Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a first-person shooter, developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Acclaim for the Nintendo 64 console and Microsoft Windows. It was initially released in 1997 in North America and Europe.

Turok is an adaptation of the Valiant Comics series of the same name. The player controls Turok, a Native American warrior, who must stop the evil “Campaigner” from conquering the universe with an ancient and powerful weapon called the Chronosceptor.

To do this, Turok must find keys for a series of portals that teleport him to various worlds, where he must then find pieces of the Chronosceptor, and eventually use it on The Campaigner at the end of the game.

Since this game comes from the early days of 3D gaming, the polygon count is low, and the draw distance is limited by fog effects. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is still a reasonably engaging and compelling FPS, though, with good animation of the 3D models.

On the N64, Turok relies on the analogue thumbstick controls for precise movement, meaning that turning left or right, or looking up or down, is not quite as it should be if you’re playing the game in an emulator without analogue controls.

Human enemies can be challenging, especially when they’re shooting you or throwing grenades at you from a distance, but the dinosaur foes are the ones that cause the most fear. Mainly because raptors leap at you with their claws, and hulking gorilla-like monstrosities appear out of nowhere and damage you by punching the ground.

You can clear an area and more enemies will teleport in to attack you. How many you get depends on the difficulty level you’re playing (there are three: easy, normal and hard).

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was a big hit for Acclaim and went on to spawn a successful series, which improved over time. Many gamers will have fond feelings for Turok, though, as it was a game that made a big impression on young minds at the time.

If you’re going to play Turok now, it might be better to play the PC version, with its precise mouse and keyboard controls. It’s still available to buy on Steam and GOG.com, and was remastered by Nightdive Studios in 2015.

If you do play the N64 version, make sure to set up the controls properly, and you should find it a playable – if imprecise – blast from the past.

More: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on Wikipedia
Steam: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on Steam
GOG: Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on GOG.com