Jurassic Park The Game: Review thread - post your impressions here!

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Comments

  • edited November 2011
    awesome story and really amazing sound.

    The graphics are wishy-washy. They can be really great per scene, and then suddenly look "ehhh", and then go back to looking real great in the same second. A few artistic choices I wouldn't have made personally, and a little brushing up, but maybe its only noticeable to me. Didn't seem as noticeable on the 360 version.. so its probably the extreme hi resolution of the PC making it apparent. (i was playing on both). Like i said, could just be me... I just came off a "Battlefield 3" and "Uncharted 3"-high, so I'm probably making expectations for every other games graphics way too high in comparison, lol.

    Either way, it still has alot of gorgeous scenes.. very beleivable characters, nice voice acting for main characters. The ambience and mood. It's intense when it needs to be, funny when it wants, and eerie as it should be.

    I applaud the "Heavy Rain" gamestyle... there's a couple menu and button issues that need to be worked out, but nothing too serious that interferes with the game with other than a minor annoyance. Though in the future, i'd like to see more character control rather than on rails.

    The attention to detail of everything within the park and the dinosaurs themselves... right down to atmosphere and environment, was simply stunning. Everything breathes life as it should, and everything just as we left it back in 1993 :)


    And it does a very good job of a backstory I've always hoped someone would tell... excellent job indeed.


    Not without it's minor flaws and some style that will indeed be perfected in time. There's alot of great stuff in this game... and leaves alot of room for continuation going forward.

    I'll give this first dose a 8.8/10... worth your time, very much so!
  • edited November 2011
    Ugh. I'm stuck in the Vistors Center. The little green dot won't stay still and I don't know what to do. D:
  • edited November 2011
    awesome story and really amazing sound.

    The graphics are upto par. They can be really great per scene, and then suddenly look "ehhh", and then go back to looking real great in the same second. A few artistic choices I wouldn't have made personally, and a little brushing up, but maybe its only noticeable to me. Didn't seem as noticeable on the 360 version.. so its probably the extreme hi resolution of the PC making it apparent. (i was playing on both). Like i said, could just be me... I just came off a "Battlefield 3" and "Uncharted 3"-high, so I'm probably making expectations for every other games graphics way too high in comparison, lol.

    Either way, it still has alot of gorgeous scenes.. very beleivable characters, nice voice acting for main characters. The ambience and mood. It's intense when it needs to be, funny when it wants, and eerie as it should be.

    I applaud the "Heavy Rain" gamestyle... there's a couple menu and button issues that need to be worked out, but nothing too serious that interferes with the game with other than a minor annoyance. Though in the future, i'd like to see more character control rather than on rails.

    The attention to detail of everything within the park and the dinosaurs themselves... right down to atmosphere and environment, was simply stunning. Everything breathes life as it should, and everything just as we left it back in 1993


    And it does a very good job of a backstory I've always hoped someone would tell... excellent job indeed.


    Not without it's minor flaws and some style that will indeed be perfected in time. There's alot of great stuff in this game... and leaves alot of room for continuation going forward.



    oh yeah, ummm... if your not using a gamepad to play this game (you can buy a wired 360 controller for your pc [or use the wireless with a special wireless receiver]) or ps3 controller on your pc... you can pretty forget about playing this. It was and definetely is a gamepad-based game. No, that's not a bad thing. It's actually awesome.. the gamepad works flawless and very well integrated. And this game style works best with it.


    Oh... and audio. yeah. Grab a badass pair of headphones... preferrably 5.1 or 7.1.

    I'm using Astro a40 gaming headset with the mixamp (yes, they are very expensive, so you might want to look for a bit cheaper) and this game really kicks some butt with them. Very immersive. I've also tried my Sennheiser HD598's with DSS amp and my Medusa ProGamer 5.1's, and sounds amazing.

    If all else fails, kick on the surrond sound system and kill the lights

    plays more like a movie than a game... so enjoy the show





    I'll give this first dose a 8.9/10... worth your time, very much so!
  • edited November 2011
    All right, I beat the first episode, so I think I should post my first impressions. Once I beat the whole thing I'll give a more in-depth review, but so far...
    Let's start with the positives. The game looks great, first of all. Not the best I've ever seen, but it's good to see that Telltale can do realistic graphics. Loved all the dinosaurs.

    Also, the game is difficult. After Back to the Future, I was horrified that every Telltale game from then on would have the same difficulty (or lack thereof) that it did. I was incredibly relieved to find myself actually failing at times! Granted, the difficulty largely stems from not being able to do the QTEs properly (the actual puzzle segments were fairly straightforward), but the game's expecting me to handle things by myself without having to be told everything, and that's good enough.

    On that note, I really appreciate Telltale trying something new with the whole "Heavy Rain-style" gameplay. I love the style Telltale's used in all their previous games, trying to make it feel like a SCUMM-era LucasArts adventure, but you can only keep the same style going for so long until you're just releasing the same game with a different skin. There's more than one way to do an adventure game, and it's good to see Telltale expanding their horizons.

    The game feels like Jurassic Park. Say what you want about Telltale, but they've always been faithful to their licenses. I'm interested about where the plot is heading, to say the least.

    I also like the whole "Scenarios" menu, letting you jump to a specific part of an episode right away. It's good if you only want to replay one bit (or if you're out for achievements. And after I beat the whole thing, I will be :D ).

    Now for the bad. The game has good graphics, but that's a different thing from good animation, which has always been something of a weak link for Telltale. It's never been too big a deal in the past, because they've always had cartoony graphics. You don't expect Sam and Max to move realistically, because there's nothing realistic about them. Here, however, it's a different story. Everyone is noticeably...stiff. It's not bad enough to detract from the game, but they're pretty firmly in the Uncanny Valley.

    Also, this is far from a new problem, but the fact that it's still around just makes it worse. Practically every Telltale game will sometimes randomly cut off the last syllable of a line of dialogue. ("Signs are such a poetic metaphor for the human condit-") It's not too bad if you have subtitles on, but it's still annoying.

    Gameplay-wise...my two biggest gripes with BttF were that it was too easy, and too restrictive. While this game has fixed the first problem, so far it's also made the second one even worse. You can't roam around an area. You've got that menu to take you to a different part of the area, but you're still pretty much fixed in place. There's even less opportunity for exploration and goofing off. You can count the number of clickable objects in most places on one hand. There's not even an inventory. You also usually can't backtrack dialogue. You get to say one thing, and then the game moves on. Maybe it's just me, but I liked sifting through all of a Telltale game's dialogue. I realize a lot of this is just the price to pay when you attempt a different style of gameplay, but it's still upsetting to have it gone. While it's good Telltale's attempting different things, I hope they won't ever completely abandon the SCUMM-style they've always used before.

    Just my thoughts so far. I'll make another post once I beat it all.
  • edited November 2011
    SPOILERS EVERYWHERE! Nooo!
    Must throw computer out window! Oh wait, my games downloading! :O
  • edited November 2011
    Okay. I'm on episode two. Setting my alarm for 3 a.m ^-^

    Ooooyeaaaayyyy.
  • edited November 2011
    Well only played a small bit of episode 1. I dont know how long the game is and i wanna spare it and enjoy it over time. But the only bugs i have run into are a few sounds bugs, where they cut eachother of when they speak etc. Oh yeah, Faceslasher or what your name is :) Use MotionJoy i believe its called. That program lets you use PS3 controllers on your PC, i have used it before and it works fine.
  • edited November 2011
    I just finished the first episode. I'm playing with my 360 controller and it's pretty annoying that it doesn't work in the menus and I have to switch back to my mouse. That seems odd considering the menus probably work fine with a controller on the consoles.

    I wasn't sure about the control scheme going in. I still hate mashing a button quickly to do things, but that's true of every single game that does it. The other stuff works great in action scenes. Adventure games aren't normally thrilling. This is and I like it.

    The dinosaur sound design is great. There were a couple of parts that made some things shake in the room, and that felt great.
  • edited November 2011
    I have always loved the sound effects in Jurassic Park. But one of the dinosaur sounds really bummed me out, somwhere around the middle of episode 1, look away now if you dont wanna spoil a minor thing, when you reach the triceratops. It became way to obvious that it was the sound from a cow/bull. It kinda killed it abit for me. Cant remember how they sounded in the movies. If you ever heard them there.

    But the game is still beast, and i will continue to play ofcourse, what kind of masochist wouldnt :)
  • edited November 2011
    Ippoc wrote: »
    I have always loved the sound effects in Jurassic Park. But one of the dinosaur sounds really bummed me out, somwhere around the middle of episode 1, look away now if you dont wanna spoil a minor thing, when you reach the triceratops. It became way to obvious that it was the sound from a cow/bull. It kinda killed it abit for me. Cant remember how they sounded in the movies. If you ever heard them there.

    But the game is still beast, and i will continue to play ofcourse, what kind of masochist wouldnt :)

    Triceratops made no sound in the film, it was sick in the film.
  • edited November 2011
    I was really looking forward to this game. I even signed up for a year of PSN Plus (JP was free with sign up).

    The action symbols are very small and very hard to read when in "explorer" mode (I have a 40" HD TV not huge but I would expect to be able to make out the symbols). I made it to the 'hack the jungle' bit but am now stuck. I push the correct buttons but it fails anyway.

    From the bit I managed to play seems like more of a button masher than the story driven game I was expecting. I don't mind some action (just finished Batman Arkham City) but not mashing buttons.

    Video is also choppy.

    After all the good stuff from TellTale it is hard to understand how something this bad/annoying came from the same folks.

    Very, very disappointing.

    PS3 version BTW
  • edited November 2011
    Okay, I just finished the game after 6 hours continious playing. Ignorning the very few (pretty simple) puzzles, it felt more like a movie where you have to hit/smash buttons all the time. After episode two I actually ended up just pressing all four arrow keys all the time, which gives you gold everytime, except when you have to press buttons delayed. The story itself was nice, tho I'd probably prefer it more as a movie than as a smash-the-key-adventure.
  • edited November 2011
    finished the first episode on Xbox 360 disc.

    some great moments, some mediocre moments. some of the dialogue is unnecessary and makes it feel corny at times. but the T-rex and Triceratops battle was suspenseful, i made my heart skip some beats when doing the QT moments.

    Its a good start, wish the graphics and textures where a lot smoother. but the dinos looked great. but the scenery is just okay. people's faces are good, movements look a little funky.

    Overall, I'm having a blast, i finished a bit of episode 2, i'm excited to see what happens!
  • edited November 2011
    My internet went down for some weird reason. I'm almost done the last episode. I'm getting some shut eye soon so Not writing the reviews just yet. But let's just say that they story gets better with each episode, However... the glitches get worse with each episode as well. But I'll explain everything in full later.

    Trodoon is awesome by the way!
  • edited November 2011
    so far i just beat the 1st story and on the 2nd one now, took me about 2 hours, i like how the dinosaurs are made, im not expecting Battlefield 3 graphics or anything and i was not expecting the characters to move lifelike like in Heavy rain, heavy rain used alot more money to add physics and that face body detection software,

    so far i like the story i give the game a 8/10 but it might go up if something blows my mind in the later story

    so far the only Con of this game is i cant move my guy around to do stuff but that is all

    but if this game is a hit for you telltale i would consider upping your budget if you decide to make a new JP game add just a little bit more detail and add face detection and body detection to the game, and add movement you could prob charge the full 60$ if you add all that stuff and extended the story a few more hours for each part
  • edited November 2011
    WELL DONE TELLTALE!

    This was worth the wait and I never thought I'd say it but, it's your best game to date and you have done the Jurassic Park fans a service with this game.

    I cannot fault it, no glitches, no trouble...oh so smooth! Your best looking and sounding game to date, great character development and voice acting.

    I finished it in 7 hours and 44 minutes, I have work in an hour, I think I may die.

    10/10 would play again. (well I'm going to tonight hahaha):D
  • edited November 2011
    really 7 hours? im on the last episode at about 4 hours. I love the game but man its short
  • edited November 2011
    Just got through episode 1. A few bugs here and there, but color me impressed. The controls took some getting used to, but after dying 23 times, I got through. Bravo, Telltale!
  • edited November 2011
    That was an amazing ending!!! Episodes 2-4 were really good! I need to get some sleep. But now that I finished all episodes I might as well write up a full review of the whole series when I wake up.
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited November 2011
    Hey guys, I just made a sticky review thread and moved all the individual posts in. The only problem is that there is a lot of download & bug discussion going on in these threads and that really doesn't belong.

    I'd be all for a bug thread though. ;)
  • edited November 2011
    Hey guys, I just made a sticky review thread and moved all the individual posts in. The only problem is that there is a lot of download & bug discussion going on in these threads and that really doesn't belong.

    I'd be all for a bug thread though. ;)

    I was wondering when a Mod was going to splice all these together. lol Thanks. And a bug thread is a very good idea. I have a few I'd like to share.
  • edited November 2011
    I have found a few times in action scenes where I get an X as if I didn't press a button or pressed the wrong button even though a button was never displayed on the screen.

    I also had a bug during the begining of the game when I am supposed to click and drag the icons in the direction of the arrow, when I got to this point, my cursor vanished so I could not drag the icon (after a reload my cursor came back and I got passed this section)
  • edited November 2011
    I have just noticed that if I choose to quit while playing episode 2 , after the game closes the the smaller Jurassic Park launcher window doesnt pop up, because of this I am unable to relaunch the game as the Jurassic Park process is still running, I have to open task manager an manually end the Jurassic Park process before I can relaunch the game.

    I have checked and this doesn't happen if I choose to quit while playing episode 1, I am currently only up to episode 2 so I am unsure if this occurs in any other episodes.

    Can anyone confirm this as a bug?
  • edited November 2011
    Just played Episode 1. My points are:

    + Great atmosphere just like in a JP movie
    + Dinos look right and move right
    + good story
    + interesting characters (while i don't understand why the changed Hardings likeness known from the movie)
    + great soundtrack and sounds

    - Graphics are nice but could be MUCH better nowadays.
    - just too easy for my taste. The riddles could have been more difficult.
    - Episode is a little short

    So overall i am pleased with the game but it would totally rock if the graphics would be more up to date. This way it allways has that b-title feel to it.
  • edited November 2011
    This time around I decided to get the game for the iPad, having bought MI and the other TTs games on the Mac, and I must say it works quite well.

    The interactive movie type elements of the game suits quite well with the touch interface.

    I thought it was great that they added proper support for AirPlay (lets you play it on your TV if you have an Apple TV), although why they don't transfer the "action prompts" and give you an option to set the iPad screen to black beats me. Sort of missed opportunity there I'd say.

    Nice story, but can't say it's a superb game, a bit to linear for that. Still, being a Jurassic Park fan I quite enjoyed.

    Oh, and do remember to either restart your iPad or shut down most of your running apps for the smoothest experience.

    So, as an iPad game I'd give it a 4/5, but a 3 as a normal game.
  • edited November 2011
    Does anyone know how to do the puzzle in episode two where you need to manipulate the dinosaurs by using their own calls? I must be doing something wrong.
  • edited November 2011
    I´ve played Episode 1 and 2. I´m not too impressed by the controls. Sometimes they are really annoying. I would like to explore things. But in the action parts the quicktime controls give me the feeling of a director controlling his camera angels to follow the character. The story until now is really thrilling. I found the refrences to the first movie entertaining. The dinosaurs look amazing for an telltale game but the human characters have sometimes bugs in their faces. For instance their mouth doesn´t open sometimes, but overall the first two episodes are a great addition to the JP films. What i didn´t understand was, why they delayed the game. It´s still buggy.
  • edited November 2011
    What i didn´t understand was, why they delayed the game. It´s still buggy.
    Reworking the game, adding some elements & trying to give it a bit more polish I guess. I can't confirm on the bugs as I've yet to download it :P Plus lots of games tend to have bugs on release
  • edited November 2011
    is there anyone else here that cant get past ep 1, sc 4? the jungle hack.. no matter how i do it after the bird flies out the bush she looks to the road and says this way and then it just goes back to the start screen and i have to start the jungle hack all over again :( :eek:
  • edited November 2011
    Finished the first episode. Loved it! Yes there were some bugs but for me the game was still great. I loved the graphics, especially the dinosaurs. The characters are interesting. A+ all the way and I cannot wait to start episode 2.
  • edited November 2011
    hey im stuck on when shes trying to fix the car and nothing is working :( HELP
  • edited November 2011
    Okay, here's my opinions outside of the obvious bugs

    I'm using the 360 controller on PC and despite it being a QTE I found the icons far too small whilst in the mix of the cinematic & made a few clumsy mistakes. Heavy Rain had icons about 4x the size of this! Plus I'm finding some of the button combos pretty clumsy like hold LB+RB & rapidly press A at the same time just to stand up

    There's a lot of awkward bumps where its like I'm waiting for the speech to kick in & the framerate drops a bit leading to a not-so-cinematic experience

    Aside from that the game's alright, some of the graphics look pretty smooth although obviously lacks the detail you'd find in any big budget game. However I'm not exactly engrossed by the opening but I've only played it for about 10min
  • edited November 2011
    I am very impressed with this production. The gameplay really works and I was enjoying episode 1 fully throughout. Really great exciting setpieces. =)
    It has a good length too imo and I love exploring every scenario before getting gold. Can't wait to start with episode 2. I am not a Jurassic Park fan, but this really exceeded my expectations.
  • edited November 2011
    thcoolnam wrote: »
    hey im stuck on when shes trying to fix the car and nothing is working :( HELP

    Ha, I had the same problem because I thought I should swing it repeatedly from left to right and back. All you need to do is to find the exact spot when the sparkles glow and wait a while.
  • edited November 2011
    i found it but its not working :(
  • edited November 2011
    and ive yet to see the lights spark
  • Sinaz20Sinaz20 Telltale Alumni
    edited November 2011
    thcoolnam wrote: »
    and ive yet to see the lights spark

    If you're playing on PC, it takes a little more dexterity than with gamepad since the camera wavers a bit-- you have to track that sweet spot with the mouse as the camera weaves.
  • edited November 2011
    Just finished the first episode and I'm really liking. :) The story runs like an express train but otherwise is moving into an interesting direction.

    Something that has been bothering me is for sometimes the cursor disappears during the exploration scenes and it only reappears after loading the game.
  • edited November 2011
    When the T Rex was in the visitor centre and I was hiding behind the car and I hung up on the radio. The T Rex tipped the car over and crushed me. Then I restart and the car's still typed over and the characters are going through it! AND THEN THE CAR DRIVES AWAY ON ITS SIDE! :D
  • edited November 2011
    I finished the game last night. I have to say the folks at Telltale really did their homework with this one! Good job guys! The references to the books and sequel movies was great and the nod to Sarah Harding really made me have a WOOOHOO! moment! TBH, the storyline of this game was better than the mess of a film that was JP3.

    That said, aside from the lower end graphics and a few glitchy areas, I found the game pretty enjoyable. I'm not a hardcore gamer and I don't know the technical details of how games are made now and how they should look and function and all that jazz, but I can say I fully enjoyed what we got. This is probably THE best JP game out there. I fully felt like I sat in the theater after JP and watched its true sequel. The only thing I would have done different is maybe had a few more "Serene JP moments" with Brachiosaurs, Gallimimus, and Stegosaurs etc. wandering around. The best part for this would have been when Nima and Gerry are talking on the lookout. I thought it was coming but it didn't.

    As a hardcore JP fan, I was impressed. I know people are complaining about graphics and glitches but for me, this was the best thing JP to come out in a LONG time and the crew at TT deserves a round of applause from the fanboys like me. :-)
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