Nightdive Studios finishes the struggle.
It’s been some time, hasn’t it? Nightdive Studios impressed me in 2019 with their remasters of N64 classics Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and its follow-up, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, however I questioned whether or not they’d ever get round to the collection’ threequel, Shadow of Oblivion. This was a late launch for the N64, hitting the system in September of 2000, roughly a 12 months earlier than the launch of the GameCube, and lengthy after assist for the N64 had in any other case dried up. I used to be stunned to find that I had no reminiscence of the sport, which suggests I by no means performed it. Shadow of Oblivion is a really completely different Turok recreation in each construction and gameplay that feels wholly disconnected from the primary two. It’s an fascinating, if largely underwhelming, finale.
The sport opens with Joshua Fireseed, the protagonist of Turok 2, being attacked and killed (spoilers?) by Flesh Eaters, which had been comparatively minor enemies in that recreation. His siblings, Joseph and Danielle, are transported away by a radically redesigned Adon (bear in mind her?) and instructed that certainly one of them should inherit the mantle of “Turok” and destroy the Flesh Eaters’ chief, Oblivion, who rose to energy after Joshua killed the Primagen within the final recreation. Or one thing. The sport’s plot invokes lore that gamers would haven’t any data of. Perhaps it is revealed within the short-lived Acclaim comics? Good luck discovering these.
The primary method that Shadow of Oblivion differentiates itself from its predecessors is that you may select which character to play as. Each have distinctive skills: Joseph can match into small areas, use a sniper rifle, and has night-vision goggles. Danielle can use completely different however essentially related weapons, jumps (barely) greater, and is provided with an energy-based hookshot from Zelda. You’d suppose that their campaigns can be radically completely different, however sadly that’s not the case. 90% of their traversals via any given stage is an identical, with extraordinarily underdeveloped sequences which can be distinctive to every sibling.
The extent design can be the place Turok 3 adjustments issues up. You’ll recall that I used to be impressed by the extraordinarily giant, open, and intuitive maps of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, however much less inclined in the direction of the extra restrictive hall taking pictures of Turok 2, particularly because it made many ranges frustratingly maze-like. Turok 3 shies away from each approaches, as a substitute giving us a directed path via every stage, exploration be damned. I didn’t particularly take pleasure in this strategy, as I used to be continuously being compelled ahead with little means to journey outdoors the confines of the predetermined path. There’s no strategy to journey again to earlier ranges both, so in the event you missed a gun, tremendous weapon element, or life drive tokens in any given stage, you’re out of luck.
You will typically be given “missions,” which often quantity to discovering keys or urgent switches, generally with a ticking time restrict. However these missions are solely in service of constant to maneuver ahead in a given stage. None of them are non-compulsory. One “mission” asks you to search out fuses for a generator, however you need to try this anyway if you wish to get via a particular space. An early mission asks you to cease the self-destruct sequence of a navy base that you simply’re in (for some cause), but it surely’s additionally the one strategy to activate the elevator to the subsequent a part of the extent. The missions could exist to provide the participant a objective, or obscure course to go in, however as small as these areas are, you don’t actually need them. You simply don’t have a variety of choices; there’s no strategy to get misplaced.
At the very least every stage is simple to navigate, which is a leg up on Turok 2, however in addition they really feel type of soulless. There are boss fights, however all are virtually insultingly straightforward; strafing round an space whereas pumping shotgun buckshot into the boss often wins the day. Even Oblivion itself, which seems to be extraordinarily goofy and under no circumstances threatening, could be simply toppled with out dropping any well being. The one actually tough struggle is the ultimate boss, who wields a weapon that damages you continuously, however–and that is key–extra slowly than your weapons harm him. In comparison with the gargantuan, alien bosses of Turok 2 and the fire-breathing, cybernetic Tyrannosaurus in Turok 1, the Massive Bads in Shadow of Oblivion barely register.
Turok 3 can be far, far faraway from its prehistoric origins. This began in Turok 2, in fact, the place dinosaurs had been largely changed with “dinosoids,” or highly-evolved dinosaur individuals. Right here, the one vestiges of the Dinosauria are the occasional raptors, hopping compsognathids, and “Fireborn” dinosauroids, all refugees from Seeds of Evil. Aside from one nostalgic journey via a small portion of the primary stage from Dinosaur Hunter, Joseph and Danielle are exploring sci-fi settings: a locked-down metropolis, conspiracy-laden navy base, mutant-filled industrial plant, and a mining facility run by Flesh Eaters, the aim of which isn’t made clear.
In all, Turok 3 feels much less like an evolution of Turok 2 and extra like a generic, budget-conscious, sci-fi shooter. Even Adon, Joshua’s liason in Seeds of Evil, will get a shiny new sci-fi costume right here in addition to a robotic “Council of Voices” to converse with throughout cutscenes, hinting at Turok lore that will tragically by no means be fleshed out–together with an intriguing cliffhanger which means that Adon herself would have taken on a bigger function in some future story.
I ought to observe right here that I encountered a few glitches throughout play that affected ahead momentum. The boss of the lava space, the Alpha Fireborn, didn’t get caught atop his cooled lava lake once I activated the lava-cooling impact, which primarily meant he by no means misplaced well being. Restarting from the checkpoint did not repair it–I needed to restart the chapter, which means your complete stage. Fortunately, it labored the second time I reached his lair. Moreover, the primary stage seems to have a glitch that I initially thought prevented Danielle from progressing in any respect. Within the N64 recreation, she will climb up some rebar to a better flooring in a collapsed constructing. Right here, that rebar doesn’t seem. Nonetheless, there’s a grapple level on the opposite facet of the constructing that’s arduous to see (lookup, method up, above the present rebar). I don’t know whether or not this grapple level was there on the N64 initially, however the Danielle-specific rebar certain isn’t. However as soon as that impediment was overcome, Danielle was in a position to progress with out a hitch. Her grapple factors are sometimes arduous to identify.
Shadow of Oblivion Remastered additionally lacks the strong multiplayer of the N64 recreation. Word that the Seeds of Evil remaster didn’t have multiplayer accessible at launch, both, however was later patched in. There’s no phrase but on whether or not Turok 3 will get the identical therapy. Actually, these ready for Rage Wars shall be upset: there’s a message on this recreation’s finish credit asking individuals, in all-caps, to cease asking about Rage Wars.
I’m glad I acquired the chance to play via Turok 3, although the sport itself is one thing of a disappointment. All the ordinary Nightdive choices can be found to tweak to your coronary heart’s content material, and so they have finished a beautiful job porting this oft-forgotten N64 recreation to fashionable methods. Shadow of Oblivion is, nevertheless, barely a Turok recreation, and the degrees are a lot shorter and extra directed than they had been in Dinosaur Hunter or Seeds of Evil. You’ll be able to in all probability breeze via your complete marketing campaign–for one of many siblings, anyway–in a pair periods. An fascinating curio, however not a very memorable one.