Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis

"A Movie Based Game Worth Praising"

Introduction

There are a lot of games based on the Jurassic Park series and I could guarantee you that these games would focus on shooting dinosaurs. Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is by far the best of any of these games and it stays true to the series with most all of the characters from the first movie (or book) very much alive and helping you to run the most amazing theme park in the world. You will get to run your own theme park and manage all of the operations from building restrooms to sending paleontology teams to dig for fossils in certains sites around the world. Due to the very unique quality of Operation Genesis it is also a rare game that is rather expensive for its age.

Gameplay

There is a lot to do in Operation Genesis. The game features four different modes of gameplay with the Operation Genesis mode to get you started in creating a park and making it into a five star attraction. There is a tutorial that really isn't needed, but will help you get started and learn the controls. There is a mode for specific missions to do where you will go around taking pictures of dinosaurs in your Jurassic Park touring SUV (the one the T-Rex rips up in the movie) as well as flying around in a helicopter to herd dinosaurs around or put down some carnivores that are getting out of hand. Completing the Mission mode will unlock the free play mode where you get to create a bunch of dinosaurs on an island and let them roam free.

There is a lot to do in the main Operation Genesis mode to achieve a five star attraction for your park. John Hammond will introduce you to what you are about to do and that you will be creating the greatest theme park of all time. You will start off with a $60,000 budget, but don't worry I'm pretty sure that was suppposed to be just a representation and it is probably more like $60 billion dollars. Anyway you will be able to easily set up what you need to get started and you can open your park at anytime once you have some paths laid down. There are a lot of management options and you choose up to three locations to send dig teams to dig for fossils. The only problem is you won't be able to have all of the dinosaurs in your creation inventory so you will have to replay the game to see them all or pick from the locations that have your favorites. This is Jurassic Park without all of the misfortunes in the first book and movie so your head of security will be Robert Muldoon, Ellie Sadler will be in charge of your veterinary needs, Harry Wu will be on the island to research and develop new things for you to buy, and loner Dr. Grant will be out around the world still digging for bones and reasons not to hook up with Ellie. I guess the closest character you could be is Nedry because you can either be successful or completely ruin the park and spread terror to those poor tourists that decided to come see the dinosaurs. It is very easy to keep the money flowing and the security tight with a little maintenance. You could actually leave this game going by itself and still not lose much of anything. It is very hard to fail at Operation Genesis.

There are a lot of dinosaurs to raise in the game from the big names in the movie (Brachios, T-Rex, Spinosaurus, Raptors, Trikes, etc) to a laundry list of other species that may not have even been featured in the movies. The dinos will take care of themselves as long as you give them a water and food source and you can research an immunization program to keep them from getting sick and dying. You can tranquilize and move the dinosaurs anywhere although there is no handy batch moving system and moving each dinosaur one by one gets not only repetitive and slows the game down. Weather patterns will fluctuate from fair to drought to severe weather and for some odd reason you will get tornadoes to come through your park from time to time. Tornadoes on an island, who knew? Everything on the island will be able to be manipulated from the terrain to placing a restroom so that is a must when you realize you made your island too big or too rugged. You can check your visitors' statuses as they walk along and enjoy the sites and attractions you have placed. There are four different types of tourists each with particular interests in what they want to see so you will have to accommodate. You will also get to enjoy these attractions yourself. For example if you build a pen with a viewing platform you will be able to look through the platform to see what the tourists get to see and even take safari tours of your park. The dinosaurs will do a lot of things on their own and are real fun to watch.

Graphics/Sound

There is only one major problem with the graphics of this game and that is in the detail of the people you see walking around. Whether it is the tourists or the park sanitation workers you will notice something really wrong with them. Not only do these characters lack in detailing but they are also very irregularly shaped. Heads look like diamonds and they do not have hands, but grotesque stubs. My guess is the developers didn't think you would be zooming in for a close up on these people, but for whatever reason the people are really messed up. However, the good news is the dinosaurs got the brunt of the detail job. The dinosaur characters are fully detailed and I guess the reasoning was that the viewing would be more on the dinosaurs doing their things in the pens than the people viewing and getting eaten by them. The island graphics are not bad at all. Palm trees will sway back and forth and there are plenty of grassy fields and rugged mountains to make a good relaxing view for the background of your park. The graphics are very important to this game because you will be taking photographs from time to time and you can snap some very artsy photos in this game.

The music and sound is excellent. John Williams' original score is ever present throughout the game and you will get to listen to plenty of ambient noise of crickets and bugs and there are plenty of incoming messages from the Jurassic Park characters (although these are not the original actors lending their voice talents). All of the different species of dinosaurs have their own distinct roars and grunts so you can tell them apart from each other.

Replayability

Operation Genesis gives you a lot of enjoyable and relaxing play with plenty of challenges and a lot of stuff to do. Not only do you build your own Jurassic Park, but you also get to play the tourist and enjoy what you have built. There are numerous ways to build a park and then you have plenty of side items to complete to enjoy an island where you can allow the dinosaurs to roam free. You can either keep everything in order or play laissez faire and come back to the game later while it plays on, but whichever way you choose to play the game it is a great game to go back and replay. It takes a while to complete, but is not hard to finish.

Final Recommendation 8/10

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is a rare game that I would have to consider a gem of the Jurassic Park series of games that have preceded it. And I would consider it a gem because it is the only sim game that can hold my attention and be fun to sit back and enjoy or vilely manipulate. Who doesn't love letting a T-Rex roam free and watch it gobble up some polygonal headed tourist? You can strive to make Jurassic Park the best it can be and make Disney World look like a child's twenty-five cent dollar store parking lot joy ride, or you can generate dinosaurs to roam free on your island and hunt them from your helicopter. The options are very open ended. It is definitely worth the buy if you are into these types of games or the Jurassic Park thing. If you are a rare Xbox game collector then you will definitely want to find this game. I bought it online two years ago for twenty bucks and now it doesn't sell less than thirty so it is definitely going to be a collector's item one of these days. I haven't played any other sim theme park games so this is my review based on other Jurassic Park games and just the unique experience in playing a game that lives up to what Jurassic Park was supposed to be in John Hammond's mind.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/08

Game Release: Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis (US, 03/26/03)