Jurassic Park

"Finally, a movie-based game that doesn't suck!"

Video games based off of movies have a horrible reputation of sucking. You'd think a video game based off a mid-90's blockbuster would be no exception and would probably suck even worse than most. I may not know about the other video games based off Jurassic Park, but believe it or not this one doesn't suck! Seriously. Read on!

Story: 5/10

Okay, you play as Grant and you've got to complete a bunch of tasks to get off the island. Sounds kinda boring, but it's not really. The story's not really important for this game, anyway.

Graphics: 10/10

For 1993, these graphics are great! Outside, everything's in an overhead perspective, something you'd usually expect in an RPG. The dinosaurs look great outside and are well-animated. But the best part is that inside buildings, the game switches to a first-person 3-D perspective! Here, you'll find detail you'd usually expect on an early Playstation game! Granted, the dinos look pixellated indoors but then again, it WAS only 1993.

Sound: 8/10

The sounds aren't too bad. The music is nothing special and only contains about four or five tracks. Fortunately, none of them are annoying or anything, and a few of them are even kinda catchy. The music tracks also seem to change depending on where you are, but they fade out and into another, rather than a jarring skip. There's also a really cool scary theme when you get close to the T-Rex.

As for sounds, many of the dino noises were taken right out of the movie, and they sound perfectly okay. The human voices don't really sound like their movie counterparts, but hey, at least they tried.

Controls: 7/10

You might fumble a bit between the weapons buttons, but if you have the right weapons, you won't need to worry about that. However, you might still fumble around with the "pick up" button when you're outside. Indoors, Grant is kind of hard to control when turning corners. You'll have to stop him, turn, and move him forward a lot.

Gameplay: 9/10

Most of the other Jurassic Park games were platformers. This, however is part mission game and part 3-D shooter. In order to get off the island, you need to do a bunch of tasks which you can hear about from any radio tower (the rest of the JP cast will tell them to you). The tasks range anywhere from turning on lights to collecting raptor eggs so they don't hatch. But to complete these tasks, you need to find the right buildings. You might also have to find the right key cards to access some places, which are scattered around the park.

This sounds simple enough, but it's not really. Grant has a health bar in this game, but he can lose health easily from a dino attack. He can also die easily, either from falling in water, getting mauled by a Triceratops, or getting eaten by the T-Rex. Fortunately, there are health kits scattered throughout the game, and they regenerate in buildings. That way, you won't be screwed.

To fight the dinos, Grant has lots of weapons ranging from a cattle prod to rocket launchers. Find the right combination of weapons, and the dinos won't be much of a problem. Unless they ambush you, which the raptors always do outside. And dinos like spitters are pretty fast to dodge you when you're outdoors. And keep in mind that some dinos, like the Triceratops and the T-Rex can't be killed! Fortunately, dinos don't regenerate indoors, and somewhere in the game is a motion sensor which will help you keep track of those darn big lizards.

The biggest problem with this game is lack of a save feature. This game is actually pretty long, and any kind of save feature would have helped tremendously. Unfortunately, outside of emulator save states, there is none, not even a password.

Breakdown!

Good points:
-Spiffy graphics!
-Solid gameplay; not your average movie-based video game.
-Dinos don't regenerate indoors, but health supplies and weapons do. This keeps an already fairly tough game from being impossible.

Bad points:
-NO SAVE FEATURE. For such a long game, it really needs one!
-The ending is a bit disappointing.

What should you do?

I'd say emulate it, mostly because of the lack of save feature. The save states will really save you the frustration of having to start all over again every time you have to turn off the game. However, if you don't want to emulate, then either rent it or buy it cheap. But good luck finding it, because it's pretty old.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/04