At last year’s Gamescom, I had the chance to try Turok Origins in a demo focused entirely on co-op. The fun part was teaming up with John from Digital Foundry, making the whole session particularly memorable. I saw then that, alongside the solo potential, it’s a genuinely great co-op experience. This year, I got my hands on Turok Origins again, but this time tackling a demo designed exclusively for solo play. And I have to admit, as time goes by and with every Gamescom hands-on, the game looks more and more exciting. At this point, I can hardly wait to play the final release.
First, some basic info for the uninitiated. Turok: Origins is set long before the events of the original games. This time, “Turok” isn’t the name of a single hero, but rather a title for warriors belonging to an ancient order of hunters. Their job is to fight the Xenia, an alien reptilian threat endangering humanity. So yes, alongside dinosaurs, you’ll be blasting a fair number of aliens. If you’re wondering why there are aliens in Turok, welcome back to the franchise, dinosaurs are just the beginning of your problems. At Gamescom, the demo kicked off without any philosophical padding. No long-winded introductions, no ten-minute walks through a base listening to lore dumps. You get your weapons, step into the jungle, and quickly realize that what you came for is still very much here: dinosaurs. I absolutely loved this because Turok: Origins gets straight to business, doing exactly what it was designed to do. It doesn’t try to hide its core premise behind a convoluted plot. If you showed up to shoot dinosaurs with retro-yet-futuristic weapons, the game lets you do exactly that almost immediately.
The shooting is probably the best part of the whole experience. The weapons carry a satisfying sense of weight, and there’s a distinct difference between the firearms you carry, though I only got to try one “class,” if I can call it that. It was especially thrilling when several dinosaurs ambushed me from different directions, forcing rapid weapon swaps and split-second reactions. It isn’t a revolutionary shooter, nor does it try to be, but in that simplicity lies that cool retro vibe so sorely missing in modern games. A highly straightforward experience that works flawlessly. This time, however, you aren’t locked into a first-person view. Turok: Origins can be played as a classic FPS, but you can seamlessly swap to third-person at any moment. The camera can be toggled over the left or right shoulder, and interestingly, certain animations change depending on your perspective. For instance, hitting crouch out of a sprint triggers a slide in first-person, but executes a forward roll in third-person. It might sound like a minor detail, but it proves Saber didn’t just tack on third-person as an afterthought; they actively considered how the game handles from both viewpoints.
I found the third-person view particularly engaging due to the dinosaur design itself. Turok has always been a game where you want to see what you’re hunting, and when a massive reptile is towering over you trying to eat you, third-person gives combat a slightly different flavor. At the same time, first-person is perfect when you need precision aiming. It’s great that the game doesn’t force you to pick a perspective before starting the campaign; you can swap on the fly depending on the situation. Another major addition is the class system I alluded to. Before each mission, you choose one of the Turok warriors and your preferred playstyle. The three core classes are Raven, Cougar, and Bison (if I remember correctly), based on different animal spirits with distinct combat roles. Raven is geared toward range and precision, Cougar is aggressive and built for close-quarters, while Bison is effectively a tank meant to absorb hits on the front line.
During the demo, Raven was arguably the most interesting to me, mostly because it was the only class I played! But a dev team member also confirmed that it generally feels the most engaging and familiar for incoming players. A bow and arrow might sound a bit out of place next to futuristic rifles and plasma weapons, but that specific blend of traditional Turok identity and sci-fi works exceptionally well. If you like precision, the bow can deal massive damage, and special abilities further alter the combat flow. Crucially, the game forces you to constantly move, reposition, and scramble for health and ammo dropped by enemies or sourced from the environment. The sheer dynamism of Turok: Origins is highly commendable; they absolutely nailed it.
Now for the issue likely still bothering fans. Saber insists that the solo experience is a completely legitimate option, but the game was obviously designed around three players synergizing their abilities. In multiplayer, it makes perfect sense: one player handles crowd control, another snipes from afar, and the third jumps in when things get chaotic. When playing solo, you have to cover all those roles with your single class choice. That might sound like a problem, but I think that’s exactly why this demo focused purely on the single-player experience, to show players just how well the game functions when you are alone. I have to admit, they made the right call letting us play it this way, because it works brilliantly.
At the end of my demo, I fought a massive Triceratops, and the encounter gave off strong Monster Hunter vibes. You have to track its movements, dodge its charges, and pick the perfect moment to strike. Just standing still and holding the trigger won’t cut it. When a giant beast charges directly at you, you move, then exploit the opening it leaves behind. That type of combat is exactly what I want to see more of in the final release, and I’m sure other players will love it too. Standard enemies can be fun, but if the campaign spans multiple hours, the game needs to occasionally shift the pacing. Massive dinosaurs, diverse bosses, and situations that demand adaptability will prevent the game from devolving into endlessly shooting waves of the exact same mobs. The way you gather resources in the jungle is also a neat touch. I think I mentioned it, but I’ll say it again: instead of just finding random ammo crates and health pickups scattered across the map, you extract certain resources by interacting with plants. It’s a small detail, but it fits the world context beautifully. If you’re trekking through a jungle filled with strange flora, it makes perfect sense to harvest your survival needs directly from it.
After this year’s Gamescom, I have to say Turok: Origins is looking incredibly solid, and as I said, it gets more interesting every time I play it. I know Saber Interactive doesn’t have a spotless track record, releasing Painkiller initially with an exclusive focus on co-op before altering it later, but this truly feels great as a solo experience. The good news is they’ve pushed the release window back to Spring 2027. That gives them plenty of time to crystallize every idea and make the game even more fun, if that’s even possible. Turok: Origins is engineered to appeal to old-school fans like myself, as well as newcomers, and I believe this specific vision accomplishes exactly that. Highly commendable.
