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Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

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Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
North American box art.
Developer(s)Iguana Entertainment
Publisher(s)Acclaim Entertainment
Designer(s)David Dienstbier
Platform(s)Nintendo 64, Windows
ReleaseNA February 28, 1997
EU March 1, 1997
JP May 30, 1997
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single player

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a first-person shooter video game released for the Nintendo 64 game console and later for Microsoft Windows.[1] It was released in 1997, and is based on the Acclaim Comics comic book series of the same name.[2]

In Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the player controls the Native American Tal' Set, referred to as "Turok". He must stop an evil cyborg, "The Campaigner", from conquering the Lost Land and possibly the universe.[2] The reception of Dinosaur Hunter was generally positive, with a score of 87% on Game Rankings,[3] and the gaming magazine Edge referred to it as "second to none."[4]

Gameplay

File:Turokscreen2.jpg
The game contains many types of difficult jumping platforms, such as these pillars.

As a first-person shooter, the player in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is armed with a vast array of weaponry to take on various enemies, such as soldiers, demons, dinosaurs, aliens, and large insects.[2] Each level contains keys which must be collected in order to access the next world, linked by a hub.[2] The game features a large number of platforming and adventure elements, with many types of walls, cliffs, and underwater caverns to be explored. Besides obtaining ammunition, the player can acquire extra lives by collecting floating runes, scattered across the levels.[2] Lastly, the player can obtain pieces of the Chronoscepter, the game's most powerful weapon, to be used against the final boss.[2]

The game's weapons, and those of later installments in the franchise have received much attention, as IGN noted that "It's as if a military professional was hired to have himself a big wet dream".[5] Types of weapons include the traditional bow and arrow and knife, while upgrading to an auto shotgun, minigun, a four-chambered rocket launcher, the nuclear-powered Fusion Cannon, and finally the Chronoscepter, a weapon that shoots a blue laser and creates "micro-tears in the fabric of space time".[2] The Fusion Cannon and Chronoscepter create blinding flashes of light on-screen, and can be harmful to the player through their splash damage.

Plot

Template:Spoilers The game's setting takes place in the Lost Land, a primitive world inhabited by dinosaurs and other creatures. According to the game's instruction manual, Turok is a time-travelling warrior who ends up in the Lost Land.[2] The Campaigner is trying to gain the Chronoscepter weapon, and by using a focusing array to magnify the Chronoscepter's power, he plans to destroy the barriers that separate the ages of time and rule the universe.[2] Turok then vows to find the Chronoscepter himself, and sets off to put an end to his scheme. After battling through various areas of the Lost Land, including catacombs, a treetop village, a ruined city, and defeating bosses such as a fire-breathing Tyrannosaurus, Turok ends up at The Campaigner's fortress, where he defeats him in single combat.

An interesting note about the storyline is that it is nearly non-existent out of the instruction manual, as there is no in-game dialogue and the player is only given the task of finding keys to open new areas in the opening cut scene, and not given the backstory.[6]

Development

Production of Dinosaur Hunter commenced in 1995, and while loosely based off the comic book, the developers, Iguana Entertainment, made the game much more action-oriented.[7] An early idea during development was for it to be in a third-person perspective, similar to Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider, but was decided against in order to keep the player immersed in the game's world.[7] Game producer and designer David Dienstbier stated that the Nintendo 64 was used due to its superior processing capabilities compared to the personal computers available at the time, and to showcase the console's graphical abilities, although it was later ported to the Windows platform.[7]

Originally slated for a holiday 1996 release, the game was delayed to 1997 in order to keep the quality high, and according to Nintendo, to "add more depth to the gameplay."[8] Even before it was made available to purchase, Acclaim announced that a sequel, tentatively titled Turok: Dinosaur Hunter 2, was to be released later that same year.[9]

Reception

File:Turokscreen1.JPG
Turok's distance fog keeps visibility to a small radius around the player. In this screenshot, a velociraptor approaches while the player takes aim.

Worldwide sales of Dinosaur Hunter surpassed USD$60 million in late June of 1997.[10] The game also held the top spot for video game rentals for seven weeks consecutively.[10]

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was well received at the time of its release, garnering an 85 out of possible 100 on Metacritic, or "Generally favorable".[11] Doug Perry of the multimedia website IGN awarded the game an 8.6 out of a possible 10. He said the game "stands on the shoulders of all previous Doom games", and the gameplay takes the title to places "Doom's never been".[5] As the website GameSpot noted, the game "mimics a hunting safari" and like IGN, adds that it is "more than just another Doom clone."[12]

Distance fog was used to keep the game's frame rate high. As GameSpot said, "enemies beam to your location in a Star Trek fashion", but that the fog is a "neat effect" as enemies would appear out of the mist "fangs first".[12] However, IGN commented that the player cannot look into the distance and rely upon the game's map to do so, although that this was a small exception to the graphical abilities.[5] Edge expressed that Iguana used "every special effect imaginable" when it created the environments, and awarded a 9 out of 10 score.[4] Edge also said that the game contradicts the notion at the time that Nintendo could only create superior titles for the console.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter". IGN. Retrieved 2006-11-01.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Iguana Entertainment, ed. (1997). Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Instruction Booklet. pp. 3, 4, 19, 17, 18, 14, 4.
  3. ^ "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  4. ^ a b c Edge, ed. (1997). Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Future Publishing. pp. 76–78.
  5. ^ a b c Doug Perry (1997). "IGN: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Review". IGN. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  6. ^ Locate the hub ruins. Use the keys to open level portals. (Turok: Dinosaur Hunter)
  7. ^ a b c IGN Staff (1997). "Interview with the Creator of Turok". IGN. Retrieved 2006-11-01.
  8. ^ IGN Staff (1996). "Turok Delayed Until January". IGN. Retrieved 2006-11-03.
  9. ^ IGN Staff (1997). "Turok 2 Confirmed for 1997". IGN. Retrieved 2006-11-03.
  10. ^ a b "Acclaim Entertainment And Golden Books Family Entertainment Announce Licensing Agreement With Playmates Toys Inc. To Produce Turok Toys". Business Wire. 1997. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
  11. ^ "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (n64: 1997): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
  12. ^ a b Jeff Gerstmann (1997). "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for Nintendo 64 Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
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