Bytes & Flops 01.05.12: Jurassic Park: The Game
Posted by Vince Osorio on 01.05.2012
Telltale Games is the latest company to put out an adventure game based on the iconic Jurassic Park franchise! But is the game a bonafide classic or a lame cash-in? 411's Vince Osorio takes a look!
I have spared no expense to bring you the finest articles about obscure-ish video games in this day and age. Life finds a way, as do bad video games. As I try to awkwardly cram in another iconic line from Steven Spielberg's classic film, I ask that you hold onto your butts, and allow me to say: Welcome to Jurassic Park... The Game!
First off, no, this isn't the first Jurassic Park game (and it's not even the first Jurassic Park game I've covered for Bytes & Flops), but it's the first to appear on current-gen consoles and the first to be developed in house by Telltale, the current kings of the adventure genre. Unlike the Sam & Max or even Back to the Future titles, Jurassic Park: The Game is barely an adventure game. Rather, it plays out like a connected series of quick-time events in the guise of a cinematic pseudo-sequel to the original Jurassic Park film, interspersed with occasional point-and-click puzzles. In other words, it's an interactive movie with button prompts, much like Heavy Rain. So first off, if you're expecting some sort of Call of Duty rip-off with dinosaurs, just wait until next week when I cover Jurassic: The Hunted and skip this article completely, because this game ain't for you.
With that said, let's continue on. The game has a pretty awesome opening sequence which, quite literally, remakes the opening titles of the original films, prehistoric font and all. You're then thrust upon a series of quick-time events following a Michelle Rodriguez-type who has unfortunately stumbled upon the same dinos that tore apart Nedry in the film. We find out that her name is Nima Cruz, and she too is searching for the can of Barbasol which could destroy InGen's multi-million dollar theme park. We eventually meet up with 6 other characters who find themselves on Isla Nublar the night of the dinosaur attack: Gerry & Jess Harding, the park's vet and his rebellious teenage daughter, are attempting to improve their relationship after Jess was involved with some juvenile deliquence. Billy Yoder, Oscar Morales and Danny "D-Caf" Cafarro are hired guns sent to rescue the folks who failed to escape from the park, and Dr. Laura Sorkin wants to save her dinosaurs from the "lysine contingency" aberration (which was introduced in the original film as a safety measure in case dinos ran wild) before it's too late.
Like the best "ensemble" films, Jurassic Park: The Game tastefully intertwines the fate of these characters until they finally meet in the last few hours of the game without betraying the original story threads brought upon the film. In fact, you'll most often visit new locales in Isla Nublar, though the game can't afford not to pay visit to Nedry's death site and the visitor's center. However, it's a shame that you'll never have total, 100% direct control over the characters. Instead, the game opts to throw you into static scenes where you can interact with specific items or characters with the press of a button. You'll have dialogue trees with characters, but there's no need for an inventory menu or anything like that, due to the linear nature of the game. The puzzles are dead simple as well (with the exception of a stellar map-reading puzzle late in the game that reminded me of something from Puzzle Agent), meaning that this will be an absolute breeze for you if you're at all familiar with Telltale's style of gameplay.
You'll encounter all of the major dinosaurs from the first film, plus some dinos only seen in the sequels, such as the Compsognathus.
These sequences are much more traditional compared to the escape sequences, which are totally comprised of quick-time events. Sometimes, they make sense- rotate the thumbstick to rotate a lever, tap the X button to sprint to the nearest exit, dodge the dinos by tapping the thumbstick to the right direction. Other times, it feels like the actions were just thrown in just to make the game more interactive. Tapping the buttons in a rhythmic fashion to hack away in a dense forest isn't necessary, and neither is using the right stick to center a dot in the middle of the screen a great depiction of "steadying someone's mind". For the most part though, the sequences are tense and give you a sense of urgency that is lacking in modern horror-action titles.
This part is hilarious if you screw up the button prompts.
That is, if you can ignore the core faults with the game's performance. First off, the button prompts are small and at awkward parts of the screen. It's counter-intuitive to the experience, since it makes the escape sequences that much harder to pull off correctly. In my experience, it felt like I missed prompts due to the awkward placement, not because of my hand-eye coordination. Second, the game's performance is not up to snuff, at all. I played the game on the PC using a PS3 controller and encountered multiple instances of sluggish framerate (especially during the escape scenes), voice acting hitches and repeated dialogue. And this isn't a game that's graphically pushing the PC to the limit. I doubt you'd have much trouble running a game this "graphically-intense" game on a Wii, frankly. It just seems like Telltale's graphic engine just isn't capable of running these types of games, which is a shame, because the park and dinosaur designs are sharp. Other problems I have with the game include the extremely linear nature of the title (there's two endings to the game, both of which aren't all that different from each other), weak lip-synching and some awkward plot twists/turns towards the end of the story that felt completely inorganic to the experience. There's also plenty of unintentionally hilarious bits, most often taking place after failing a quick-time event, featuring deaths of the characters due to dinosaur attacks. I honestly could not stop laughing for about 10 minutes straight during a sequence I messed up on a button press and young Jess gets eaten whole by a T-Rex. I honestly can't tell if the deaths in the game were supposed to be funny or not, but they were to me, so maybe that's just a positive aspect of the game after all.
Action montage!
And this game failed because?
Full disclosure here: Jurassic Park: The Game has only been out for about a month and a half at this point, so the jury's still out on whether the game is a success or not. But considering the largely negative reviews and lukewarm response to the game as a whole, it's not likely that the game will be a breakout hit.
Jurassic Park: The Game has had one of the most awkward releases of any Telltale game, and that doesn't include the fact that it was delayed from a Spring to late Fall release early in 2011. The game is available as a download for the PS3 and PC, and though the game itself is split up into four separate episodes, it can only be purchased as one $30 download, meaning you can't buy the episodes one at a time. The Xbox version is a retail release, meaning there's no download option whatsoever for Xbox 360 owners, but the PS3 is getting a retail release sometime in the near future as well, further confusing things. Oh and if you bought the Jurassic Park Blu-Ray set, you'll get access to the first episode for free as a download from the Telltale website, but you'll still have to buy the rest of the episodes in bulk if you want to continue playing after that. It's confusing to tell people that a game is episodic in nature but only give them the option to buy the game upfront. With that said, $30 will get you about 6-7 hours across four episodes of "gameplay" (depending on whether you call quick-time events "gameplay" or not), but it's a tough sell in this day and age, even with the Jurassic Park name on the box (or digital box).
With that said, Jurassic Park: The Game is for the die-hard Jurassic Park fan who grew up with the series, who can't separate Jeff Goldblum from Ian Malcolm, who shouts out lines with the film like a crazy person. So basically, Jurassic Park: The Game is for me. It's a completely watchable and reverent sequel to one of the greatest films of all-time, a love letter to Steven Spielberg's classic. But as a game, it's really only worth playing through once, and only if you truly love Jurassic Park. I had a blast playing through the game in its entirety, but I can't speak for everyone else.
