Jurassic Park (The Full Monty)

Always a welcoming sight!

Over the last couple weeks, you may have heard me touting praises for Telltale Games new Jurassic Park The Game. In this writer’s opinion they are all deserved. I would even go so far as to say that this is the ONLY good JP game on the market.  No, seriously…the early 90’s JP games were horrid.

Seriously, What is this?!

Anywho, back to the game. The entire game takes place on Isla Nubar aka Site 1 in the film. The story picks up right as Dennis Nedry is waylaid by the Dilophosaurus. You start as Nima, a hardened chiquita who is dead set on getting back at “the man”, in this case “the man” happens to be INGEN. You will play many characters over the course of the game, in concert with each other to solve goals. One particular puzzle involves the use of 3 characters to activate a crane and place roller coaster cars on a track. Tricky yet not unsolvable. Like we all know, NOTHING inside the gates of Jurassic Park ever goes off without a hitch, and soon upon entry you will find yourself dealing with dinos.

HARDEST.PUZZLE.EVER.

The content is given to you episodically, spread across four episodes, each ending in a cliff hanger. I really felt like I was watching a movie or television show throughout the game. Which is the one flaw I found within the game, in that I would be so emotionally invested in the actions of the characters that I would miss visual action ques and end up having to restart a particular area.

Dino Fight!!!

You will find yourself actually caring about your characters and what happens with them. Even though the game uses motion capture, which I usually detest, I did not feel like I was playing with puppets. The voice acting felt genuine and accurate, not overly dramatic or robotic in delivery. You can listen to just the audio and close your eyes and it’s just like listening to a movie. Speaking of audio, I’ve had the Jurassic Park theme song stuck in my head for nearly an entire week now, so no complaints. Very nostalgic indeed, especially when you hear the T-Rex roar.

All work and no eating....

The game is currently out on PC, XBOX 360, PS3 and IPad2. You can pick it up at your local retailer, online through http://www.Telltalegames.com or on http://www.Steampower.com. With the economy in the crapper as of late, Jurassic Park is a great gift for the movie lover, or dinosaur freak in your life as you can purchase it in bulk with all 4 episodes or one at a time for those of us who need to stretch their money.

One of the better games release this holiday season, trust me when I say you don’t have anything to lose, go out and get the first episode and play it for yourself!

Srsbizniz

Life Will Find a Way

The game is finally upon us! I have downloaded the first of four episodes for free thanks to the Jurassic Park Blu-ray combo pack. It grants a key code that gives access to the first episode titled “Intruder”. My first impression is that this game will prove to be very interesting. It’s less a game and more of an interactive puzzle solving movie, which takes place during the setting of the first Jurassic Park film. You the player, will take part in actions of nearly every character on screen at some point during the episode. By way of your arrows or WASD in concert with your mouse, will decide the fate of your characters and how smart they are in figuring out the puzzles presented. **SPOILER ALERTS**

This is a shot of how your character will interact with other characters. Your character’s photo is displayed in the center of the options, and you may discuss one of four topics in this conversation. You may choose “Let’s Go” from the start or exhaust all the options to flesh out your characters reasons for being here and kind of get a full view of that characters personality.

As you move through the story you will be allowed to progress by way of “Scene Selection” in that when you click on the directional pad in the lower left portion of the screen you will have up to four scenes visible. Visiting each of these will provide clues as to what will progress you further in the current area of progress.

Puzzles like this scene I find enjoyable. You can clearly see the 3 visible question marks, each denoting a different option. Upon clicking and dragging the question mark by the ID badges I’m currently trying to steal, I am almost seen by the guard. But an inspection of the phone gives me a phone number that I can have my cohort use to cause a distraction allowing me to return to this scene and steal the badges without being caught.

All in all, with this first hands on, I have to say its going to be quite interesting to get to the end of the first episode. If the puzzles keep to being fun, challenging and slightly intuitive, then this title will definitely be one of the greatest stocking stuffers you can get for either the dinosaur lover in your life, or anyone born before 1993 who enjoyed the first film. I am completely looking forward to the 3 episodes to follow and will cover them as soon as I get my hands on them!

Srsbizniz