Login to Continue Learning
At The Game Awards 2025, Saber Interactive announced Turok: Origins, a reboot of the classic sci-fi shooter franchise. As many old-school gamers know, Turok originally appeared as a master Native American tracker and survivalist in late 1954 comics published by Dell Comics. He later featured in comics from Valiant, Dark Horse, and Dynamite, but his fame primarily came from Acclaim’s successful video game series, which launched in 1997. By the time of Turok: Evolution in 2002, the franchise had already generated over $250 million in sales.
However, the IP’s success didn’t last long. After the release of Evolution, only one more installment was made—Turok: The Savage War (2008), developed by Propaganda Games. Though not well-received by critics, it sold over a million copies in its first two months, prompting Disney Interactive Studios to have Propaganda work on a sequel before shutting down both the studio and the project in 2011.
Saber Interactive aims to reignite interest among longtime fans with Turok: Origins. The company, known for successfully reviving franchises like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, has a large team at Saber Madrid working on this game for nearly five years.
The story campaign is around fifteen hours long and connects to the first Turok game from 1997. Players will face not only dinosaurs but also an alien threat called Xenia civilization, which seeks to eradicate all human life in the galaxy. As Turok and humanity lose the war, they embark on a quest to find a superpower that can turn the tide of conflict. The game features various planets to visit, including ancient temples, wasteland canyons, and dense jungles.
During the Gamescom 2025 demo, we tested three-player online cooperative action with three playable characters, each with their own weapons, perks, and Ultimate abilities. Players could extract Echoes from foes and the environment to unlock real-time powers. The gameplay is fairly standard for a shooter, with linear maps that don’t allow much exploration, requiring players to move toward control points while mowing down enemies.
Notably, the developers added an option to switch between first-person and third-person views in real-time by long-pressing the d-pad. The demo included a boss fight against a Tryceratops-like creature with charge, teleportation, and lightning attacks, reflecting the Xenia aliens’ control over some dinosaurs with their technology.
Turok: Origins currently lacks a release date but appeared fairly polished based on the Gamescom 2025 demo. It will run at 60 frames per second on consoles (except for the Xbox Series S version). Whether its structure and content will attract players remains to be seen once the final version is available.
