Jurassic Park: The Game

Jurassic Park: The Game gets the licence utterly perfect, offering a thrilling rollercoaster ride (sometimes literally) of dinosaurs, tension and action, but still wise enough to slow down, let you and the characters catch their collective breath, and unwind with a simple puzzle or two.

This is Jurassic Park fans only territory. If you are not a die hard fan, you might find the Heavy Rain light gameplay of this episodic title rather underwhelming.

Telltale tries to take a new tack with Jurassic Park, and while their forte of creating good narratives shines through once in a while, it isn't nearly often enough to overcome the lack of actual interactivity and decision making in 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.

Unfortunately, like the cars that shuttle people around the island, this game is on rigid tracks and offers you no control over where it goes or how it gets there. You're just along for the ride.

An incredible story the first time through, but aside from some tricky achievements and a second ending, there's really nothing to bring you back for subsequent playthroughs.

The whole game trips and stumbles. The puzzles can be fun, control isn't bad, some of the story elements are decent, and the sound is better than average, but that's not enough. The animations and graphics aren't up to snuff, those puzzles are often too easy and even boring, and above all else the incredible spirit that drew so many to the movie theater is missing.

Telltale's flawed but entertaining approach to the Back to the Future license left me hopeful for the developer's take on Jurassic Park. Despite some early reservations, I still felt like that goose-bumped 13-year-old boy as the game's opening theme started and Jurassic Park's logo popped on screen. Unlike my younger self, however, I was in for a disappointment. [Jan 2012, p.87]

Ultimately, this is probably the worst Telltale game ever, and it is a shame because the license is great. It is interesting to enter again the park and discover the film scenarios, but the game turns out to be boring after a while because of its passive nature.

I wouldn't call Jurassic Park a bad game as it works and does take us back to a time when dinosaurs (stiffly) roamed the Earth, but the story, animations and general gameplay keep it from being able to contend with most titles on the market -- and that includes other Telltale titles.

Jurassic Park: The Game is best described as a low-budget Heavy Rain knock-off filled to the brink with quick time events. But where the buttons you had to press in Heavy Rain made more or less sense, they are completely random in Jurassic Park: The Game. [February 2012, p.104]

Every step taken toward creating a cohesive, cinematic adventure is sabotaged by bugs and glitches that thwart the game's attempts at immersion. [Feb 2012, p.85]

When met with the game's linear nature and over-reliance on quick-time events, these technical issues tear away at what could have been the perfect tribute to the original film.

All told, Jurassic Park: The Game may be marketed to you as a new-age Dino Crisis and a wild ride, but in reality it plays more like John Hammond's dinosaur tour as it was originally intended. You're locked on a linear track and inelegantly chauffeured through dino dioramas that you'll have close to zero interaction with. The tour grinds to a halt for the occasional toilet break (read: light puzzle moments), but once that business is dispensed with, you're escorted back to your proverbial jeep on a scalextric track and the tour limps on. [January 2012, p.77]

As it stands now, though, unless you dream of outrunning ferocious dinosaurs or really want to know the ultimate fate of that can of Barbasol, I'd suggest simply watching the movie to get your prehistoric fix.

If you stripped away the beloved license and were left with the barebones mechanics on show here, this would be a [twenty]. It's only the appeal of the iconic leviathans and John Williams' wonderful score which push Jurassic Park ever so slightly above awful.

The puzzles are practically non-existant, the quick time events are sloppy and the voice acting sounds like it was written by eight-year olds. It's more like a modern day Dragon's Lair than an exciting adventure game.

It seems to be perfectly suited for a casual audience who just wants to push buttons and watch things happen. But those looking for anything more had best look elsewhere.