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Game Review: ‘Turok,’ 3½ stars

While not as groundbreaking as the original late 1990s “Turok: Dinosaur Hunter” for the Nintendo 64, the new “Turok” 3-D shooter for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 delivers a fun — and, at times, nail-biting — action experience for mature players.

“Turok” once again stars a futuristic American Indian soldier, Joseph Turok, who crash-lands on a mysterious planet populated by vicious dinosaurs and a malicious military organization. With help from his squad mates, who don’t trust our Mohawk-sporting hero to begin with, Turok must stay alive long enough to accomplish his mission and get out of this dangerous world.

In “Turok,” which is played from a first-person perspective, you’ll face off against a handful of meat-eating beasts, such as Tyrannosaurus rex and velociraptor.

In one memorable scene about three hours into the game, Turok climbed a ladder to reach the top of a lookout point but was suddenly yanked to the ground by two raptors. Interestingly, this wasn’t a scripted event. When the scene was played out again, Turok made it to the top alive, only to look down and see the dinosaurs chasing each other a dozen feet away from the base of the ladder.

Fun scenes like this are memorable, as are the bigger boss fights, but the core game play doesn’t deviate much from other 3-D shooters: You’ll be accomplishing missions, such as gaining entrance into a facility by taking down those who stand in your way. As Turok, you’ll have access to all kinds of weaponry, such as automatic rifles, shotguns, dual-wielding handguns, sniper rifles, grenades, rocket launchers, a combat knife, and bow and arrow (the latter two are ideal for stealthier attacks).

“Turok” also offers a few “context-sensitive” moments, when you must press the correct button repeatedly, according to the on-screen icon. This might be to open heavy doors, prevent a dinosaur from eating you by opening its mouth wide enough to escape or perform a quiet kill with your combat knife.

“Turok” is a very good game — but not a great one. Yes, it delivers some entertaining thrills, but it doesn’t compare to the recent batch of extraordinary 3-D shooters on the market, such as “BioShock,” “The Orange Box,” “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” or “Halo 3.”

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Turok. Xbox 360, PS3. $59.99. Rated M for “Mature.” http://www.turok.com