Jurassic Park: The Game was extremely well-crafted, but it had its fair share of flaws.
I appreciate the ability to jump back into the action quickly after failing, but I dislike the Quick Time Events because you can't and don't really build up any skill in doing them. There was little appreciable difference in difficulty from the first to the last episode, and there was no sense of cumulative progression that makes other games satisfying to complete. You also don't explore anything yourself, which kind of takes away from the horror.
However, the overall atmosphere of this game is great. The fate of poor D-Caf was especially haunting, while the hellish and claustrophobic feeling of the geothermal power plant was extremely well played. I was also pleased with how all of the setting details and plot elements sensibly tied into the first movie.
But then there was some problems. First and foremost, the ludicrously contrived way they kept the story from ending in Episode 2. It became an Idiot Plot when Dr. Sorkin refused to leave the island and the group insisted on trying to take her but didn't actually force her to despite being well-armed mercenaries shown to be already capable of that, as paperwork is somehow scarier than dinosaurs that already killed off half of their team, and they just kind of left Nima in the helicopter for an extended period time instead of taking her with them even though she's already proven herself incredibly dangerous and capable. This is not to mention how a knife somehow hit the controls in just the right way to make the helicopter entirely fail, instead of say, bouncing off of it.
Unfortunately, this undermines the drama of Oscar's Heroic Sacrifice because you can't help but think that it was entirely, stupidly avoidable. And when the main characters don't have a vice grip on the Idiot Ball, they pick up the Conflict Ball. There are no less than four hostage holding situations, instigated by three different characters that had not been depicted as villainous before that point. Finally, there all sorts of plot holes and inconsistencies that one can pick at such as "How did they get the DNA of a marine dinosaur?" and "Where is Gerry's mustache?"
Overall, this game is worth playing but it falls short of greatness.
Here Be Spoilers
Jurassic Park: The Game was extremely well-crafted, but it had its fair share of flaws.
I appreciate the ability to jump back into the action quickly after failing, but I dislike the Quick Time Events because you can't and don't really build up any skill in doing them. There was little appreciable difference in difficulty from the first to the last episode, and there was no sense of cumulative progression that makes other games satisfying to complete. You also don't explore anything yourself, which kind of takes away from the horror.
However, the overall atmosphere of this game is great. The fate of poor D-Caf was especially haunting, while the hellish and claustrophobic feeling of the geothermal power plant was extremely well played. I was also pleased with how all of the setting details and plot elements sensibly tied into the first movie.
But then there was some problems. First and foremost, the ludicrously contrived way they kept the story from ending in Episode 2. It became an Idiot Plot when Dr. Sorkin refused to leave the island and the group insisted on trying to take her but didn't actually force her to despite being well-armed mercenaries shown to be already capable of that, as paperwork is somehow scarier than dinosaurs that already killed off half of their team, and they just kind of left Nima in the helicopter for an extended period time instead of taking her with them even though she's already proven herself incredibly dangerous and capable. This is not to mention how a knife somehow hit the controls in just the right way to make the helicopter entirely fail, instead of say, bouncing off of it.
Unfortunately, this undermines the drama of Oscar's Heroic Sacrifice because you can't help but think that it was entirely, stupidly avoidable. And when the main characters don't have a vice grip on the Idiot Ball, they pick up the Conflict Ball. There are no less than four hostage holding situations, instigated by three different characters that had not been depicted as villainous before that point. Finally, there all sorts of plot holes and inconsistencies that one can pick at such as "How did they get the DNA of a marine dinosaur?" and "Where is Gerry's mustache?"
Overall, this game is worth playing but it falls short of greatness.