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——The Giganotosaurus' roar.

The Giganotosaurus is a carnivorous dinosaur and a minor antagonist in Turok. Its first and only appearance is during the level "Death Valley."

On their way to a small cave entrance in the valley, Joseph Turok and Slade end up encountering the creature. It cannot be killed, thus the player must avoid it. Slade mistakes this dinosaur for a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Appearance[]

2006 build[]

In a prerelease image for Turok, the Giganotosaurus was seen with a drastically different appearance, being beige-yellow in coloration, with a scientifically accurate skull design. The teeth of the carnivore were much more jagged, and the creature's arms were scaled properly with relation to its body.

The eyes of the dinosaur were a deep yellow, and a large scar was present alongside the right side of the dinosaur's face, on its jaw and fenestra.

2008 build[]

The Giganotosaurus appears as a giant gray-skinned carnivore that has large arms with three-fingered claws. This dinosaur is around the same size as Mama Scarface. However, it is less muscular in comparison to Scarface, instead having a slimmed build. On top of this, the creature also bears scars similar to Scarface. The scars are identical to Utahraptor claw marks and are located on the legs, shoulders, and the base of its tail. This dinosaur also has spiky crests above its eyes, and it has a longer, more narrow skull than a Tyrannosaurus.

Gameplay[]

Campaign[]

The Giganotosaurus acts the same as Mama Scarface in gameplay, which means that the Giganotosaurus can outpace Turok in just a few strides. It can also perform an instant-kill move which involves Joseph Turok getting eaten. It performs this move if the player stands too close to it, or if it attempts a full-on sprint towards the player which knocks them back, giving it time to eat Turok.

The one big gameplay difference here is that the Giganotosaurus is invulnerable. This means that no amount of weaponry will kill it, so when the player encounters this dinosaur, they must run away from it. Around Death Valley are logs that the player can hide in, and there are also crevices that hold ORO FP9 SMG ammo and Utahraptor nests. As such, if Joseph fires at the Giganotosaurus with enough ammunition, Slade will tell Turok that he is wasting ammo and that he cannot harm the beast, due to its invulnerable nature.

The Giganotosaurus has a few offensive capabilities. There is a headbutt attack, a tail-whip attack, and then the instant-kill finishing move that is exclusive to the T. rex and Giganotosaurus.

The tail-whip move is the most commonly and unintentionally used attack. This attack occurs when the massive beast turns around and swings its tail into the player. This will cause moderate damage and will momentarily stun the player, leaving them open to attacks. This attack can also unintentionally be performed if the player is next to the Giganotosaurus and it turns around to face a Utahraptor.

The Giganotosaurus can also ram the player with its head, which will cause them to become disoriented and stunned much like the tail-whip attack. However, when this attack is performed, it is usually succeeded by the Giganotosaurus performing an instant kill on the player which will force them to restart.

Developer testing maps[]

The Giganotosaurus appears in one of the developer testing maps, dubbed "BurningTest2." Here, it is vulnerable to weaponry the player spawns in via console commands and, when killed, will simply ragdoll. Unlike its campaign counterpart, this Giganotosaurus is vulnerable to weaponry without modifications.[1]

History[]

Turok[]

Following the infiltration and escape from MG-20B, Turok and Slade encountered a lone Giganotosaurus in Death Valley. Partially passive to the two, the massive carnivore attempted to feed on Parasaurolophus, Utahraptors and, eventually, Joseph Turok and Slade as it noticed them while they made their way through its territory. The duo would escape the large dinosaur's sights, and it seemingly made no effort to leave the valley, having not been encountered by Whiskey Company again.

Later on, as Turok made his way through a forested region and a Utahraptor den on his way to rescue Cowboy, he'd find Giganotosaurus-like skulls in the den.

Alpha Team would later find more skulls akin to the Giganotosaurus' in a mass grave of dinosaurs near a Mendel-Gruman Corporation outpost located around Mother Superior.

Trivia[]

Production notes[]

  • The Giganotosaurus underwent some of the most drastic gameplay and design decisions in the game, if not the most numerous in the entire game.
    • The dinosaur's appearance changed three times. The first incarnation of the dinosaur looked much like its real life counterpart. The second incarnation looked more akin to its release version, albeit lacking its brow-spikes, featuring altered teeth, along with a slightly different color scheme. The final version features brow spikes, and a more gray overall color.
    • Additionally, the dinosaur was originally going to be encountered at the MG station seen during "End of the Road", along with a Utahraptor and a deceased Dilophosaurus. These gameplay elements would later either be moved to, or would only be seen during "Death Valley".
    • In addition to this, the dinosaur has an unseen death animation present within the game's files, despite being invincible in Turok's final release, which has the dinosaur tripping, falling, before seemingly falling down a large gap.[2]
    • The Giganotosaurus also had a larger role in concept art, with multiple conceptual level overviews showing that its "feeding ground" would've been set at the end of a long level, rather than briefly seen at the start of one. It was also shown that Turok and Slade would've encountered the giant carnivore after having their MG Jeep destroyed within its valley, forcing them to run from it on foot, rather than haphazardly stumbling upon it as they were moving through a valley.

General trivia[]

  • Despite its minimal presence in the game, the Giganotosaurus received more dedicated pre-release screenshots and in some cases, trailer attention than the game's Tyrannosaurus antagonist. Notably, it was used as the major dinosaur of the game's E3 2007 trailer, being featured at the trailer's climax, while the T. rex wasn't seen at all, barring its offspring.
  • The Giganotosaurus' focus will shift depending on which way the player moves to encounter it. If they move up the left side of the valley, the Giganotosaurus will focus on them only, ignoring the Parasaurolophus it was originally following. If they move up the right side, it's possible for the player to stand in the open in its path and have the dinosaur stride right past them as it focuses on the Parasaurolophus and Utahraptors that arrive.
  • On Inhuman difficulty, the Giganotosaurus moves at a faster footspeed than Mama Scarface does, coming in at 565 world units, versus Scarface's 550 and 560 during her battles in "Mother Superior" and "An Eye for an Eye," respectively.
  • The Giganotosaurus seen on the Xbox 360 version of Turok features distinctly detailed eye textures, with dilated, natural pupils, and a much more rounded, properly developed snout, whereas the PlayStation 3 and PC variants features a less refined model, with erroneously contracted pupils, simplistic eye textures, and a jagged snout.

List of appearances[]

Notes and references[]

  1. EmoLevelDesigner (February 19, 2012). "Turok 2008 Hidden DevTest Maps". YouTube. Accessed June 24, 2016.
  2. rroobboo 999 (Jun 29, 2015). "TUROK 2008 Gigantosaurus + 67 animations (.c4d)". Youtube. Accessed April 24, 2017
Enemies of Turok
Saurian Creatures BrachiosaurusDilophosaurusEchindonGiganotosaurusLurkerMini-RaptorParasaurolophusTyrannosaurus rex (Juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex) • Unidentified giant theropodUtahraptor
Various Species PteranodonRazor WingSoldier Bug
Humanoid Enemies
Standard Infantry Grunt/VeteranRPGSniper
Heavy Infantry EliteHeavy WeaponsPyro
Miscellaneous Scientist
Bosses
Wildlife Bosses Mama ScarfaceWater Beast
Humanoid Bosses Roland KaneSpider Tank
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