Review: Turok Demo (PS3)

Finally, some hands-on time with the game saddled with bringing the Turok franchise back to...well as far away from Tobias Bruckner as possible. After playing through the demo a couple times i have to say, not only does this newest installment seem to be a significant step up from (D)Evolution, but it's pretty damn good.
Starting the demo in a "labyrinthine cave system" may not have been the best move, as it's easy to get turned around and it's a little too dark for a game that doesn't offer a flashlight. While this is a rather discouraging way to start out, play on and it will be worth it. It won't be long before you and your pal Slade (voiced by "Hellboy" Ron Perlman, bonus!) come across some raptors and the fighting begins. While some elements of the environment are somewhat blocky, the character and enemy (especially dinosaur) models are quite pretty, if a little too shiny; this may be as close to getting in Jurassic Park as you're going to get for awhile. Not all the dinosaurs are enemies either, i came across two types that were content to wonder around and simply ignore me and my squadmates, it added to the "you are in dinosaurland" feel, but i still prefer the ones i get to fight. Speaking of fighting, i feel like i should mention the weapon/inventory setup. You can only carry two weapons and are capable of double wielding similar to Halo, however, in my opinion, Turok does it better. To explain further, you can choose to carry either one of your two weapons or dual wield them, the tradeoff with dual-weilding being that you can't toss grenades or zoom. You can even choose which weapon goes in which hand, a nice touch for players that may prefer to fire their primary weapon with their left hand, or just like to have options. Besides your two weapons, you have a knife (more on that in a second) and a bow, both handy for stealthy kills. Through the course of the demo i came across a sub-machine gun, shotgun (with flare gun alt fire) and a pulse rifle, all of which i found quite fun to mow through enemies with.
Now for the knife. The knife is fun, pure and simple. It's fun to run at a raptor, knife it right through the top of the skull and kick it's corpse aside, it's fun to sneak through tall grass behind a guy then jump up and take him out with the knife, it's just fun. And when it comes to killing, one thing Turok offers you as far as death dealing is options. It was fun to come upon a clearing of guys you're supposed to take out "quietly" and deciding if that means you're going to sneak around and take them all down with your knife, drop them from afar with your bow or firing a flare into the middle of them and letting the troops fight it out with the pack of raptors that draws. Of course that last one requires you to listen for the grunts of some dinos just out of sight right near the enemy patrol. I had a blasty blast going back and doing that section each of the various ways.
As far as story goes, they don't offer up much of anything new in the demo. You're still crashed on a planet that is, for some reason, full of dinosaurs as well as an enemy platoon of soldiers. You're name is still Turok and it's still your job to kill both of these groups...or letting them destroy each other (sigh, choices). By the end of the demo, however, i got the feeling that your squadmates don't like you very much, but maybe that's just me. And if you're wondering how helpful your fellow dinosaur killers are, the answer is very. In one particular scenario Slade fought alongside me with a shotgun while our friend with the sniper rifle (can't recall his name at the moment) picked guys off from the high ground. At one point i had even been tackled too the ground by a raptor and as he came in to try and eat my head (a fun little mini-game of it's own) Slade blasted him of with his shotgun, nice. The enemy's AI seems decent enough, they took cover, dodged around while shooting back, and made some attempts to flank, so i'll take it. Back to the story, the only other tidbit i was offered was something about main man Joseph Turok's training (with some mention of the Blackfoot tribe of Native Americans, a shoutout to the source material it seems) and how he got his scar. This sequence mostly had me going "huh?" but i'm sure/i hope it'll make sense in the full game.
That said, i did have a few issues with Turok. One, as i mentioned earlier, it can be easy to get turned lose your way. The opening sequence in the cave and some suprising dead-ends in the jungle were the worst, but i did manage to finish the demo, so i guess it's not too bad. Second was the damage system. I find it a little odd that i can take 4 or 5 tackles from a velociraptor and soldier on, but it only takes a handful of bullets to kill me. Psh, whatever, it least it's a progressive healing system rather than being on the search for med-packs. I had one other issue with the damage system, and that's how prominent the red "damage ring" around the screen is. After being knocked to the ground by a dino, i often found it hard to shoot back as i couldn't see past the red haze covering my screen, i understand that it's showing how damaged i am, but if i'm close to death while my attacker's still there, it'd be nice to be able to see them. My final issue with the game is somewhat of a nitpick and i'm sure won't be as prominent after adjusting to the game, but it was still annoying. Your weapons don't have any kind of counter as to how full the current clip is (there is a HUD indicator for total ammo). Each gun does have a SMALL light that blinks yellow when running low and red when empty, but the colors tend to blend in to the look of the weapon and can leave you empty without realizing it. The pulse-rifle was the only weapon not hampered by this issue. I understand that this method keeps the screen much clearer, but it can really screw you over in heated shootouts.

And that's it, here's to hoping the rest of the game keeps up the quality of the demo. In the same sentiment i say: Turok is back!