Nightdive Studios have been a boon to fans of the classic Turok series of first-person shooters from Acclaim. Their stellar remasters of the first and second games in the franchise, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, have given players who long for the good old days a way to experience those games on modern machines, with the exception of the PlayStation 4 though that’s reportedly going to change, hopefully soon.
Nightdive’s CEO Stephen Kick has gone above just bringing back the classics, now he’s showing off a glimpse of what could have been. Via his personal twitter, Kick showed pages from the pitch document for Turok 5: Resurrection, the proposed follow-up to 2002’s Turok: Evolution. The brief, four-page document speaks of the setup, the return of classic weapons, and the developers aim to meet the standards of games like Half-Life 2, Doom 3 and Halo 2.
In what was described as Rambo thrown into the the world of Jurassic Park and King Kong with a sprinkle of the Island of Dr. Moreau, Turok 5 would’ve started off with Turok losing his life to the villain, Tyrannus. Finally able to rest in the spirit world, though not for long, Turok would be summoned back to the Lost Land to combat the threat of The Soulless and cybernetically enhanced dinosaurs. Resurrection’s story was meant to be bolstered by strong cinematic story telling, something that wasn’t quite the strong point of the games that came before it.
Returning weapons from previous Turok games included the fan favorite Cerebral Bore and Tek Bow, and like in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, you would be able to ride dinosaurs: a T-Rex and Triceratops, each equipped with mini-guns and rocket launchers. Turok’s new connection the spirit would’ve brought with it new abilities linked to it, allowing you to use spiritual powers with effects akin to Final Fantasy. Online co-op was also proposed for up to two players.
The documents for Turok: Resurrection painted a bold future for the then waning franchise, and one can only imagine what could’ve been. It would be exciting for Nightdive to take these ideas and run with them using their own preparatory tools, but the company has a lot of projects in the works, among them a remaster of Acclaim’s Shadow Man.
Comic Book Video Games 