Turok: Dinosaur Hunter blazed a trail as one of the first successful console first-person shooters. Its impressive animation systems and expansive, sprawling levels even placed it ahead of PC powerhouse Quake in some respects. Before James Bond showed up, Tal’Set reigned supreme as the face of Nintendo 64 shooters. While Turok 2: Seeds of Evil has its devotees, most remember it as a labyrinthine gauntlet of claustrophobic corridors crawling with bloodthirsty Dinosoids eager to introduce Joshua Fireseed to the wrong end of a cerebral bore. This sharp decline in quality dampened franchise interest, leaving many N64 owners oblivious to the final entry. Acclaim’s decision to release the multiplayer focused, storyless Turok: Rage Wars further muddied the waters. Unsurprisingly, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion slipped under the radar. Now, Nightdive Studios has stepped in to give it a much-needed spit and shine and reveal the hidden gem many missed. Did this sequel truly deserve to be forgotten?
The first two Turok entries waste no time in throwing Joshua or Tal’Set into the deep end. Levels begin ominously and quickly fan out into a sizeable hub that connects to other levels. On the N64, these still held up despite their frame rates being fairly low, especially for Seeds of Evil. When Nightdive Studios spruced them up there wasn’t a lot they needed to do in order to show its full potential. All these games needed were improved draw distance and frame-rates, higher resolution and added optional effects. The additions were technical, with some quality of life features in Turok 2‘s case. For the most part, these got everything right the first time.
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion shows that sometimes the foundation was weak from the start. While it wasn’t the worst first-person shooter on Nintendo 64, it was a dramatic departure from what made the first two utterly gripping. The open-ended and sprawling levels were traded for tightly controlled linear environments. The hub concept is abandoned entirely, and both the flow and structure are akin to something more modern like Half-Life.
Prior entries immediately dropped players into the moccasins of a Turok, and were set loose on a bloody and thrilling rampage against Dinosoids. Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion makes a stark impression by having fully voiced cut-scenes with scene direction and expressive characters. This was very rare during the fifth console generation, and especially uncommon for Nintendo 64 titles. This remastered edition goes a few steps further by smoothing out some of the rough edges of the character models, which does have mixed results. As an example, in some angles Joseph Fireseed’s eyes look messed up, and it isn’t clear what expression he is conveying.
For its time on the N64, the cutscene quality was remarkably impressive. Modern players might not realise the technical hurdles that had to be overcome to achieve this back then. The introduction throws players right into the action, introducing a new era of Turok. Joshua Fireseed from Turok 2: Seeds of Evil has passed the torch, and you get to choose his successor: his younger, stinky brother Joseph, or his resourceful and much more capable sister Danielle. The choice matters, as each character wields unique weapons and can access exclusive areas.
The story is very basic and it’s unusual that there was so much effort put into the story presentation when it is no more complex than the first two titles. Whoever is chosen, Danielle or Joseph, they go on a dimensional-warping quest to thwart a nightmarishly obese monstrosity named Oblivion from eating everything. The heroes travel through various urban and industrial settings and even have to stop some missiles from launching in order to prevent this alien menace from turning the universe into his all-you-can-eat buffet.
Turok 3 isn’t an epic time commitment, but its brevity is packed with action and adventure. Choosing between the two Fireseed siblings offers subtly different approaches to combat and exploration, adding incentive for replayability. A blind playthrough on normal difficulty can be tackled in under five hours, while switching to the other sibling and aiming for 100% completion can be a weekend-long adventure. However, exploration and experimentation can easily stretch playtime beyond that, especially with the occasional need to navigate past some bugs.
Regretfully, Turok 3 on Nintendo Switch has a lot of technical issues. Most of the time during shootouts and exploring, it runs fine at 60 fps and there are no issues. However, too often there are game ending bugs where bosses never die or switches don’t toggle. One boss in particular involves a large, shelled monster that has to be lured into a trap. In one instance, the creature would not budge from his spawn point and would stand idle while fodder enemies kept on coming. Reloading from the last checkpoint didn’t fix this issue and the entire chapter had to be replayed.
Sometimes, the bugs in Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion Remastered are beneficial, like a boss that sits around doing nothing while players are free to shoot it dead. For such a short experience, these issues crop up too often. The remastering is also sloppily done. The enhanced textures are far too sharp and the high definition graphics clash with some of the older assets that were left untouched. There is a bizarre incongruity with the visuals in this remaster. There are too many instances of HD elements not fitting in with the retro sensibilities when the original game was made.
The core gameplay is still somewhat satisfying and a lot of that has to do with the kinaesthetic feedback of the outlandish weapons and visceral gore. This was a violent franchise, and it went a long way into making each one feel good when playing as a Native American on the hunt for Dinosoids. There is a palpable rush of adrenaline while running and gunning through these stages. Despite the step backward in design, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion Remastered is still enjoyable so long as there are no progress ending bugs.
