Turok: Origins revives Dinosaur Hunter series as third person shooter

Prepare for a new dinosaur hunt (Saber Interactive)

After a failed reboot in 2008, Turok is making another comeback where you team-up with friends to hunt down dinosaurs.

While Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was once a beloved franchise, back during the Nintendo 64 era, it has lost almost all relevance in the years since.

Following the original trilogy on the Nintendo 64, a prequel to the 1997 original, entitled Turok: Evolution, was released on PlayStation 2 and other consoles in 2002. After lukewarm reviews, the first reboot arrived in 2008, for the Xbox 360 generation, but developer Propaganda Games was shut down in 2011 while in development on a sequel.

Since then, there’s only been 2019’s bizarre child-friendly spin on the series, called Turok: Escape From The Lost Valley, which was entirely unrelated to previous games. We now have a new hope for a revival, however, through developer Saber Interactive.

As announced at The Game Awards, Turok: Origins appears to harken back to the tone of the original game, albeit with a new third person perspective.

It looks reminiscent of Gears Of War gameplay-wise, with a mix of shooting and melee attacks. Like that series, the main campaign can also be played either solo or with up to three players in co-op.

As noted in the Steam description, your arsenal includes plasma rifles, ray guns, sniper rifles, bows, shotguns, and DNA powers which ‘evolve your suit in real-time’. These powers, which you earn by extracting DNA from enemies and the environment, also have upgrades you can unlock.

Along with dinosaurs, Turok: Origins will see players contend with an ‘alien threat that seeks to destroy all human life in the galaxy’, which is alluded to through the massive spaceship flying overhead in the trailer.

With its obvious nods to the past, Turok: Origins looks pretty promising for what it is. Saber Interactive is on a good run lately too, when it comes to Gears Of War-esque games, following the success of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

Or if you’re craving the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the N64 version was re-released through the Nintendo Switch Online service earlier this year. The 2015 remaster is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

When will Turok: Origins be released?

Turok: Origins currently has no release date across Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, so it might be a few years away yet.

Strangely, this isn’t the only dinosaur game Saber Interactive has in development at the moment, with the studio also working on the undated Jurassic Park: Survival.

If only Capcom were as keen to make a new Dino Crisis…