throughout the areas that will net you extra lives for every 100 collected. If you fall into a bottomless pit or run out of health you will die and respawn at your last checkpoint with one less life. You can obtain a backpack which will allow your maximum ammo capacity to increase, but it will be lost upon death, just like your extra health. As the levels are quite large, there are save points within the levels where you can save your progress. There are also many secrets to be found, often rewarding you with more weapons, ammo, health, and triangles. Sometimes mysterious portals will pop up out of nowhere briefly before disappearing again. Entering one in time will bring you to a challenge stage, usually requiring precise timing and platforming to get through. These courses tend to have some goodies throughout and something nice waiting at the end if you can make it. The portals at the start and end of these stages can be used to exit back where you left off. The main goal is to look for all of the keys hidden in each level in order to unlock subsequent levels, so exploration is important. You may even find pieces to your ultimate weapon, which can only be used if you find them all. You can do the levels in any order provided you have the keys to access them. Some levels will end with boss battles as well, all leading up to the final level and the final big boss fight.

Overall, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a nice, adventurous FPS for the N64. It does some cool things to mix up the usual pace of first-person shooters by making you explore your environments and giving you large levels to traverse, making it feel a bit more like an adventure than just running from unrelated level to unrelated level. It’s a bit on the clunky side, but if you like N64 games then you should be able to easily get past it and enjoy a pretty fun experience. I’d recommend it if you can find it for 20 bucks or less. Plus, like I said before, there are dinosaurs with guns in it. Why did I need to keep writing after that? So if you’re interested then go find a copy and proclaim your name as you gun down the dinos into extinction. I wonder what the remaster is like… hmm…

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