Video game review: Turok

Turok is the first title from Vancouver’s Propaganda Games. A rambunctious re-creation of a character that first appeared more than 50 years ago, the new game is a science-fiction-themed first-person shooter for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

You play as Joseph Turok, a Native American former black-ops commando who is part of a mission to apprehend Roland Kane, the leader of Wolf Pack, a rogue commando unit that disappeared three years ago. As a former member of Wolf Pack, Turok doesn’t have many friends in Whiskey Company, his new squad. You don’t know much about his past at the start of the game; you pick up details from flashbacks as you progress.

En route to your destination, your ship is shot down and crash-lands on a planet that happens to be inhabited by dinosaurs. That’s right, dinosaurs, and as one of the loading-screen tips reads: “Dinosaurs eat meat. You are meat. Run away!” As if dinosaurs weren’t enough, you’ll also have to deal with the heavily armed and armoured Wolf Pack troops, who control the planet. And the artificial intelligence controlling your enemies will have them flanking you at every opportunity.

You’ll engage in both melee and firefight combat. While you’ll have access to a variety of automatic weapons, including a few futuristic varieties, you’ll find that you’re plenty dangerous armed with only a knife and a bow. At times, you’ll find yourself in close combat, and pushing the correct button sequence will execute a special knife attack to get you out of trouble.

In addition to the single-player game, there are multiplayer modes, and you can play with up to three friends in cooperative play, in a variation on the single-player story mode.

Turok sports a cinematic look, with dizzying swoop and zoom effects used to smoothly transition between movie and interactive sequences. Not to mention the vertigo that comes from the sense of scale—what seems to be a rock wall at first may turn out to be a giant skull, foreshadowing the types of creatures you’ll confront later in the game. Don’t forget that not only are dinosaurs smart predators, they have the benefit of camouflage in this lush environment. Watch your back. Rated mature.

[originally published in the Georgia Straight]

The return of Turok

Propaganda Games was formed three years ago by a group of former Electronic Arts staffers. Within months, it was acquired by Buena Vista Games, now Disney Interactive Studios. In an interview at Propaganda’s Vancouver offices, general manager and vice president Josh Holmes said the company had been working on an original concept for a third-person action game, but scrapped it when it won the right to develop the new Turok video game for Touchstone, a Disney brand.

The first Turok game—1997’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the Nintendo 64—was one of the earliest first-person shooters produced for console gaming systems. Turok first appeared in a 1954 comic book in a story by Gaylord DuBois, who was known for writing outdoor-adventure comics about such characters as Tarzan, Roy Rogers, and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Turok changed over the years, depending on who was using him and for what purpose, but one thing has remained constant: Turok is a Native American.

“Reimagining is in vogue in entertainment today,” game director Joel Manners said. He cited Batman Begins and Battlestar Galactica as good examples of how characters have been reinvented. “There are really good stories that need to be retold in a way that is relevant to today,” Manners said. “There’s nothing irrelevant about dinosaurs,” which feature prominently in the new Turok game.

The development team was acutely aware that its protagonist was aboriginal. “It means a lot,” admitted Manners, “and it doesn’t mean anything.” The game, he explained, doesn’t make a point about heritage; it makes a point about heroism. In an effort to avoid clichés and stereotypes, Manners said, they simply treated the characters and the story with respect. “When you justify a character because of their heritage,” he said, “you have to be cautious.

“The fact that Turok is of one heritage or another is not important,” Manners continued. “He’s a hero. The heroism that he is displaying comes from his heritage, but it’s something anyone is capable of.”

Manners said the development group talked about other game genres in early meetings, but never seriously considered them. “The first-person perspective lends an intimacy. Having dinosaurs coming at you is central to the feeling of terror. It’s not as scary when you see creatures jumping on someone else.”

Propaganda, which increased its staff as it developed Turok, now employs about 150 people. Holmes said that in recent months, they’ve been organizing the company into two teams, and they’re already in preproduction on their next two titles, one of which is an action role-playing game. “We’d like to get to a point where we’ve got two games in production and one in concept,” he said. Propaganda won’t get much bigger than 200 employees, though, an optimal size for the studio, according to Holmes.

[originally published in the Georgia Straight]

Studio tour: Propaganda Games and Turok

I spent a good chunk of the day at Vancouver’s Propaganda Games today, steeped in the Turok experience.

The day started with a presentation by game director Joel Manners. He talked about how everyone on the team was excited to be working on a game in which players got to interact with dinosaurs.

What he really meant was get hunted by dinosaurs.

His group of employees did a great job of reimagining Turok, and updating it not just technically, but also in terms of story and character.

Playing Turok

Turok is a visceral, sci-fi themed first person shooter set some 250 years from now. You are Joseph Turok, a former black ops commando who has been enlisted to help take down his old mentor, a rogue military specialist. You crash land on a planet that is infested with dinosaurs, and have to not only survive, but find a way home.

All the while you are hunted by the denizens of the world. And yes, Virginia, there are T-Rexes in this game.

Manners said that how you approach the game is up to you. You can be stealthy, or blast your way through, or even turn your enemies - dinosaurs and soldiers - against each other. “You’ve got firepower, environment, and multiple enemies,” said Manners, “and how you use them is up to you.”

Guns and knives

Game designer Ryan Greenhow talked about how Manners’ philosophy was that the player needed to “experience the game through the gun.” What that meant, said Greenhow, was that “you have to have a cool gun in your hands, and when you pull the trigger you have to have a cool reaction, and then you have to see the result of that.”

The trick, though, was figuring out how to get that “through the gun” experience for the knife. In most first-person shooter games, explained Greenhow, the knife is “the lamest weapon.” But along with the bow, the knife is one of Turok’s key weapon specialties. To keep the intensity, then, the Propaganda crew came up with “crazy knife moves” that you can execute to make fighting with a knife more visceral.

What’s missing

Manners also talked about how the team pulled vehicles from the game after spending a great deal of time working on them. While it was fun to recreate the Jeep scene from Jurassic Park, explained Manners, vehicles just didn’t fit in the Turok experience. “You’ve got to be able to smell that thing’s breath,” he said, “and you can’t get that when you’re mechanized.”

Inspired by dinosaurs

Manners said that there were two films that were particular inspirations for the new Turok video game. The first was Aliens, with its gritty reality and sci-fi background, but horror take.

The second was 28 Days Later. “The zombies in that film embodied what we wanted in our raptors,” said Manners. “Unending killing machines that are fast as hell.”

Manners said that the Turok team didn’t want Jurassic Park raptors that hunt in packs and can open doors. They wanted their raptors to be brutal and ruthless. All the better to create carnage.

What’s next

Turok is now available for PS3 and Xbox 360, and will be available for PC later this spring. While Manners admitted that it was developed with sequels in mind, he was careful not to suggest that a sequel has been confirmed for development.

It’s a fun game to play, with lots of twitch action and some shocking surprises for good measure. Nothing like having a dinosaur attack you without warning to get the blood boiling.

Don’t forget that the developers of Turok are going to be at the Granville and Robson Future Shop in Vancouver tomorrow night, to say hi, answer questions, offer game play tips, and even sign your copy of the game. For those not in Vancouver, you can participate in the online chat with these same developers. Full details are over here.

Playing Turok

One of the benefits to being a video game journalist is that I sometimes get to play games before they get released. Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours playing through the first level of Turok, the reimagined version of the game developed here in Vancouver by Propaganda Games.

It's pretty great. It owes a debt to Halo and Gears of War - what first-person shooter doesn't? - but there is something subversive going on in Turok, and it has to do with the characters. One element of the original character that the Propaganda developers kept is that Turok is Native American. 

It's a rare video game that makes the protagonist a person of colour.

Aside from that, Turok looks great and has some slick gameplay to offer. I sure enjoyed myself.

Plus: dinosaurs galore. And you fight them with a knife.

On Monday, I'll be at Propaganda for most of the day at a press event. I'll throw up a report later that day, so check back.

Talkin' Turok - with the developers

Turok, initially a comic character, was first translated to video games in 1997 for the Nintendo 64 as Turok: Dinosaur Hunter.

The character went through a number of iterations through the years, but has been dormant since 2002.

Vancouver developer Propaganda Games - a division of Touchstone Games (part of the Disney Interactive group) - made a splash when they appeared at E3 in 2005. They didn't announce the franchise that they were going to be working on at that time, but promised with a wink that it was going to be reinventing something very cool.

Turok has been reinvented, that's for sure. The new game is a first-person shooter, and looks to have assimilated some very cool features from recent games in that genre. It's set on a distant planet in our future, and players "take on the role of Joseph Turok, a former Black Ops commando, now part of an elite Special Forces squad on a mission to take down a war criminal on a genetically-altered planet."

Well, Turok is nearly upon us. And Future Shop is giving gamers a chance to connect with each other and the creators in an online chat on launch day, Tuesday, February 5. The online chat starts at 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) and will run for 30 minutes. Access the chat at futureshop.ca and ask the game's creators any question you want, including hints on keeping Turok alive.

For those gamers who live in - or near - Vancouver, you can meet the creators in person at the Future Shop store at Granville and Robson. You'll be able to try the game, ask questions, and even get your copy signed by the guys and girls who made it. The in-store event runs for an hour from 5:30 p.m. PT.

Get more information on all this over here.

Anyone else out there planning on participating?