Always Ready to Learn: Jurassic Park: The Game

So, sometimes, I like to take a look at things that I've heard dubious things about, quality-wise, to try to figure out what went wrong. So, when I found out that the Playstation Store was having a 99 cent sale, I picked up a few things, one of which was TellTale Games Jurassic Park: The Game.
     Jurassic Park is one of my all time favorite films, and when I originally heard that Telltale games, who have a reputation as able story tellers, where making a game based on the film series, I was looking forward to it. After about a dozen or so "meh" to "terrible" reviews, I decided to hold off on making the purchase.          Recently, though, I've been interested in studying a Tell Tale game and how it executed their infamous serialized format. (Before this, the only major TellTale game I've played more than one episode of was Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, which was barely serialized, but hilarious) I figured I could take a look at it through this game, as well, as try to figure out where they went wrong with a property I'm incredibly fond of and confident in its ability to produce interesting and fun thrill rides.... with dinosaurs.
    I just finished all four episodes over the past few days, and, it turns out, the reports of its sub-par quality were pretty accurate. I had a lot of complaints with the game play alone, but that's not what I want to talk about today. Today, we shall go over a few things I think this game needed to make itss story better.

A good idea requires good execution: 

Follow me on this, guys, There's a part where a dude who looks like he could bench press a Hummer fights a velociraptor with his bare hands and a knife, while a pirate radio station cackles a kinda rock ballad song in the background. Sounds awesome, right? Well, except I never felt like the velociraptors were a real threat, and the song was kinda muted and more mellow, and also not a song you've ever heard of because I'm pretty sure they made it just for this game. And frankly, all I thought afterwords was, "It really shouldn't be that easy to kill a raptor." What went wrong? Execution. Execution is what separates Tolkien's work and all those paint-by-numbers fantasy adventures.

Conflict for conflict's sake is even duller than no conflict:

 I understand that conflict is what drives a story forward, but does everyone have to hate each other for arbitrary reasons? I found it more annoying than anything else how at most junctions, the major characters simply bickered and pursued their own agendas. I get that people are stupid and probably really would have a shouting match while being chased by angry dinosaurs... wait, no I don't, FREAKING DINOSAURS ARE TRYING TO EAT YOU, PEOPLE, STOP ARGUING AND RUN! It also didn't help that the characters didn't have a terrible amount of depth to them, save for one of the mercenaries, who at first struck me as brash rough edged rogue, but showed a bit of depth when he muses on the fact that everyone considers his type disposable, it's be an interesting thread, but he instead goes full out lunatic evil by the end, so, whatever, I guess.

Cliffhangers need to have a decent amount of weight to them:

This sort of serialized entertainment requires a good cliffhanger. I'm not saying I know how to make better cliffhangers than the ones they ended on in Episodes 1 & 3. But's let's compare the cliff hanger for Episode 1, with the rather decent cliff hanger for Episode 2. In Episode 1, after barely escaping from a rampaging T-Rex, two of our main characters are.... held at gun point. In most circumstances, sure, that would qualify as a decent cliffhanger, but need I bother to remind you that not two minutes ago, A GIANT DEATH LIZARD JUST ABOUT ATE SOME PEOPLE? Compare this with the Second Episode's cliff hanger, half of our heroes are trapped at the top of a water tower, cornered by velociraptors, the other half? They're kinda in a helicopter that's hurtling towards the earth. It's a nice "things seem hopeless!" moment that takes proper use of the fact that, seriously, these people are on an Island full o' Dinos.

There need to be some stakes: 

One of the most integral parts of a Jurassic Park story, to me, at any rate, the constant feeling of dread. Everything on those Islands are deathtraps, and you should feel like there's some new horror just waiting to kill you behind every bush. In Jurassic Park the game, only a handful of characters die, and they're mostly secondary characters. I'm not saying I need relentless carnage to keep me satiated, but I need to feel like there are seriously lasting consequences. The first major casualty doesn't occur until almost three quarters through the game, until then, every death, implied or shown, was of a character that I either didn't get to know well enough to be concerned for them, or I pegged them as Dino Chow the moment things started getting a little tense. Seriously, though, one character is killed off before we actually get to meet him. We hear his voice, are informed of his existence, and then when we're finally going to meet him, another character informs us that he wandered off and died. That's it. That's his story. There are constant chases by dinosaurs, or some other hazards, but the tension is killed by the pre-rendered "PUSH THIS BUTTON NOW OR YOU DIE" sequences thrown all about them. There's really only a couple of genuinely tense scenarios, and I'll give credit where credit is due, the bit at the end swimming through the tank? Pretty solid.

The Gameplay sucked: 

     I know, I know, I'm not gonna talk about it, but seriously. I'm sorry, TellTale, you tried something different and it, well, it wasn't good. Don't feel too bad, just go polish your Walking Dead trophies some more, that'll make you feel better.

      In summation, Jurassic Park: The Game, is not totally without merit, but's bogged down by a few too many story miscalculations, and some sub-par animation and directing here and there.









Oh, and lousy gameplay