Turok, the classic shooter franchise that was big in the N64 era, has been dormant for quite some time. If you’ve never played the series before, it was strange, violent, ambitious, and often completely unhinged in the best possible way. One minute you were fighting dinosaurs in dense jungles, and the next you were battling cybernetic monstrosities, aliens, and creatures. The series never felt constrained by a single idea, but there was always a very specific identity holding everything together. That’s probably why Turok: Origins left me feeling conflicted after getting my hands on two Co-op missions of its campaign.
There are things I genuinely enjoyed about what Saber Interactive is building. Combat has a satisfying heft to it, and the creatures and dinosaurs look great. At the same time, as someone whose favourite game in the franchise remains Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, I walked away struggling to figure out exactly how much of Turok still exists underneath everything I played.
The easiest comparison I can make is World War Z, which isn’t surprising given Saber’s history. The moment combat begins, you can feel some of that DNA immediately. Enemies arrive in waves, firefights are built around crowd control as much as precision shooting, and encounters regularly escalate into chaotic battles where players are desperately trying to manage threats coming from multiple directions at once. All without the mass numbers you see on screen during World War Z. Weapons hit hard, enemies react appropriately when they’re blasted apart, and there is a satisfying sense of impact behind almost everything you do.
The problem is that spectacle alone isn’t necessarily what I come to Turok for; it’s the vibes, the weird, unhinged story, and the crazy weapons.
As I continued playing, I kept waiting for something that would fully convince me I was playing a Turok game rather than a cooperative action shooter wearing Turok’s skin. That’s not to say there aren’t callbacks for longtime fans. Quite the opposite, actually. Some of the most memorable weapons from the series make appearances, and seeing them again immediately brought a smile to my face.
The Cerebral Bore remains one of the most absurd weapons ever created for a video game, and it still manages to stand out all these years later, boring into the skulls of your enemies and drilling their brains out. The Tek Bow returns as well, alongside the Scorpion Launcher, and each weapon serves as a welcome reminder of the franchise’s history. For longtime fans, those moments matter. They create an immediate connection to the games many of us grew up with.
When I think back to Seeds of Evil, I don’t just remember individual weapons. I remember the atmosphere that oozed from every level. Even when I look back on Shadows of Oblivion, and sure, it wasn’t amazing, it still held two things high. It’s vibe, and a game that constantly felt like it was taking me somewhere unexpected, but I didn’t get that sense at all here. Turok: Origins seems far more interested in momentum than mystery.
Everything pushes players forward. Encounters are larger, louder and more action-oriented, with exploration taking a back seat to combat, and while there is certainly nothing wrong with that approach, it creates an experience that feels fundamentally different from what I associate with the series. But even the dinosaurs left me feeling somewhat conflicted.
“From a purely mechanical standpoint, there’s a lot to like in Turok: Origins.”
They’re here, and they look great. During my demo, they often felt less like terrifying predators and more like another category of enemy to mow down alongside everything else. That’s a big distinction, and it’s an important one. Never in the series outside of the starting dinosaurs did they ever feel inconsequential, but here they seem more like bullet sponges in some cases, and others, cannon fodder.
Some of my favourite moments in older Turok games came from simply encountering a dinosaur. There was an unpredictability to those interactions because dinosaurs occupied a unique place within the world. They weren’t just enemies. They were part of what made the setting feel dangerous. In Turok: Origins, dinosaurs often felt like fodder in the middle of larger combat encounters. The same could be said for some of the alien enemies I encountered as well. They look impressive, they’re fun to fight, and watching entire groups explode into chunks never gets old, but I rarely found myself intimidated by them.
One thing I constantly found myself coming back to after my demo was how little context I currently have for the story. Turok has always been a strange franchise narratively, but even at its most bizarre, there was usually a sense that the world itself mattered. The Lost Land, the Primagen, the various alien races and ancient conflicts all helped create a mythology that elevated the series beyond simply being “the dinosaur shooter.”
With Turok: Origins, I’m not ready to draw conclusions yet because I haven’t seen enough of that side of the game. It’s entirely possible that many of my concerns disappear once the larger narrative comes into focus. If Saber can provide a compelling reason for this new direction and establish a world worth investing in with Turok: Origins, some of the disconnect I’m currently feeling could evaporate fairly quickly.
While I know I seem all doom and gloom about an older series seeming to get a new release that feels like a nail in the coffin, it isn’t all bad. The shooting is really satisfying, and the cooperative gameplay works well. The enemies that I did fight against create some genuinely thrilling gunfights, and there were moments where the chaos became so overwhelming that it was hard not to lose yourself in the tense nature of it all. From a purely mechanical standpoint, there’s a lot to like in Turok: Origins.
What I’m less certain about is whether those mechanics have the staying power to carry the experience over the long term. By the end of my demo, I found myself wondering about the longevity of Turok, but also that maybe in my short thirty minutes, I felt like I had seen the breadth of what the game had to offer. Maybe that’s an unfair concern to have at this stage. After all, what we saw only provided a snapshot rather than a complete picture. Entire systems, progression mechanics, and story elements could dramatically change how the final game feels.
I’m just not entirely convinced yet that I’ve seen enough of Turok itself. That may ultimately be the biggest question hanging over Turok: Origins right now. Not whether it’s fun, because it absolutely is, but whether it can successfully bridge the gap between what longtime fans remember and what Saber is trying to create. The answer could determine whether Origins becomes an exciting new chapter for the franchise or simply an enjoyable cooperative shooter that happens to feature dinosaurs and a familiar name on the box.
Turok: Origins releases fall of 2026 for Steam, XBOX Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2.
