And did I personally get the glory kill on the final boss of this demo build? I sure did and, yes, it felt fantastic.
The game also looks much more visually impressive than I anticipated, rather than the repetitive environments and assets that tend to get used in a lot of contemporary extraction shooters. While not the most eye-popping game that we played during SGF 2026 weekend, Turok: Origins also isn’t necessarily trying to go for the most detailed and hardware-pushing presentation. The game keeps its levels varied enough and the combat runs smoothly, even with the controlled chaos of having multiple players and enemies running around trying to kill each other.
The big thing to get used to, and this was more noticeable in a primarily interior mission that closed out our demo, is some of the level traversal mechanics. There are some areas where you can just sprint and jump and others where you need to use a grappling hook mechanic to swing across wider gaps. These moments were some of the less intuitive sequences in the demo compared to the more open environments, with minimal climbing and jumping. In the grand scheme, these are more quibbles than anything else but if I had to cite one area of improvement in the demo, that would definitely be it.
Thankfully, those segments seem to be few and far in between, with the developers recognizing that Turok handles better as a fast-paced shooter than a platforming experience. And even with this in mind, we were never fully taken out of the experience and would’ve loved more time, if only to see what the Bison class was all about on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet, leaving us on the hook to see how the final build will play out.
Who would’ve thought, in the Year of Our Lord 2026, that the most overtly fun first-person shooter we got to play at Summer Game Fest this year would be Turok: Origins. But it’s true and it’s caught us by surprise as much as anything else, reminding fans that the once-prolific dinosaur hunter should never be counted out completely. Though we only played an early build of the game, we definitely have the title on our radar now rather than regarding it as another attempt to revive a ‘90s franchise. Turok: Origins has enough of the sauce to bring the series back to prominence, or at least does its fans justice in a way its 2000s era titles didn’t.
Welcome back, Turok. We missed you.
