Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter brought to PC a jungle full of dinosaurs, alien technology, and enemies charging out of thick fog. The player takes on the role of a Native American warrior guarding the border between worlds and fights their way through the Lost Land, where prehistoric creatures mix with armed soldiers and cyborgs. The structure is episodic: each level is a sprawling maze of platforms, caves, temples, and rivers in which the player collects keys, seeks out secrets, and gathers pieces of a powerful artifact needed for the final battle. Alongside shooting there's a lot of jumping and climbing, which was not common in the genre at the time.

The arsenal is among the best the game has to offer, combining a bow with silent shots, classic pistols and shotguns, and heavy sci-fi tech that literally tears opponents apart. Fights with dinosaurs feel different from firefights with humans, since the animals attack up close, quickly, and in packs. The PC version used hardware acceleration and offered higher resolution and a cleaner picture than players knew from the console, but the thick fog around the player remained a signature feature here too, since it masked the draw distance while also lending the environment a sense of unease. The sound works with distant roars, drums, and the hum of the jungle, holding the atmosphere together very well.

The original console version was a huge success at the time, and the brand followed up with further installments. The PC release met with a somewhat more mixed reception, since by 1997 it was competing on computers against the genre's cutting edge, but the visual work and the sheer size of the levels were praised. Today Turok is interesting mainly as an intersection of console and PC shooter design schools, with an emphasis on exploration and platforming sections. First-person jumping and easy disorientation are its biggest weaknesses, but modern remastered releases have significantly improved both visibility and controls.