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 sequence’ 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 help 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 totally different Turok sport in each construction and gameplay that feels wholly disconnected from the primary two. It’s an attention-grabbing, 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 sport. His siblings, Joseph and Danielle, are transported away by a radically redesigned Adon (bear in mind her?) and advised that one in all 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 sport. 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 approach 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 totally different however basically related weapons, jumps (barely) greater, and is provided with an energy-based hookshot from Zelda. You’ll suppose that their campaigns could be radically totally different, however sadly that’s not the case. 90% of their traversals by way of any given degree is equivalent, with extraordinarily underdeveloped sequences which might be 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 an alternative giving us a directed path by way of every degree, exploration be damned. I didn’t particularly get pleasure from this method, as I used to be consistently being pressured ahead with little capability to journey outdoors the confines of the predetermined path. There’s no approach to journey again to earlier ranges both, so should you missed a gun, tremendous weapon part, or life pressure 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 important to try this anyway if you wish to get by way of a particular space. An early mission asks you to cease the self-destruct sequence of a army base that you simply’re in (for some cause), but it surely’s additionally the one approach to activate the elevator to the subsequent a part of the extent. The missions might exist to present the participant a aim, or imprecise route 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 approach to get misplaced.
A minimum of every degree is simple to navigate, which is a leg up on Turok 2, however additionally they really feel form of soulless. There are boss fights, however all are nearly insultingly simple; strafing round an space whereas pumping shotgun buckshot into the boss often wins the day. Even Oblivion itself, which appears to be like extraordinarily goofy and in no way 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 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 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 way 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 is rarely 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 notice 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 basically meant he by no means misplaced well being. Restarting from the checkpoint did not repair it–I needed to restart the chapter, that means the complete 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 sport, she will climb up some rebar to a better flooring in a collapsed constructing. Right here, that rebar doesn’t seem. Nevertheless, there’s a grapple level on the opposite aspect of the constructing that’s laborious to see (search for, approach 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 no hitch. Her grapple factors are sometimes laborious to identify.
Shadow of Oblivion Remastered additionally lacks the strong multiplayer of the N64 sport. Notice that the Seeds of Evil remaster didn’t have multiplayer obtainable 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 can be dissatisfied: there’s a message on this sport’s finish credit asking individuals, in all-caps, to cease asking about Rage Wars.
I’m glad I acquired the chance to play by way of Turok 3, although the sport itself is one thing of a disappointment. All the common Nightdive choices can be found to tweak to your coronary heart’s content material, they usually have achieved a beautiful job porting this oft-forgotten N64 sport to trendy methods. Shadow of Oblivion is, nevertheless, barely a Turok sport, 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 by way of the complete marketing campaign–for one of many siblings, anyway–in a pair periods. An attention-grabbing curio, however not a very memorable one.