I played the demo for Turok this weekend that is on the OXM demo disk this month. Going into it I was expecting another run of the mill shooter with a dinosaur theme. I’ve been underwhelmed by the shooter demos I’ve played recently so I did not have my hopes very high. I was pleasantly surprised with the demo. It seems to be about a full level of the game, but not the very first level. The graphics look pretty good but not the best I’ve ever seen or anything. The demo starts you with a partner who follows you along and basically shoots at whoever you shoot. He does teach you a few important things though. First, dinosaurs are attracted to flares. Second, every weapon has a secondary fire option. Third, if a dinosaur doesn’t see or hear you they will leave you alone. After learning these things and killing a few dinosaurs you get separated and have yo find your own way for a little bit. You find your way out of the area you are in and meet back up with your teammate. The game then points out a few other key things as you find the first human enemies in the game. Most importantly, when you crouch in grass and use a knife to get kills enemies will not hear you. Also, dinosaurs can be killed with one attack of the knife as well. The bow and arrows are actually pretty fun to use as well. After getting a few stealth kills you get to have a nice sized fight with 12 or 15 enemies. You start the game with dual pistols and early on you get a shotgun you can dual wield with the pistol. During the large battle you get a plasma gun that was pretty fun.

The AI and weapons are what have the potential to make Turok more than just another average shooter. The weapons were all fun to use and the secondary fire on each one adds a nice variety of attack options. The AI for the enemies and dinosaurs seemed really well done. For example, you can use the gun with the flares to get dinosaurs to attack enemies for you. This is just one example that I tried in the demo, but I’m looking forward to trying other cool tricks like this. The other interesting thing is that these type of tactics carry over to the multiplayer because dinosaurs roam the multiplayer maps just like they do in the campaign.

I’d recommend giving the Turok demo a try if you can get your hands on it. It was better that I anticipated and I’m looking forward to playing the full game. I’ll probably rent it since Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is coming out in a couple months and it will most likely fill my multiplayer needs for many months, but I am looking forward to playing the campaign and giving the multiplayer a try.