During The Game Awards 2024, Saber Interactive and Universal announcedTurok: Origins,a brand-new entry in the legendary first-person shooter franchise about strong warriors who fight powerful dinosaurs.
Turok: Originsdoes look very fun and promising so far: The character designs are solid, the dinosaurs (and other prehistoric creatures) look threatening, and there’s a brilliant new gimmick centered on absorbing the dinosaur’s DNA to use their own abilities,as confirmed by Saber Interactive in the game’s official Steam page. Everything looked pretty good, but how it’ll go down is anyone’s guess after looking at the footage.
Weirdly enough,Turok: Originsis a third-person shooter instead of a first-person shooter like every previous game in the series. On top of that, this is not going to be a traditional single player adventure, but rather a multiplayer co-op game where players can team up to fight hordes of enemies. Fan reaction to this announcement has been quite divisive so far,with many claiming thatthis is not exactly what they wanted,although others remain optimisticthatTurok: Originshas the potential to be quite fun. If anything, most of them are glad that the series is finally back.
The Turok series really needed a proper comeback
Turokis a really fun and unique franchise about fighting dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, and it used to be one of the staples of the FPS genre, especially during the 90s. The original trilogy is made up ofDinosaur Hunter,Seeds of EvilandShadow of Oblivion, amazing first-person shootersthat fortunately are now available on modern consoles.
But theTurokIP slowly died down during the beginning of the millennium, and the divisive reception of 2003’sTurok Evolutioncertainly didn’t help. To make things even worse, in 2008, Propaganda Games and Disney Interactive Studios released a reboot that had nothing to do with the previous games, simply titledTurok. This reboot also received mixed to negative reviews, and it’s single-handedly responsible for killing the franchise for a very long time.
TheTurokIP kept appearing here and there during the late 2010s and early 2020s, with the occasional spin-off,like the now delistedEscape from the Lost Valleyor the aforementioned remasters of the original trilogy, but it was never the same. Until now, because Universal Studios Interactive Entertainment owns the rights to the franchise, and they collaborated with Saber Interactive in order to create this fascinating new co-op experience. There are reasons to remain skeptic but, regardless of how good or badTurok: Originsturns out to be, it’s great that a franchise as iconic as this one is finally back from the dead.
