Turok 3: Shadow Of Oblivion Remastered Review (PS5) – For anyone who’s first experience with a first-person shooter was any mainline Call Of Duty game from the last decade, you’d be forgiven for not really wanting to look back in the genre.
There have been so many FPS games over the years, each of them trying to build and grow off the other that to be playing a 23-year-old FPS sounds, on the face of it sounds like a waste of time at worst, and going out of your way at best.
Turok 3: Shadow Of Oblivion however shows why it’s well worth going out of your way to play a 23 year old game, thanks to Nightdive Studios excellent work bringing the classic N64 shooter onto PlayStation.
Turok 3: Shadow Of Oblivion Remastered Review (PS5) – A Worthwhile Trip To A Different Era Of Shooters
Bearing The Burden Of Turok
Three years before the world had played a Call Of Duty game at all, the fourth Turok game, but the third and final mainline game prior to the 2008 reboot entered an already crowded FPS genre.
Turok had already become a household name in terms of the day’s top shooters, due in part to the fact that it let you take a shotgun to a dinosaur’s face.
For my money, it definitely wasn’t the story that made me look at Turok with intrigue. It was definitely the dinosaur shooting, and the overall first-person action, along with a pretty good atmospheric environment.
Thankfully Shadow Of Oblivion is full of atmosphere, particularly towards its later chapters, and the shooting is excellent throughout.
Sure, it’s nice that there’s a lore underneath it all about Dani and Joseph needing to take up the mantle of Turok after Joshua’s untimely death in the game’s opening.
Along with the secret plotting of the Council Of Voices that is ultimately thwarted by the end of the game. But each cutscene along the way served only as a vehicle for the really, really great shooting at stuff in between.
Pew Pew
Turok faithfuls will know that Shadow Of Oblivion provides you with an incredible arsenal that you have at your disposal at all times, so long as you have ammo for each weapon.
Ammo types pull double-duty across classes of weapons, though each variation adds another layer to the combat, even if it’s just a layer of ‘making this gun a little more fun to use.’
The Mag 60 variation of the pistol wastes more ammo, yes, but it’s a lot more fun to use. Same goes for the shotgun variation that lets you shoot capsules that set your enemies on fire.
What’s most important though is that each gun feels weighty, and shots hit with a satisfying splatter of blood and guts.
Yes, most modern day shooters have a median level of ‘fine’ they mostly hit, with the differences that inch them above or below each other in terms of quality being a lot more subtle.
By today’s standards, Turok does not feel like a better shooter, but it does, at every moment, feel like a fun shooter, no matter the weapon you have in your hands.
Even if you’re slicing through dinosaurs and other enemies with your tomahawk and a dream, you never do stop having fun.
A Worthwhile Trip Back In Time
Which is really the whole reason to still pick up Turok 3: Shadow Of Oblivion Remastered. Nightdive Studios has done an excellent job bringing back a classic title that is worth your time to run through and have fun with.
It also doesn’t outstay its welcome, as it won’t take you very long to shotgun-blast your way through the game’s five main chapters and its included boss fights.
Turok 3 Shadow Of Oblivion is also another example of how well Nightdive Studio’s KEX Engine has improved, and keeps improving.
Truly the studio is doing excellent work in making old games new again while still preserving the art and look which helped make them special in the first place.
The only negative I could put towards this remaster is that you only really get the game in this package, there isn’t any additional modes or features that make returning to it even more special for veteran fans.
Yes, the graphical and performance updates are very nice to have, especially around Turok 3 running at up to 120FPS, but there’s still a part of me that feels like I would’ve liked a little more.
Regardless of that however, if you’re a fan of the series, then this is an easy recommendation as you’ll feel like you’re taking a walk down memory lane, and even if you’ve never played a Turok game, it’s worth it to visit this classic even in 2023.
Turok 3: Shadow Of Oblivion Remastered is now available on PS5 and PS4.
Review code generously provided by publisher.