The circle is now complete.
I have been enjoying the resurgence of the classic Turok games. The original was such a staple of the N46’s identity while the second game steered more into the sci-fi aspect of the subject matter. Then it hit a stutter step with the multiplayer focused Rage Wars before finally returning to the single player story with Shadow of Oblivion. Most people have played the first two games, only a handful have nostalgia for the third. It also had to be a challenge to port simply because it didn’t have a PC version. That’s right this game never landed anywhere outside the N64. Still I don’t question Nightdive and Shadow of Oblivion reinforces that belief.
Shadow of Oblivion is easily the most obscure of the original trilogy. This entry begins with the previous Turok, Joshua Fireseed dying in the opening cut scene. He then informs his siblings Danielle and Joseph to escape so they can carry on his legacy and defeat Oblivion. The story kicks off with a long sequence that sets it up well, then it simply falls off the map of confusion and those not familiar with comic books are mostly just going to be lost, which is fine, I am here to shoot some aliens.
MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
Turok is such an interesting franchise as it was originally built on the idea of hunting dinosaurs. Then it slowly devolved into a more sci-fi affair involving aliens. Shadow of Oblivion dives deeper into the science fiction aspect, but it takes the least amount of chances mechanically. The Turok games are known for their exotic locales and inventive weapons. Turok 3 keeps it more standardized in both areas with returning favorite weapons, but the main game uses a lot of traditional environments such as cityscapes.
The game allows players to choose which protagonist to play as and they do have mostly the same experience. The biggest difference is that Danielle gets a grappling hook, while Joseph can fit through small spaces. Yes these are archaic mechanics, but remember when this game came out. There is also a few sections unique to each character, but for the most part they are the same experience. The grappling hook is just more fun to play with, so I suggest playing as Danielle.
Nightdive continues to set the bar for remasters. Originally developed by Iguana, Shadow of Oblivion was a technically impressive game for its time. The team at Iguana had a better grasp of the N64 hardware than most developers, but their Turok games were always plagued with slowdown issues and tons of fog. This remaster is buttery smooth and feels extremely great when it comes to controls. Taking down enemies with headshots is satisfying and outside of the jump button being on a trigger, the mapping and controls feel great.
The team at Nightdive went above and beyond with this remake. The original source code from the N64 version was not available, so they painstakingly went through everything and re-did it from scratch in their KEX Engine. The amount of love and care that went into this remaster is a testament to that team. They clearly have a love for these late 90s early 2000s FPS games. They even added in some cut content much like they did with Powerslave. This was all done by their artists and nothing was tossed into an AI filter, and it shows. You can really feel the love in every polygon onscreen, even if the game isn’t exactly a classic.
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion is a weird game that doesn’t feel like it fits into the Turok trilogy, yet here we are. All three games are now available, and remastered with so much love and care. I cannot get enough of these remasters and Nightdive deserve to be commended for their efforts. Cannot wait for Dark Forces and of course whatever else they have cooking up. Keep these remastered games coming, and I will continue snatching them up. If you grew up with nostalgia for N64 shooters, this is a must for your collection.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
