And, thankfully, the gameplay of the
Turok series has survived intact. If anything, it’s improved, and although the setting of the game strays somewhat from the original
Turok formula, it eventually wends its way back to its roots and is damn fun besides.
You take the role of either Danielle or Joseph, out to save the world from Oblivion. Ho hum. These aren’t games you play for their intricate plot, are they? Along the way, you’ll be world-jumping a few times, starting out in an urban setting and ending up... well, where do you expect? And you’ll be blasting baddies and completing objectives the whole way through.
Some definite improvements have been made to the Turok experience. For one, the objectives that you have are usually very clear-cut. None of that wandering around for 45 minutes looking for the ‘magic trigger’ here. The levels are still massive, but now they have a clear-cut flow to them, something that was lacking in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. And the variety of settings is definitely a plus. It’s enjoyable running and gunning in a near-future town.
Of course, some of the old Turok problems come back to haunt Turok 3. The framerate is still inconsistent, choppy at times to the point where you’ll want to throw your controller down in frustration. It’s never impossible to manage, though, and you’ll get through the clunky bits quickly enough. Climbing things still irritates the hell out of me, and I got stuck a few times at the top of ladders. And there are a few graphical glitches -- once, while standing in the rain outside, I ran back into a building to get ammo... and the rain followed me. Bizarre.
But the good stuff is there too. There are tons of weapons, and Danielle’s grappling hook-esque implement is damned cool. Joseph’s see-in-the-dark gear is cool too, to a lesser extent. There are scads of weapons, scads of enemies, scads of everything, really. Sure, it’s not really original any more, but it’s certainly enjoyable.
Speaking of which, Turok 3 has a rather nice multiplayer system. Up to four people can play, and bots can replace those who aren’t available. There are a multitude of game options available, from standard Deathmat... er, Bloodlust, to the somewhat more inventive Color Tag, and the always-enjoyable Capture the Flag. The levels were a little tighter than I particularly like them, but there are enough of them to keep you coming back for more. The multiplayer is eminently configurable, and chances are you won’t be tiring of it for a while.