Nightdive Studios finishes the combat.
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 shocked 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 (keep in mind her?) and advised 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 don’t have any information of. Perhaps it is revealed within the short-lived Acclaim comics? Good luck discovering these.
The primary manner that Shadow of Oblivion differentiates itself from its predecessors is you can 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 supplied 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 by means of any given degree is equivalent, with extraordinarily underdeveloped sequences which are distinctive to every sibling.
The extent design can also be the place Turok 3 adjustments issues up. You’ll recall that I used to be impressed by the extraordinarily massive, open, and intuitive maps of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, however much less inclined in the direction of the extra restrictive hall capturing 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 by means of every degree, exploration be damned. I didn’t particularly get pleasure from this strategy, as I used to be consistently being pressured ahead with little skill to journey exterior the confines of the predetermined path. There’s no method to journey again to earlier ranges both, so for those who missed a gun, tremendous weapon part, or life drive tokens in any given degree, you’re out of luck.
You will typically be given “missions,” which often quantity to discovering keys or urgent switches, typically with a ticking time restrict. However these missions are solely in service of continuous to maneuver ahead in a given degree. None of them are optionally available. One “mission” asks you to search out fuses for a generator, however it’s a must to try this anyway if you wish to get by means of a selected space. An early mission asks you to cease the self-destruct sequence of a army base that you simply’re in (for some motive), however it’s additionally the one method to activate the elevator to the subsequent a part of the extent. The missions might exist to present the participant a aim, or obscure path to go in, however as small as these areas are, you don’t really want them. You simply don’t have a variety of choices; there’s no method to get misplaced.
At the very least every degree is simple to navigate, which is a leg up on Turok 2, however in addition they really feel form 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 by no means threatening, may be simply toppled with out shedding any well being. The one really tough combat is the ultimate boss, who wields a weapon that damages you consistently, however–and that is key–extra slowly than your weapons injury 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 also be far, far faraway from its prehistoric origins. This began in Turok 2, after all, 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. Other than one nostalgic journey by means of a small portion of the primary degree from Dinosaur Hunter, Joseph and Danielle are exploring sci-fi settings: a locked-down metropolis, conspiracy-laden army 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 might tragically by no means be fleshed out–together with an intriguing cliffhanger which suggests that Adon herself would have taken on a bigger position in some future story.
I ought to be aware 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 after 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, that means all the degree. Fortunately, it labored the second time I reached his lair. Moreover, the primary degree 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 the next 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 exhausting to see (search for, manner up, above the prevailing rebar). I don’t know whether or not this grapple level was there on the N64 initially, however the Danielle-specific rebar positive isn’t. However as soon as that impediment was overcome, Danielle was capable of progress with no hitch. Her grapple factors are sometimes exhausting 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 might be disillusioned: 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 bought the chance to play by means of Turok 3, although the sport itself is one thing of a disappointment. The entire traditional Nightdive choices can be found to tweak to your coronary heart’s content material, they usually have finished an exquisite job porting this oft-forgotten N64 recreation to trendy programs. Shadow of Oblivion is, nonetheless, 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 possibly can most likely breeze by means of all the marketing campaign–for one of many siblings, anyway–in a pair periods. An fascinating curio, however not a very memorable one.