Jurassic Park: The Game
Overview -
Before garnering critical acclaim and Game of the Year buzz with ‘The Walking Dead,’ Telltale Games was a company with the reputation of releasing modern day incarnations of such popular properties as ‘Monkey Island’ and ‘Sam & Max.’ In 2011 though, they would make a big leap forward in the point-and-click adventure genre with their four-episode approach to the ‘Jurassic Park’ franchise. Wisely set between the events of the first film and the arguably disappointing sequel, ‘The Lost World,’ Telltale’s ‘Jurassic Park’ focused on the ‘little people’ of the failed genetic theme park and fascinatingly kicks off the story in media res, as an unnamed character frantically evades predators, all while struggling to maintain her grip on a very familiar can of Barbasol. Over the course of the game’s four episodes, players gain the opportunity to ‘control’ a unique cast of characters, often jumping between them at a moments notice to complete a series of tasks. Reviewing this game three year after its release provides the unique opportunity to revisit one of Telltale’s more overlooked titles, especially in the wake of ‘The Walking Dead.’
Video Review
‘Jurassic Park’ is a visually disappointing and technically incompetent game in almost too many areas to list. The game’s pre-rendered environments are passable, but never take advantage of the PS3’s hardware to anywhere near the fullest extent. Character models are a notch below in overall quality, often suffering from stiff animations, offering a look that doesn’t always convey the emotion the story aims for. To make matters worse the game suffers from incredible framerate drops at constant time throughout the course of the four episodes. It’s most detrimental when an action sequence kicks in and hurts the narrative when there’s a jitter or pause as the next scene or sequence activates. Quite honestly, it’s a nearly game-breaking issue that only gets the most marginal of passing marks due to the few strength’s of the game’s story, the relatively easy difficulty and the short length.
Audio Review
Audio wise, ‘Jurassic Park’ offers a similar experience to the movie. Atmospheric sounds work wonders when utilized properly and the dinosaurs sound convincingly creepy. Voce acting on the other hand is all over the place with the actors responsible for the Harding’s turning in grating performances. Nikia Futterman and Jason Marsden as Nima and Billy respectively do offer the most fully formed performances, but on a whole the tone is more caricature than realistic. In terms of creating an overly engrossing gameplay experience, the audio is serviceable at best with a few technical glitches (bad mixing, etc) just ever so slightly making their presence known.
Final Thoughts
‘Jurassic Park’ is far from a polished gameplay experience and its technical glitches do come close to sinking the ship before it sets sail, but as far as licensed properties go, it does its best to tell an original tale in a familiar setting. It’s a brief enough game and frankly, easy enough game, that should you be able to track it down for the right price, is a pleasant enough diversion for a few hours. It definitely shows that even a great company like Telltale doesn’t always hit a homerun, but again, looking at the game in a post-‘Walking Dead’ world, it's obvious they learned some solid lessons and put them to good use in future titles.
