Jurassic Park Interactive Review
Jurassic Park 3DO
Jurassic Park Interactive for the 3DO was a massive, missed opportunity. This could have been a visually stunning immersive tie in game experience with FMV sequences lifted from the original film. However instead we got a mish mash of various game genres mixed with an embarrassing set of 1979 era arcade games such as Asteroids, Space Invaders and Breakout.
This 3DO game was published in a very nice-looking long box format by Universal Interactive Studios in 1994 to tie in with the hugely popular Steven Spielberg film from 1993, which was in turn adapted from Michael Crichton’s famous 1990 book. This was Universal Interactives first game for the 3DO and one they had originally hoped to be the included launch game. They needed to produce something that would bolster the ailing 3DO platform that was seriously lacking good games and they needed to secure their investment in 3DO and prove the systems worth. The game cost about 1-2 million dollars and had a programming team of around ten developers headed by Greg Gorsiski. With all the clout of Universal / MCA and the power of the 3DO, this should have been so much better.
The intro FMV movie explains that you as having to save various people scattered all over the island and get them back to safety for extraction from the helipad on the island. Whilst you help them escape you must drive through the Jungle chased by a T Rex, shoot Spitters, and outrun a Velociraptor in the hallways of one of the outbuildings. Once people are saved you must unlock Dennis Nedry’s computer virus, get Jurassic Park back online and open the comms to the mainland to get everyone to safety. You need to do this within 24 hours or else the cargo ship with stow away breeding raptors will not return, and the fate of the world will be altered forever – all sounds very dramatic but the game doesn’t cash in on this build up. The premise is promising, but the actual execution is a disappointment.
The intro FMV initially looks great and was taken from the original film with the original music included, but you soon realise that any imagery of the actual cast members has been carefully edited out. It turns out that the cast did not sign agreements for their likeness to be used – or maybe were not offered enough compensation. Had they been used, then the authenticity of the game might have been improved. Instead, we get stand in unknown actors playing all the well known parts, which instantly reduced the immersion factor. These actors appear in small newly shot cut scenes not taken from the movie that look feeble and cringe worthy and are supposed to set up the various ‘save the guests’ game sections.
This saving guests section initially looks like it has potential. The 3D Splitter section looks great with a detailed Jungle backdrop. But the aiming of the tazer gun becomes clumsy and awkward and it’s not initially obvious (well not to me) you can scroll the whole scene left and right. Also once shot the Spitters spin off stage left in the most ridiculous fashion.
The chase sequence involving a first person drive to safety in a Ford Explorer also initially looks good – but you soon realise the Ford does not handle like a proper car and requires unrealistic extreme movements to dodge the never-ending recycled 2 or 3 obstacles. Why didn’t they make a few different tracks here and improve the handling? Why do you hear a hillbilly yelling YEEHAW when you finish the level?
The last section is an escape from Jurassic Park building hallways by finding keys and trapping the Velociraptor behind gates. This again looks promising and shows off the 3DO’s ability to render Wolfenstein 3D- like corridors – but the corridor designs are lazy and all start to look identical, leading you to get confused as to where you are and the slowness of turning corners starts to drive you bonkers. All the while a Velociraptor is chasing you and this sluggish turning just adds to the frustration as you try and escape.
The mixture of all the different play mechanic styles makes this feel like a cobbled together set of demos and this damages the players ability to get use to a certain playing style and get properly committed to the game.
The save the guest stages were at least trying to use some of the 3DO’s 32 Bit gaming capabilities, however the Dennis Nedry Engineering Systems code breaking section really scrapes the barrel in the originality stakes. You have various long winded Space Invaders, Breakout, Galaga and Asteroid clones with overly simplistic and childish dinosaur visual embellishments. These 5 mini games are just fillers and a waste of time. They drag on too long and really add to the overall disjointed gaming styles on offer. Also they don’t even make use of the full screen and appear in tiny little sections to the left of the screen.
In spite of the criticisms, I don’t totally hate this game but I bemoan the fact that this should have been a top-tier 3DO game from a studio with bags of resources and a rich film license to work with. I still occasionally play the main part of the game as I’m a huge fan of the film and the 3DO, but the exciting looking marketing was deceptive, as the real game was unfortunately a let down.
Jurassic Park Manual
Intro video and gameplay
Screenshots
Game CD box
Key points
- First release from newly formed Universal Interactive Studios in 1994.
- Premise: rescuing island guests and combating dinosaur threats, unlocking engineering systems by beating 5 mini-games to call back the cargo ship.
- Suffers from poor execution: disjointed gameplay, clunky mechanics, unconvincing stand-in actors.
- Includes outdated 1980’s arcade-style mini-games.
- Big marketing push to position it as a top-tier title but ultimately a disappointment for Jurassic park and 3DO fans.
- Overall design and gameplay styles are lackluster and fragmented.
