Jurassic Park: The Game (PC, X-BOX 360, PlayStation 3)

Developer: Telltale Games in partnership with NBC/Universal
Publisher: Telltale Games
Genre: Cinematic Adventure
Players: 1
Platform: XBox 360, PS3, PC/Mac, iPad
Rated: Teen for Language, Voilence and Gore.
Controller: Gamepad, Keyboard, Mouse, and Touch pad controls.

PC System Requirements
OS: XP Service Pack 3 / Vista / Windows 7
Processor: 1.8 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 2 GB Space Free
Video Card: ATI or NVidia card w/ 256 MB RAM
DirectX®: Direct X 9.0c
Sound: Direct X 8.1 sound device

Mac System Requirements
OS: Mac OS X 10.6
Processor: 2.0 GHz Pentium or equivalent
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 2 GB Space Free
Video Card: ATI or NVidia card w/ 256 MB RAM
Additional: Not recommended for MAC Minis or early-generation MacBooks

Takes place during and after the events of the first movie and follows in the steps of the park’s vetrinarian, Dr. Gerry Harding. JPTG continues the story of what happened to the embryo can and shows the fate of Isla Nublar.

Review #1 by Chaos_Theory: It’s finally upon us, the release of Jurassic Park: The Game, and with a release did you expect it to go without a review? Well, believe me, it’s time for the review so grab your reading glasses and prepare for some good reads, as I am honored to take you back to Jurassic Park. Now, originally we were going to review it episode by episode, but since it’s just one big game we are going to do one whole big review. Can you really blame us? You can never really cover just one part of a dinosaur.

Now, the game starts out with a very nice rendition of the opening theme from the movie. It’s soon followed by an unnamed woman running through the jungle being chased by some sort of predator, and in this moment you are first introduced to the playing style of Jurassic Park, which is Quick Time Events. At first I thought this style of game-play would ruin the game for me which, in all honesty, I was quickly mistaken. This kind of game-play makes the game really unique and a one of a kind experience. I know a lot of people say that it looked stupid and it would ruin the game. But, in all honesty, it makes the experience that much better! Especially the action sequences where you are being chased down by hungry Velociraptors, or The Queen of the Island herself. While it may sound perfect, alas, nothing ever is. There were quite a few times where I was in the middle of an intense action scene and no commands appeared in which I was torn apart viciously. Luckily, they are few and far between and didn’t cause very many mishaps.

Now on to my favorite part of any game review: the story! The game starts out, as I said earlier, with Nima running through the jungles of Isla Nublar being chased by an unseen predator, with a rough and tumble; she falls and lands on a maintenance road and we see bright lights as they head towards Nima. The game starts out with a thrill and it’s constant. The story is something I didn’t think would be so tight fitting, but it is. In the game we learn the dark side of the park, Ingen and even a few darker secrets about Mr.Hammond. The team paid attention to details which I always think is a plus. There are a few parts that made me scratch my head, but nothing so serious as to warrant me not playing and going, “this never happened”!

With all that said, Jurassic Park: The Game is an enjoyable experience for fans of the franchise, or if you’re looking to escape a few hours of your life. Telltale games has really shown their love for the series with this game. The attention to detail proves that you can still make entertaining stories from the JP franchise and that most of all the fans will enjoy it as long as the writing and the attention to detail are there. I give this game 9.9 out of 10.

Review #2 by TyrannosaurTJ: Many of us long to visit a world from a long time ago and some of us have dreamt of visiting a place like Jurassic Park where prehistory runs wild. In Jurassic Park: The Game you get that opportunity to revisit a lost world forgotten. Jurassic Park: The Game is probably one of the best revisits to the franchise in years and makes one feel as if they are in the middle of a new sequel to the Jurassic Park series.

The game explores the aspects of Isla Nublar, which was the first island seen in the 1993 blockbuster hit directed by Steven Spielberg. Your primary experience is through the eyes of a background character seen from the first film, but as the gameplay progresses you jump through different characters such as three mercenaries, a paleo-geneticist, and a young girl that is the main character’s daughter. The main character you primarily play as was a bit-part role played by Gerald R. Molen, one of the film’s producers, as the park’s veterinarian – Gerry Harding. The experience on the island is primarily his story in this game as you attempt to escape with your daughter from Isla Nublar while dealing with the rescue of the lost Barbasol can full of Dennis Nedry’s stolen dinosaur embryos seen plummeting into a muddy grave from the first film.

The game is available for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac, and the iPad. Sadly no iPhone app is available, but I personally wish it was. The game is single player and the story unfolds via an episodic format. There are four episodes that tell the entire story within the game. Telltale Games is the publisher and the one good thing about Telltale Games is they know how to tell a story.

When I first encountered the game in a preview at San Francisco’s Temple Night Club, hosted by Telltale back in February of 2011, there was a demo of the game available for play. In the encounter I had to solve a puzzle involving how to corral a loose Triceratops and get her back into her pen. Essentially you have to examine your environment, find clues, and interact with it to resolve situations. It reminded me of another Jurassic Park game that came out years ago for the Sega CD. The original demo I played of the game overall was quite aesthetically pleasing as it echoed the props, animals, and characters from the first film and featured an awesome Triceratops versus Tyrannosaurus fight – a truly classic battle of titans.

There are some minor inconsistencies with the overall game and the first film due to some licensing issues for actor likeness. Overall the game does a good job of bringing feelings of “Jurassic Nostalgia” back with it through the use of familiar visuals, music, and even sound effects. Carolyn Petit of GameSpot reviewed the game and stated “the game uses the same sound effects heard in the film, from the throaty clicky noise made by velociraptors on the prowl to the unforgettable roar of the Tyrannosaurus” (2). The sounds of the movie are there according to Petit because, let’s face it, you cannot have anything Jurassic Park without that infamous roar of a Tyrannosaurus echoing in your ears as you assist your character in a vital escape.

Jurassic Park: The Game
is done in the style of an adventure game and utilizes quick-time events to achieve a scripted outcome depending on one’s success or failure. To those who don’t know what quick time events are, they are events where a certain number of button sequences are pressed in order to receive a particular outcome of the scenario you are presented with in the game. An example, of a scenario in the game is one where your character needs to get past a T.rex. We know their vision, according to Jurassic Park at least, is based on movement. So I would have to press my arrows on my keyboard or directional pad to dodge the T.rex’s head as it pokes its head through the scene patrolling for me. So what happens if you press the wrong arrow at a crucial moment? I would become a Jurassic Slim-Jim. Also worthy of note, for those with morbid curiosity, is that the death montages are quite humorous and I have found some people, including myself, purposefully flubbing to allow for a death to occur where the rag-doll physics of your body is displayed.

While the deaths are great to watch in the case of Jurassic Park: The Game, your goal is to survive. So if you perform the right sequence you are rewarded with not only survival, but with a medal of varying degree. The medals awarded are gold for outstanding performance, silver for okay performance, and bronze for the fact you became a tasty mammalian sandwich to the carnivores of the island. Alternatively you can make it through the scenarios without a medal at all, and that’s where you have most likely been digested by a Tyrannosaurus one-too-many times.

Jurassic Park isn’t new to this genre style of adventure game believe it or not. A movie tie-in Jurassic Park for the Sega CD system explored a similar story and gameplay style like this back in 1993. It involved puzzles to solve and scenarios where particular pieces of equipment were utilized to escape danger. Commonly though, Jurassic Park games have been notoriously shooters and while Jurassic Park: The Game isn’t revolutionizing first-person shooters like Trespasser did, it sure is fun.

Like most games developed by Telltale, such as Back to the Future and the Sam and Max series, the focus is primarily on these quick time events and obviously story. Unlike Back to the Future and the Sam and Max series, you are unable to roam around freely in your environment, except for otherwise panning the camera around the scene to look for clues in your situation, for example: “Check Bush A here since you saw it rustle”. There has been some discontent revolving around the confinement in Jurassic Park: The Game with Petit pointing out that the controls themselves makes one feel as if they are more or less watching a film or “an actor playing a part in a film” (2). I find myself agreeing with this sentiment actually. I would definitely wish to explore more of the island myself as like a free-look environment, but either way it’s still nice to go back in this game to where it all began.

While the game lacks online features, it is worth a play through a couple times in order to experience the story, adventure, and the nostalgia. Alternatively one could watch the first film and probably play the game after to get the equivalent of a much-needed sequel to the Jurassic Park franchise. The graphics in the game are very pleasing to the eyes making it very easy to get immersed, as they are mostly realistic and less cartoony than Telltale’s other games from their previous titles.
You can purchase the game from Gamestop or online from Telltale’s website for thirty dollars (a decent price). Telltale also offers a deluxe collector’s edition which includes a poster, InGen Handbook, InGen Employee ID, and Jurassic Park patch for around forty dollars – a steal with the grab bag of goodies. The game itself is definitely another romp in Jurassic Park that one should not miss, especially for those familiar with the franchise or those just looking to have some much needed prehistoric wonder in their lives.

References:

Petit, Carolyn. “Jurassic Park: The Game Review”. Gamespot. California. 21 November 2011.   2  pages. Web. 18 Jan. 2012 <http://www.gamespot.com/jurassic-park-the-game/reviews/jurassic-park-the-game-review-6346470/>