Jurassic Park: The Game
 

Anyone play it yet? It any good? I haven't been able to find any reviews yet.

Yeah I got it today. Not exactly what I was expecting! At first I was quite disappointed with how you don't get as much exploration as I would have liked. I would have liked to of taken proper control of the character. But now that I have got further into the game I'm really enjoying it! It's very exciting. I'm on episode two now, I was surprised because I thought the game would end after episode 1... so at least I don't have to wait a month to play the next part. :) It could be a lot better... but its good and very enjoyable.

I played the first episode last night. I'm enjoying it.

I was worried about the control scheme going in. I've been playing it with a 360 controller on my PC and the controls work fine. Getting away from point-and-click to what they did allows the game to be thrilling in a way that adventure games generally aren't. There are fast-paced action scenes and they feel exciting because you can very easily die (and there are some great dino deaths to be seen) if you don't react quickly enough. It's the opposite of being trapped on the side of a moving vehicle and having 5 (or 35) minutes to work everything out. In this you have a second to react.

Now, as a result, it hasn't been very puzzly at all. Is that a word, puzzly? Let's pretend that it is. It's also very easy. Because of the way the controls work, everything in the environment that you can interact with is highlighted. Working out what to do with them is trivial.

It makes the game very easy, at least in the first episode. There's a person that you have to bypass and there are really only two items on the screen. Try both and you've basically solved the puzzle. There's an item you have to find and just interacting with everything in the environment uncovers it. A third puzzle is figuring out how to move the attention of a particular dinosaur. Those are the only three puzzles that I can think of in the first episode. Everything else is timed button pressing.

There are ways to fail and be gloriously eaten by dinosaurs and you are scored lower every time that you fail. You can replay individual scenarios within episodes to try and get them all perfect. That's where the replayability and difficulty come in. Just getting to the end of the episode posed no problem. It may ramp up in the following episodes, but I haven't seen them yet.

I have run into a couple of bugs, but nothing major. I had a small texture on a character's clothing that wouldn't load in some scenes. It's not a big deal, but it was noticeable because it was on screen so much. There's also a scene where audio chunks would play twice about 40% of the time. Others in the Telltale forums reported that and it was annoying, but it's not a big deal. I think they've done some optimizing in the graphics engine. It still looks dated by other games' standards, but it's their best looking game yet and it runs better on my aging machine than BttF did.

It's different from what they've done in the past and I'm sure some people will be very put off by that. I think it's fun and interesting. I hope they make the first episode available for free like they have for other series so that people can try it out.

"There are fast-paced action scenes and they feel exciting because you can very easily die (and there are some great dino deaths to be seen) if you don't react quickly enough. It's the opposite of being trapped on the side of a moving vehicle and having 5 (or 35) minutes to work everything out. In this you have a second to react."


Thanks for that. It took Jurassic Park right off my radar.

Yup. I imagine this game is going to put off a lot of adventure game fans. If you like them because you can take your time and explore the world, this is not going to do it for you. There are scenes where you can do that, but there isn't as much to them as you get in a traditional adventure game.

Also, I just messed around with the game using mouse+keyboard (there doesn't seem to be a mouse only option for those who like/need that) and it was clearly designed with a controller in mind. That seems to be the superior way to play, although m+k worked fine.

It's not about time to wander around and explore, it's about reflexes. At my age, mine are about shot. :frusty: I'm not very happy with developers that create 'adventure' games then stick action sequences in them. I have one or two that are sitting on my shelf because I cannot finish them. I was amazed that I got through the rain dance in BoUT and believe me, I'm hanging onto that save. :D

don't let the timed sequences put you off. I have died a couple of times, but thats what makes it exciting. The sequences are very easy.. and if you can't beat them then you must be blind, deaf and very dumb.

Well, I'm not blind or deaf so that's two out of three I don't have to worry about.

I think it sounds kinda cool that it's action based considering that it's Jurassic Park but I understand the disappointment if you were expecting an adventure game. Maybe I'll pick it up when it's on sale.

I am disappointed. At least at the beginning. It's full of quick time events and you don't have freedom even to move the character. It is not like Heavy Rain, where you have control over the characters.

The graphics aren't bad but aren't great either. The graphics look like games made in 2006/2007. And I found a horrible bug wright in the beginning. I selected a resolution incompatible with my TV-monitor, and I could not see the game anymore to correct the video, not even reinstaling the game. I had to install the game on another computer and transfer the configuration file (wich could not be edited directly with wordpad).

I think Telltale should invest more on Back to the Future or similar themes. Definitely, they are not good on action-adventure games.

i think its just fine!

That counts me out too! :frown:
I don't like games that almost gives me a heartattack out of stress... stress also = the connection between my brain and my fingers stop working... it's really weird... :D

You wouldn't mind sharing? :P

@louidog Thank you for a really good and short review!

Sure, Majsan. Send me a PM. It's funny how popular that save is right now. ;)

Can this even be considered an adventure game? Seems more like "push the button that pops up on the screen to make the game do something".

Sort of expected after Back to the Future.

Sam & Max and Tales of Monkey Island are quality games, but even ToMI signalled less complicated gameplay and puzzles, and then Back to the Future really went for the easier side.

Believing in Telltale's quality, i hope they'll bring back more creative side to it with other expected titles, which are not popular movie franchises such as Back to the Future and Jurrassic Park.

I actually thought their most enjoyable so far was Wallace & Gromit, so I hope they make more of those in the same style. And of course Sam & Max was great too.

I don't really mind what franchise they do, as long as it has good gameplay. From what I've seen of JP it seems limited to pushing buttons in response to prompts, rather than allowing free exploration.

Agreed, I too thought W&G was very well done. The way they captured that claymation feel with the animation, dialogue, quirky situations.

I haven't played this game yet, but I did enjoy Heavy Rain, so I don't know what to expect when I get into it. Going to install it now.

Yes, there are lots of quick time events in the game, but I wouldn't try to compare Jurassic Park with Heavy Rain. You would be very, very disappointed. (Like me.)

Well, anyway, if I give 10 points to Heavy Rain, I would give 3 points to Jurassic Park (at most).

I'll check it out anyways. I've never been much of an objector. I play the games for the experience, not how you play it.

With Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain, there was a lot of discussion as to what these "games" were classed as. In the end i'd class them more as an interactive movie than anything... Jurassic Park has been compared to Heavy Rain.. but in the end Heavy Rain does it so much better. I think what makes a game a game... is the INTERACTION. And with Jurassic Park it just doesn't feel like you are controlling a characters movements or actions. I think the "game" would of really benefitted from some areas where you can freely move the character around the environment and properly explore... instead of the parts where it feels like you are moving a camera from left to right... it just feels really limited. Imagine how good it would of been to walk around the scenes of jurassic park...

Ahh well. I am enjoying it.. but like I have said, it COULD have been a LOT better. Better look next time Telltale... please don't f*** up Kings Quest.

Meh. I'll probably just rent it when it becomes available on 360 over here.

Just started playing and got past the docks. Sorry but I'm really loving this game.

Either people complain that its not a point n click or a shooter....but it feels like Gabriel Knight 2 and Heavy Rain. GK2 as in you don't directly control the character, but you tell him what to do. It may not be like GK3 where you choose what to do to the object but it definitely is simplified like GK2.

You don't directly control the character in this game but like GK2 you basically influence the decisions of the character. Not to mention GK2 was like an advanced interactive movie, or the usual FMV game.

I seriously don't understand the complaints about the game beyond various bugs (like playing a dialogue sequence and for some reason it repeats the same sequence again. Also the sound cuts out sometimes liking during camera changes. It makes it feel ever so unpolished though this I have heard/seen in most if not all Telltale games.)

Also to say this is nothing like Heavy Rain is pretty much not true. It does feel and play like Heavy Rain. Minus controlling the character.

Again, the best way I can describe the game is the mix of the gameplay from GK2 and Heavy Rain.

Seriously the main complaints for this game came from unreasonable expectations from the audience. Everything I've experienced so far was what they advertised, especially from the gameplay videos.

When I beat the game i'll give a better opinion on it, but so far, no complaints besides the usual telltale game bugs.

In the end, I feel like the offense against these types of games are unjustified. If so many FMV games are placed under the Adventure Genre, then I can say that Heavy Rain and this game is like the ultimate FMV type game.

Edit: I also want to say that this is probably the best representation of an Episodic game....well representation as in closest to how an episode works in relation to a tv show. The fact that the game keeps moving forward means you won't get stuck in any one part or having to talk to every character to figure out what to do next, and so on. I like it, but the only way this formula would work is if the game's length for each episode is decent and not short. Although it only costs 29.99 for the complete series (well its not sold in episodes from what I understand).

Edit 2: Wait I thought this was suppose to be an episodic series? lol Didn't know this was the whole series. Okay thats a good surprise. On to episode 2.

i concur with monolith, just finished the first chapter and i think its wonderful and already a great addition to tell-tales library. I've died 6 times, and each time i died, i knew how to get passed the spot where i died the time before, it definitely isn't unfair in how it goes about things.

People have many different opinions. I respect that.

But I think that controlling a character makes a very big difference in a game. In fact, I have already played Heavy Rain and unfortunately I could not have the same feeling when playing Jurassic Park. I wish I could.

Please, note that I have nothing against using my reflexes on games because I also play action games like Uncharted, Assassin's Creed and inFamous. But despite the difference between the types of games I think I can feel when a game is well produced. So, I can say Heavy Rain and LA Noire are very well produced and so are Uncharted and Assassin's Creed. However, I don't feel the same about Jurassic Park. Maybe because I haven't still played enough to make a true impression about the game.

Perhaps, playing Jurassic Park a little longer, I can make a different opinion about it. I hope so.

I respect that. Though that is why I said it was a mix of that and GK2 or any FMV game. Heavy Rain definitely has a lot more control over the character than GK2 or again FMV's, minus the inventory system.

I personally think Tell-tale made a valiant attempt at making a more action oriented game, but I'd also hope they could improve on it and do more. That's the thing, I love the way they do their episodic style content and i'd love to see a more Heavy Rain/LA Noire esque episodic game. Maybe a darker more violent crime drama. Maybe they could utilize this to pick up the Police Quest games.

Seeing them pick up the Hector: Badge of Carnage series. I have faith that violence or crude humor isn't a limitation for them. Possibly I made consider getting them to help finance a game i'm working on that gives the player the option to choose between casual and adventure game modes, each with its own set of gameplay, including an episodic style set up.

Maybe i'm just an optimist.

Actually I feel like Tell-tale pretty much brought back FMV adventure games which is hard to do. Anyone agree? There are so many I miss and to see the FMV style gameplay come back gives me hope.

Well, in GK II you cannot put Gabriel in the place you want, but you can decide what he is going to do, what he is going to say or where he goes. The cutscenes show the consequences of what Gabriel does. ( I loved GK II, I've played it about 10 times!)

Yes, I think you are wright when you compare Heavy Rain and Jurassic Park with the old FMV games. But in the case of Jurassic Park I wish I could control the characters.

Of course I could not expect from Jurassic Park something that works like Back to The Future. Afterall, you must run from a lot of dinossaurs! But the interface could be something like Tomb Raider games. Why not?

Anyway, mabe I should try playing JP once more.

Agreed. Maybe Tell-tale should of advertised this as a Next Gen Interactive Movie, and get people to notice a new trend for a series of games.

What do you mean interface like Tomb Raider? Gameplay or the on screen interface?

Telltale's formula was getting really old for me and this was most noticeable in BTTF, which I gave up on after episode 2. Guiding a character around wouldn't have worked very well with Jurassic Park. In episode 1 alone they managed to pack in a large amount of 'exciting' scenes, and there's no way they would have been able to do that with inventory puzzles. And there are still some adventure puzzles in there, where you have to do things in a certain order.

Monolith:

I mean the gameplay. A game with dinossaurs should not only be scarry but should have lots of action. You should run or fight them with guns, maybe. You should find hiding places, should think on strategies to challenge the monsters...

Oscar:

Indeed. Mixing itens in the inventory would not work well in the game.

Anyway, Jurassic Park wouldn't work well as classic adventure game; instead, should be an action-adventure game, that's what I think.

By the way: I've just played a little more. I still think the same, but I admit JP it's an enjoiable game, if you don't mind quick time events in an adventure game.

Definitely gonna get this one when it comes out on Europe's PSN. Usually I don't buy games right away, but this I have to support. I wanna see more of these types of games. I don't see games like Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain and now this one as games per se, but rather as movies that I interact with and this I strongly believe has a future. My only criteria was that the game is not totally broken, and by the look of things it's just fine, with the exception of minor glitches :P

So why did they make the game in "episodes" and then release them all in a single game? Were they planning on releasing them individually like they normally do? If so, it's odd that they finished them all at the same time instead of working on one after the other.

On PC it was supposed to be episodic, starting this april. Console versions were announced for this fall, meaning now, with a full season in one release. However, for some reason PC's episodes were pushed back to the same date as the consoles and now we have all versions with one season in one game.

They announced that it was being pushed back the day before they announced a new deal with Microsoft to let Telltale publish games on the console. I'm guessing that the 360 version of the game wasn't done, or maybe even begun. Microsoft has rules for publishers that say you can't release on other consoles first or have missing features on the 360 version. Some companies get around this with download bonuses for other systems that aren't on disc and big releases can get away with it because at the end of the day Microsoft wants to sell stuff. However, a small company like Telltale doesn't get special treatment. That's my guess as to why the game was pushed back and released all at once.

While Telltale continue to revive old hit movies ,i think would be great if they render the Ghostbusters as an ag.

Hard to say since the last game was quite definitive! I'm not talking about the downloadable one or wii version.

well I just finished jurassic park & I loved it, my words to describe it would be an interactive movie. Playing the last episode last night I thought the neibours would knock at my door after hearing me screaming trying to avoid the t-rex. I died many times but loved it.

I normally don't like timed games but this was different, all I can say is thank you telltale games

I thought the story was very good. It really felt like the Jurassic Park from the movies, and the music helped a lot. The characters were great, especially Oscar :D

I felt like the game was rushed, like they spread themselves too thin by working on this and Back to the Future at the same time.

Probably some of the worst frame rate issues I've seen since playing Enslaved on the PS3.

I actually wish they would do a Stargate:SG1 series. It's perfect for the Adventure Game genre.

rushed! they had 5 months to work on it after BTTF,