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Jurassic Park the Game
I feel like the poor guy
in Jurassic Park II when the two T-rex’s tore him in half. In other
words I feel divided. I wanted to so much like this game. I was so very
excited since the premise is so awesome. Unfortunately Jurassic Park the
Game, let’s fans and gamers down in so many ways. What worked for
Telltale Games with the Back to the Future Game just falls flat here.
All I could think of plodding through the episodic
game long before I excruciatingly made it past the first chapter and was
well into chapter two, was that Man, I wish someone would take the
survival concept from Dead Island and apply it to the Jurassic Park
Franchise for a first person game. Now that would be a game! Funny
enough, I have had others tell me the same things that have played
around with this game. So I know it’s on others minds as well.
I digress, we are here after all to review Jurassic
Park the Game from Telltale Games. Things take place during the events
of the first film. Though in a parallel way, this is the story we did
not see. The story bounces around a bit, but by Chapter two we are
introduced to a mercenary chick, her name is Nima, who has been hired
with the attempted recovery of the Barbasol can where the embryos are
hidden within a secret compartment. Earlier on we meet the parks vet, A
Dr. Gerry Harding who has his daughter Jessi, along who is there is
assist him. Still later on we meet Dr. Sorkin, Sorkin is a scientist
who wants to ensure the ethical practices towards these animals. Hmm
Conflict right there, one wonders why he was there and allowed the
animals to be cloned at all without raising a stink about it. Maybe the
draw to see the animals was just too much. We then get our token two
soldier of fortune characters hired on to get survivors off the island.
As the action starts to pick up, the game does have
its moments and cool returns to iconic areas from the first film. The
Dinosaurs do move and react a lot like in the films, and behavior looks
like what we remember from the films… and the looks are great thanks to
Telltale games doing the research with Paleontologist Kevin Padian.
In a surprise, unlike other games from Telltale, this
being Jurassic Park and all, the player can in fact become Dino chow. So
there is more of an element of danger and consequence going here. More
so than, oh darn I did not get the puzzle figured out correctly.
The story is not bad in its presentation and with
better game play this could have truly been a riveting game. With all
these characters of different personality types and back ground and
motivations colliding on this oh so dangerous island, the game play
should have risen to the stories level. Unfortunately the game play is
as rigidly fossilized as a couple million year old Dinosaur bone, and oh
so painfully linear.
I enjoyed the quirky style of game play here to an
extent, maybe I just expected more… and it seemed to work for Back to
The Future the game… but it only falls dead into extinction for Jurassic
Park the Game. It’s worth a short distraction, there may not be enough
here to keep an adult occupied and wanting to get to the games finish.
Hard core fans may soldier through it and enjoy some of the games
thrills, but the game play game mechanics may leave something to be
desired for some gamers. Is the game an absolute right off? No, no, and
I know some of the things I have said here can seem a bit on the harsh
side…is the game fun? It does have its moments. Does it feel rather on
the simplistic side for the games premise? Yes. The best thing I can say
fellow Impulse Gamers is, take episode one for a spin, if you like it,
delve further into the rest of the games episodes since you can purchase
them individually.
Have fun play games.
Edwin Millheim
Impulse Gamer |
