The game begins with the seer, Tarkeen, explaining the history of the Lost Lands which had, for years, been fought over by tyrannic warlords.On earth during the old west, Tal'Set faces off his enemy, Captain Bruckner and succeeds in cutting off his arm, but both of them are sucked into a wormhole. Tal'Set is nearly killed and the people of the River Village, who found him, call upon Tarkeen to heal him. Tarkeen then commands them to bring Tal'Set to him. He is sent into the jungle and kills enemy factions, lizard-like enemies known as the Sleg, that are close to the Village. Tal'Set hooks up with Genn, a pilot from the Village, who will be guiding him to the seer. Along the way, he uses a Quetzalcoatlus to evict the Sleg from the jungle and destroy their air ship.Tal'Set reaches Tarkeen's sanctum and Tarkeen tells him that it was he who summoned him and that he must accept the mantle of Turok and release Tarkeen from a curse. When Tal'Set refuses, Tarkeen tells him that the Slegs had managed to reach the Village. This enrages Tal'Set which prompts him to cut through the mountains to reach the Sleg base, where they are holding the villagers and the River Village leader, Wise Father. He infiltrated the base and releases the prisoners and then enters the Sleg fortress.Tal'Set proceeds in liberating the base and learns that a "human general" was the one who ordered the attack on the jungle and the Slegs that Tal'Set fought were only a diversion. Deeper in the base, Tal'Set is ordered to retrieve the enemy war plans, which he does by destroying the reactor and causing it to meltdown. With the reactor causing much chaos, he is able to reach the prison cells, kill the guards and rescue the Wise Father and his comrades. They both escape the fortress, but outside they assault on the human city of Galyana, but for the army to reach it the must cross the Chasm, which can only be crossed in two spots. Tal'Set enters the Shadowed Lands and makes his way through the ruins to an old bridge, where he blows it up to stop the Slegs from crossing the Chasm. He is rescued from falling to his death by his Pterosaur and he proceeds in destroying an enemy stronghold in the Chasm with Genn.