Turok's Comeback Flexes Brutal Combat in New Trailer

Eighteen months after its reveal at The Game Awards 2024, Turok: Origins finally has gameplay footage that makes a case for why this franchise needed to come back. Saber Interactive dropped a new trailer today mixing cinematics with in-game combat, and while the two aren't always easy to separate, what's on display is a violent, fast-moving shooter that looks like it has genuine teeth.

The Steam page for Turok: Origins confirms the game is targeting a fall 2026 launch on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC, though Saber still hasn't committed to an exact date. Players step into the role of the Turok, a mystical guardian fighting across the Lost Lands against both dinosaurs and an alien force trying to wipe out humanity. The game blends first-person and third-person perspectives, letting you swap between them, and supports online co-op so you can bring friends along for the dino-hunting.

What caught my eye in this trailer is the sheer aggression of the combat. There's melee that looks properly brutal, grapple hooks adding verticality to fights, dashes for repositioning, and a weapon roster that ranges from bows and shotguns to plasma rifles and alien tech. Several flying creatures show up too, which suggests encounters won't just be ground-level arena fights. The scale of some of the boss encounters looks ambitious. If Saber can make those feel as punishing to play as they look in the trailer, this could land well with the co-op shooter crowd.

Early Impressions vs. New Footage

WCCFtech's preview described the demo as "pretty standard shooter fare," with the boss fight and perspective-swapping being the main highlights. That's a gap between what journalists played last summer and what this trailer is selling now, and it could go either way. Either Saber has spent the last year significantly tightening the combat loop, or the trailer is doing heavy lifting that the moment-to-moment gameplay can't sustain.

I'm leaning toward giving Saber some benefit of the doubt here, and that's entirely because of Space Marine 2. That game proved the studio knows how to make third-person combat feel weighty and satisfying, and some of that DNA is visible in how Turok: Origins handles its melee and weapon feedback. If they can bring even half of Space Marine 2's combat feel to this project, the "standard shooter" criticism from Gamescom might not stick to the final product.

The co-op angle is smart positioning, too. There's a clear gap in the market for a co-op shooter that isn't a live-service grind or a looter with battle passes stapled on. Turok: Origins appears to be a campaign-driven experience you play with friends, which is refreshing. No mention of seasonal content, no storefront screenshots, no talk of post-launch monetisation. Whether that holds through launch remains to be seen, but the pitch right now is clean.

One detail from Pure Xbox that's less encouraging: the Xbox Series S version will reportedly run at 30FPS while Series X targets 60FPS. For a game selling itself on fast-paced, aggressive combat, 30FPS on Series S is a real compromise. Movement systems built around dashes and grapple hooks feel noticeably worse at half the frame rate, and Series S owners playing co-op alongside Series X players will feel that difference constantly.

Saber hasn't announced a specific release date beyond the fall 2026 window. Given how much the studio has on its plate right now, including the Painkiller revival and a newly announced John Wick game, I'd expect Turok: Origins to land in October or November. The franchise has been dormant since the 2008 reboot, and this revival is taking it in a direction the original games never went. Whether that co-op, perspective-swapping formula works will come down to how the combat feels in your hands, not in a trailer. Saber's track record says they can deliver on that front, but the Gamescom feedback is a reminder that they haven't proven it with this game yet.