The Turok games have been with us for a while now, and whilst the franchise started well, it has gotten worse over the years, now however Acclaim have moved over, leaving Touchstone with the rights to the game and they hope that their approach will bring back the fans.

Turok has returned, the muscled American Indian is ready to kick ass, this time sporting a Mr T style mohican. A space marine squad has been tasked with capturing and bringing back to earth a terrorist on a far-flung planet. Turok has joined the team as he has some background history with the terrorist cell, however following an unexpected attack, the space marines and Turok end up fighting for their lives while trying to get off the dinosaur-infested planet.

The opening scenes of the game really sets the game up well, the character animation is spot on, though the lip syncing is a bit ropey, the overall feel of the other characters is really good, there are a few really impressive voice actors in this game including the unmistakable voice of Ron Perlman, who seems to have appeared on every big game recently. Once arriving on the planet, you are treated to some amazing environments. The forest sections are spectacular, the light bursts through the canopy, mist hangs in the air, and the grass moves in the breeze. The trees groan in the wind and you will hear the distant calls of animals and predators. Even better is that the grass will move underfoot, bouncing back as you pass over it, this makes for some awesome sneak attacks when crawling through the long grass. You also have volcanic cavern areas, again, made real by the excellent lighting from the lava and a lack of natural light. There are also a few man made corridor sections, and whilst not as breathtaking as the other areas, mainly black and greys, they serve their purpose.

Now this would not be a Turok game without dinosaurs, and this game is full of them, from little guys that run in packs, raptors, flying bugs and a few T-Rex’es to handle, you are never short of a dinosaur to slay. The dinosaurs look amazing, their skin and movement is as good as Jurassic Park, and some of the little rascals are really nasty. We all know the T-Rex and raptors are killing machines, but some of the other dinos are even worse, one 4 legged, lizard looking dino attacks from everywhere, it hides in the trees, jumps from walls, uses the long grass as cover, trust me, even on easy there will be a few times you will be killed, but thankfully the checkpoint system will return you to the beginning of the most recent piece of action.  As well as dinos there are also the terrorists called Wolfpack to take down. These guys are all in black so blend with the shadows of the jungle well. Whilst initially just cannon fodder for Turok and his marines, they do seem to get smarter, to the point where they will charge you, and also out flank you in some fire fights.

To help you dispose of the enemies you are given a simple but effective selection of weapons, early on you are given a combat knife as well as a bow and arrow. The combat knife allows for some sneak attacks by stalking a dino or Wolfpack member and then pulling the RT when in range to pull of a special finishing move. The bow also allows for long-range stealth attacks, however later you are able to pick up Tek arrows that explode on contact. On top of you standard weapons you can also hold up to two other weapons, with the ability to dual wield in some instances. The pulse rifle is one of my favourites, the shotgun has a rapid fire and also fires flares, here you can tag an enemy and watch as the dinos rip him to shreds. Other weapons include an RPG and the excellent flamethrower, which looks superb when in action.

So all is good for the new Turok, and to be honest, there are no real bad points, Ok the difficulty on a few sections is ridiculous but that’s the only real problem, what Touchstone have done here is taken away all of the franchises history and started again with the basics, a man with a bow and knife who kills dinos. A very simplistic approach, and whilst brave in the days of FPS with upgrades and other gimmicks, it presents us with a really good, solid FPS blaster.