/ 8 February 2008

Walking with dinosaurs

In a nutshell, Turok is a first-person shooter in which you have to shoot and slice your way across a planet teeming with dinosaurs and hostile humans. If this doesn’t excite you, then let me explain further: the dinosaurs don’t like you or your human enemies. One of the tips on the loading screens sums it up aptly, saying: “Dinosaurs eat meat. You are made of meat. Run.”

Many people are fans of the original Xbox version of Turok, but this is the first one in the series that I have played and, I must admit, I was sceptical at first. There are some things about this game that make it incredibly immersive and relatively scary, and which you can’t judge just by looking at the pre-release screen shots.

Walking across an open field of tall grass that comes up to your waist and hearing the birds suddenly go silent is a very unpleasant experience because you know something is hiding between the thick blades. In no other game is the grass so tall and realistic. Strategically it sometimes helps to wait before you launch attacks on human enemies because occasionally they will stumble upon a nest of hungry dinosaurs and get wiped out while you watch from the safety of a canyon wall. The scrunching sounds leave emotional scars.

Graphically the game is rich and colourful, mostly with shades of forest green when you’re not fighting your way through an enemy base, and the storyline is compelling enough for you to keep moving forward and wielding your weapons. You will have several very effective dino-mutilators at your disposal — a very handy and rather large hunting knife, machine guns, grenades, rifles and a bow that kills silently and very violently.

The 5.1 surround-sound system is a bit misleading at times but, on the whole, good enough to give you that real forest-filled-with-dinosaurs feeling, complete with flies buzzing around the previously living and water dripping from rocky overhangs.

The verdict

If you have a first-person shooter bloodlust and want to kill something other than terrorists, planes, tanks, helicopters, rebels, Nazis, zombies, aliens or demons, then Turok will sate your thirst. It is visually powerful and worryingly fun.

RATINGS AND DETAILS

Graphics: Excellent

Sound: Excellent

Gameplay: Good

Value: Good

Publisher: Touchstone

Age rating: 15+

Recommended retail price: R599

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC