Jurassic Park: The Game

Jurassic Park: The Game
Developer(s)	Telltale Games
Publisher(s)	Telltale Games
Director(s)	Daniel Herrera Marco Brezzo Andrew Langley Nick Herman
Designer(s)	Joe Pinney Mark Darin John Drake Jonathan Straw
Programmer(s)	Carl Muckenhoupt Andrew Langley Keenan Patterson
Artist(s)	Dave Bogan
Writer(s)	Joe Pinney Mark Darin Ed Kuehnel John Drake JD Straw
Composer(s)	Jared Emerson-Johnson
Series	Jurassic Park
Engine	Telltale Tool
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iOS
Release date(s)	November 15, 2011 Xbox 360 NA: November 15, 2011 PlayStation 3 NA: November 15, 2011 EU: December 21, 2011 AUS: January 25, 2012 Microsoft Windows, OS X NA: November 15, 2011 WW: November 16, 2011 (digital) EU: February 24, 2012 AUS: July 26, 2012 iOS WW: November 15, 2011 (Episode 1) WW: December 17, 2011 (Episode 2) WW: January 22, 2012 (Episode 3) WW: May 24, 2012 (Episode 4)
Genre(s)	Graphic adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Jurassic Park: The Game is an episodic graphic adventure video game based on the Jurassic Park film franchise. The game was developed by Telltale Games as part of a licensing deal with Universal Pictures. The plot of the game takes place during and after the plot of the first film. The game was originally announced in June 2010 before being revealed in the February issue of Game Informer. The first episode was expected for release in April 2011,^[1] but was pushed back to November 15^[2] along with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 release, resulting in a multi-platform release with all four episodes at once.^[3]

Plot

Episode 1: The Intruder

The game begins with Gerry Harding (voiced by Jon Curry), the park's chief veterinarian and Sarah Harding's father, showing his daughter Jess (voiced by Heather Hudson), Sarah's younger sister, around the park. At this time, Dennis Nedry puts his plan into motion to shut down the park's security and escape with stolen dinosaur embryos, hidden inside a canister of shaving cream. Later, his two contacts, Miles Chadwick (voiced by Jared Emerson-Johnson) and Nima Cruz (voiced by Nika Futterman), realize he is late to meet them at the boat to take them off the island. They head into the park. After getting past the deactivated fences, they find Nedry's Jeep, and his body. They manage to find the embryo canister as well, but after getting the Jeep down, they are attacked by a pack of Dilophosaurus. Chadwick is killed, but before they can kill Nima, she retrieves the embryo canister and a handgun from Chadwick's body and speeds the Jeep in reverse, killing some of the Dilophosaurus before the rest flee, but is then attacked and bitten by an unknown dinosaur. She leaves the disabled Jeep behind and flees into the jungle.

Meanwhile, Harding and Jess make their way to the port and come across Nima, who is now delirious from the bite and needs medical attention. The three of them begin driving back to the Visitor's Center, but are delayed by a juvenile Triceratops blocking the road. They manage to get the dinosaur back into its enclosure, but the alpha-female Triceratops named "Lady Margaret" appears and attacks their Jeep, which also attracts the Tyrannosaurus rex. The trio barely manage to escape, hiding in a maintenance shed as the two dinosaurs fight, and deciding to spend the night inside. The next morning, Dr. Laura Sorkin (voiced by Susan Cash), a park scientist who became trapped in a field research lab due to the storm destroying the access road, sees Harding, Jess and Nima on a security feed, and sends one of the automated tour vehicles to their location to pick them up. The three reach the Visitor's Center unaware that the surviving cast of the movie have just fled the island minutes before. Once inside, Harding hears a radio trying to contact them. Locating it, he speaks with Dr. Sorkin, who helps cure Nima of her ailment using a tranquilizer dart. The T. rex attacks once again, forcing the trio to avoid it as best they can, eventually managing to lure it away with the tour vehicle. The three regroup back inside the Visitor's Center, but when mention of a rescue is made, Nima pulls her gun on the Hardings and tells them there will not be a rescue.

Episode 2: The Cavalry

Realizing there are still some people unaccounted for on the island, InGen hires a team of mercenaries to rescue them. The team consists of William "Billy" Yoder (voiced by Jason Marsden), Oscar Morales (voiced by Carlos Carrasco) and Daniel "Danny" Cafaro (aka D-Caf) (voiced by Ari Ruben). They head to the Visitor's Center to meet with Bravo team, their backup unit, but when they try to radio, all they hear is gunfire. Arriving at the site, they find the team dead save for one member, Vargas, who has gone crazy and tries to attack them. After they subdue Vargas, Yoder and Oscar notice a strange wound on Vargas' arm, speculating that a poisonous animal bite caused him to hallucinate and kill his own men. As they examine the building's security recordings hoping to find out what attacked Vargas, they run across footage of Nima marching Gerry and Jess out of the building at gunpoint. The Visitor's Center is once again attacked by dinosaurs, which kill Vargas as Oscar and Yoder rush back to the chopper. Meanwhile, Nima, Gerry and Jess are hiking through the woods when they stop to take a break. Gerry convinces Nima to let him start a fire by claiming the smoke will keep any wandering dinosaurs away, secretly hoping the rescue team will be able to see it. Later, while Gerry distracts Nima with questions about her family, Jess manages to steal the radio, slips away and contacts Yoder, but Nima finds out and forces them to keep moving.

Yoder's team see the smoke from Gerry's fire, but a Pteranodon attacks their helicopter, forcing them to make an emergency landing. While DeCaf tries to repair the chopper, Yoder and Oscar head into the jungle to locate their targets. The pair split up to try to pick up a trail, but Yoder disturbs a nest of Dilophosaurus eggs in the process, causing the mother to attack. He manages to hold the creature off long enough for Oscar to arrive and drive it away. At the same time, Nima's group reaches a dead end at the Bone Shaker, an unfinished roller coaster built into the side of a cliff, in which a thousand-year-old stone staircase had been destroyed for the coaster's construction. The trio manages to get the ride operational by moving the utility cars off the tracks and getting the passenger cars on as well as using a crane to move a scaffold off the track and opening a door to the power switches. They attempt to ride it down to the base of the cliff, but as they do so, a pack of Herrerasaurus attacks them. They manage to ward them off, but the coaster cars nearly run off the damaged tracks in the process. Yoder and Oscar locate them and disarm Nima, although she implies that she has met Oscar before. The group heads back to the helicopter, but find that DeCaf has disappeared. The T. rex reappears and makes its way towards them, forcing Oscar to fix the chopper himself. They manage to get into the air just in time.

The last target to be rescued is Dr. Sorkin, and they head out to the field lab to pick her up. En route, Nima gets into an argument with Oscar, clearly having history with him, but Gerry stops the fight once the group reaches the lab and meets with Dr. Sorkin. However, she refuses to leave with them, forcing Yoder to convince her by exploiting her desire for Isla Nublar to become a wildlife preserve for the dinosaurs. She finally concedes, but asks to be allowed to put an experimental cure for the dinosaurs' engineered lysine deficiency into the water supply to keep the group of Parasaurolophus she has been studying from dying off while she is away. As she, Gerry and Jess do this, Nima tries to hijack the helicopter and escape. Yoder and Oscar stop her, but in the scuffle, a thrown knife damages the controls. Meanwhile, Sorkin's group is attacked by a pack of Velociraptors which had recently been shipped to the park from Site B and subsequently escaped their containment pens. The raptors force the group to take refuge atop the water tower. They spot the helicopter and call for help, only for the chopper to crash into the tower.

Episode 3: The Depths

Dr. Sorkin's group manage to escape the falling water tower by fixing the damaged ladder, fleeing into the maintenance tunnels to escape the raptors. Nima, Yoder and Oscar survive the chopper crash, but all of the mercenaries' weapons are destroyed when the wreckage catches fire. Oscar takes off to scout the area, leaving Yoder to guard the unconscious Nima. When Oscar reaches the field lab, he sees the raptors managing to open the door to the tunnels, and he follows them inside. Meanwhile, Yoder finds the embryo canister in Nima's backpack, and when she finally comes to, she is forced to make a deal with Yoder to split the profits from the embryo delivery. A Parasaurolophus runs towards them, followed by the T. rex, forcing them to hide in the tunnels as well. Realizing he dropped the embryo canister during the chase, Yoder goes back out to get them, even while the T. rex still prowls the area. After retrieving the canister, he and Nima proceed further into the tunnels, but Nima sees glowing eyes in the dark and refuses to continue on without a better light source than the red emergency lights. As Yoder tries to power up the main lights, Oscar tracks a raptor further down the tunnel. He draws his knife and attacks the dinosaur, miraculously managing to kill it in single combat. Afterwards, Yoder and Nima find him and reveal their plan to sell the stolen embyros. Oscar, while hesitant, agrees to go along with it on the condition that he and Yoder complete their original mission to evacuate the other survivors.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sorkin reveals to Gerry that she actually put her lysine deficiency cure into the park's main water supply instead of just the holding pens, which will eventually cure all the dinosaurs and eliminate Jurassic Park's lysine contingency entirely. As the two of them argue over the ethical implications of Dr. Sorkin's actions, Jess sneaks away with Sorkin's cigarettes, hoping to have a smoke. A Velociraptor attacks her, forcing her to flee back to Gerry and Sorkin, leading the rest of the raptor pack right to them. They fight the dinosaurs off with the help of a forklift until the others arrive, with Oscar driving the raptors away by wounding the pack leader with his knife. Soon after, steam jets begin escaping from the nearby valves. Dr. Sorkin explains that this means that the park's power plant is on the verge of an explosion, and will have to be reset manually before it goes off. Now regrouped, the survivors head to the power plant to reset the main grid. The group work together to get inside the plant, release the built-up steam pressure and reset the system, but in the process trigger a safety protocol that begins sealing the entire plant behind heavy metal blast doors. However, the raptors get in just before the doors can fully close, trapping the survivors inside with the dinosaurs. The group heads to the upper level to escape the raptors, but realize that the door controls on their level are burned out, meaning someone will have to go back down to the lower level and use the panel there. Oscar volunteers, and manages to hold off the raptors long enough to reopen the doors before being killed. The rest of the group runs into the boiler room and seal themselves in. However, once inside they find the body of a man covered in what looks like a nest. Yoder identifies him as DeCaf, alive but paralyzed and brain-dead from the same poison that affected Nima and Vargas, with dinosaur eggs laid in his abdomen. Sorkin reveals that she knew the creatures who did this had gotten loose, and Yoder, angry that she withheld this, grabs her and draws his knife, threatening to kill her.

Episode 4: The Survivors

At knife-point, Sorkin says that the dinosaurs responsible for DeCaf's fate were Troodon, explaining she had been ordered to destroy them after their poisonous bite had been discovered, but could not bring herself to do it, keeping them alive in the quarantine pens for study instead. As Gerry and Nima try to convince Yoder to let Dr. Sorkin live, Jess discovers a grate leading back into the maintenance tunnels. As they try to open the grate, the Troodon pack returns to their nest and attacks. Yoder and Nima struggle to hold them back as the group break open the grate. They run through the tunnels with the Troodon on their heels and manage to escape from them, but come across a four-way intersection in the tunnels. While Gerry, Nima, and Yoder examine the three hallways, Sorkin and Jess search for the picture of the intersection they are in within a blueprint. After finding the correct picture, the Troodon ambush them again, chasing them through the hallway and wind up getting separated. Gerry and Nima find a ladder and make their way to the surface, but everyone else remains trapped in the tunnels. Gerry tries to go back for Jess and the others, but Nima convinces him they can take care of themselves. During the small break, the two strike up a conversation, with Nima revealing that Isla Nublar was actually the ancestral home of her tribe before InGen bought it out, forcibly removed the native villagers, and built Jurassic Park. She explains that Oscar was one of the InGen mercenaries who originally evicted her people from the island, and she took the job of stealing the embryos for revenge, as well as the hope that the money would help her provide a better life for her daughter. A passing and partly damaged tour car (presumably the same one from earlier) gets their attention, and they use it to head for the park's marine exhibit, which they conclude is the others' most likely destination.

The two groups reunite at the marine exhibit, where Yoder explains that they all need to get off the island soon, as the U.S. Navy intends to bomb the island on InGen's behalf to eliminate the threat of potential escaped dinosaurs. Upon hearing this, Dr. Sorkin abandons the group and takes an elevator down to the underwater aquarium, leaving the others stranded topside. The others manage to unlock the elevator and follow her down, where they overhear her on the phone arguing with InGen over the impending bombing, pretending that the other survivors are her hostages to get the bombing called off and locks off the elevator. When that does not seem to work, she releases the park's captive Tylosaurus into the lagoon, despite Gerry's pleading. The newly freed Mosasaur slams into the side of the facility, knocking Dr. Sorkin into the moon pool and devouring her. Yoder calls his employers and has them delay the bombing, but as the group makes their way back to the elevator he pulls out a grenade he took from DeCaf's body, explaining that with his men dead, he only cares about delivering the embryos, and does not want the Hardings slowing him down. He offers to take Nima along, but Nima, disgusted by Yoder's betrayal, refuses. Yoder throws the grenade as he escapes to the surface, which cracks the facility's windows when it goes off, causing water to seep in. As the elevator ascends, however, he realizes that the embryos are gone, stolen by Jess while he was not looking.

Gerry and the others manage to seal themselves in the aquarium's control room before the rotunda above floods completely, only to find that the damaged pressure seal on the door is causing the moon pool to slowly flood their room as well. Nima notices that the only way out is through a sea cave in the wall of the lagoon, which she remembers from her childhood, that will take them directly to the surface. Donning scuba gear, the three make their way through the water and into the cave, narrowly avoiding the mosasaur in the process while following some pipes. They eventually reach the surface and head for the docks, where Nima's contacts left a boat waiting after Nedry's failed delivery, but are attacked by Yoder as soon as they arrive. As Nima and Yoder fight, the T. rex arrives, and they all freeze in place to keep the dinosaur from seeing them. Gerry kicks the embryo canister to distract the T. rex, but Yoder rushes for it, giving himself away and getting himself devoured. Nima manages to grab the canister as the three remaining survivors run for the boat. Gerry distracts the T. rex so the others can escape, but the T. rex damages the skywalk Nima and Jess are on. As Jess clings to the railing, the canister falls to the ground below. The player is then allowed to choose whether Nima goes to save Jess or the embryos.

• If the player decides that Nima should save Jess, she pulls her up while the embryo canister is crushed under the T. rex's foot. Gerry, Jess and Nima escape the island together. As they sail off, Nima worries how she will take care of her daughter without the money the embryos would have brought her, but Jess manages to find a large case of money in the boat, presumably the payment she would have received for the embryos, implying that everything will work out in the end.
• If Nima goes to save the embryos, however, she is eaten alive by the T. rex while Gerry and Jess escape the island on a boat, with the former deciding to return to his old job as a regular zoo veterinarian so that he can be closer to Jess. He also mentions taking care of Nima's daughter, perhaps even adopting her on Nima's behalf.

Development

The game was originally announced on June 8, 2010 along with Back to the Future: The Game.^[4] Back to the Future was released first, on December 22, 2010.^[5]

On January 14, 2011, in an exclusive article for Game Informer, Jurassic Park: The Game was officially unveiled. It was stated that the game was not a shooter and instead focused more on its characters. The developers described it as being similar to Heavy Rain.^[6] It also has decision-based objectives as well as quick-time events that affect gameplay as well as how the game's events play out, making it the first game by Telltale in which the player can be killed.^[7]

Release

In a reveal trailer released February 2011, Jurassic Park: The Game was confirmed for April 2011.

Console release was confirmed for Fall 2011. A pre-order for the game is entitled to all 4 episodes delivered monthly, a collector's DVD at the end of the season, and special forums access to behind the scenes features/content (production art, game designer chats, etc.).^[8] On April 25, 2011, Telltale Games announced that the PC/Mac version would be delayed until Fall, resulting in a multi-platform release. All pre-orders up until April 24 will be refunded and a free game voucher was offered as compensation good for any Telltale game ever and in the future.^[9] The game was now to be released on PC and consoles on November 15. It was again made available for pre-orders, only this time, those who pre-ordered for the Xbox 360 version would get a pet avatar T-Rex, while PC and Mac players who pre-ordered those versions would get the deluxe edition of the game.

Episodes for Microsoft Windows, OS X and iOS were released as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions simultaneously.^[10][11] However, the Xbox 360 had a retail disc release, as opposed to the episodic release of the other platforms.^[12]

Reception

Jurassic Park The Game has received mixed reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 64.09% and 60/100,^[13][16] the PC version 55.88% and 54/100^[14][17] and the PlayStation 3 version 54.50% and 53/100.^[15][18]

IGN's Greg Miller said of the game, "Jurassic Park is a meandering tale of forgettable characters getting lost in a park that is far less wondrous than the one we saw on the silver screen", giving it a 5.5 out of 10.^[19]

Carolyin Petit from GameSpot gave the game a 6.5/10, stating that while it was "fun to watch Jurassic Park's story play out, the cinematic adventure wasn't much fun to actually play." While she praised the use of the source material, she criticized the lack of challenging puzzles and lack of context for conversation options. She concluded her review comparing the game progression to the "cars on rigid tracks, offering no control where it goes or how it gets there. You're just along for the ride." ^[21]

However, Richard Cobbett of PC Gamer UK gave the game an unfavorable review of 41 out of 100, calling the game "a barely interactive movie that asks nothing of you but the most basic of motor functions," taking issue with the gameplay taking a back seat to the plot, which he described as "a hammy but watchable sequel to the first movie."^[20]

It was reported by 1UP.com that the development staff wrote favourable user reviews for the game on Metacritic without disclosing their affiliation to the game.^[22]

References

External links

• Official website