The Jurassic Park Video Game I Want To Play
I’ve decided to pass on Telltale Games’ recent Jurassic Park The Video Game release, based on the videos and reviews I have seen, but mostly because I was letdown by their Back To The Future game. And it’s a shame really, as I love point-and-click games and Jurassic Park, this should have been a glorious combination. This new JP game looks like a linear string of QTEs, and is about as interactive as a slide show. Skipping it!
Seems like Jurassic Park (along with Superman and Terminator to name a few) doesn’t translate all that well to video games. I’ve checked out many JP games dating back to the Genesis and SNES days, and they have all been boring disappointments.
And mostly because they all try to do the same thing: replicate what transpires in the films. Merely dropping a player into this rich, dinosaur-infested world does not a good game make. These games turn into chase simulators or bizarre shoot-em-ups (where you kill Raptors!), both of which can get stale and fast.
There is an awesome game to be had for Jurassic Park. It was hinted at in the first film, and to a large extent occurred before the first film started.
And that game is a John Hammond Simulator.
Part SimCity, part Zoo Tycoon, part RTS, this Hammond Simulator would allow players to build their own Jurassic Park and populate it with Dinosaurs as they see fit, all the while trying to run a profitable theme park business.
This idea occurred to me when I watched Jurassic Park on Blu-Ray, and during the dinner scene (the ‘blood-sucking lawyer’ debate), there were slides in the background that outlined Hammond’s future plans for Jurassic Park. He intended to build an airport, hotels, malls, a treetop village, a mountainside resort, and much more. The Jurassic Park we saw was merely Phase 1.
Allowing the player to build a Park like what was seen in Jurassic Park, and then granting them the ability to fully carry-out Hammond’s future plans would make for an awesome simulation. Now you can feel like you spared no expense.
SimCity aspects:
Much like SimCity 4, the player would define the island’s terrain first. They would then build the roads, fences, buildings, and enclosures. There would also be power and water distribution to worry about. There is plenty of infrastructure to build for the player, right down to every gate and washroom hut.
I’d also put emphasis on building maintenance roads to allow access for repair crews and mobile veterinarian labs.
Zoo Tycoon aspects:
This would be like setting the tax levels in SimCity, but for all the Park’s admission prices and amenities and merchandise. You want to ensure your guests are happy, and that might include adding more attractions in Jurassic Park. In the end, you want a high enough volume of visitors to warrant the Airport or a Cruise line port.
Tours would be planned in this section of the game. Make sure the gift shop is at the end of the tour.
Staff management would also be crucial. You’ll need to hire an adequate amount of scientists, veterinary doctors, security personnel, maintenance crews, park staff, and so on. Make cutbacks in any area and you’ll see the consequences.
Tourists feeding the dinosaurs (quite literally) is bad for business. The security of the guests is priority number one.
RTS Aspects:
While some of the income from tourists will go towards building infrastructure, you’ll also have to invest in researching more dinosaur species and their creation. You can build research and science facilities that will offer many tiers of dinosaur research, much like an RTS game. Once you’ve achieved certain research milestones, you can output dinosaurs for the tours.
Like an RTS, some Dino ‘units’ would be more costly to produce and would be an ongoing drain on funds. Creating a Tyrannosaur will draw crowds, but would be pricey for upkeep and feeding — it’s all about balance.
Also your dinosaur output might be restricted to the enclosures you have built. If you want flying Pterodactyls, you’ll need an aviary dome built first.
To add even more depth, extinct plant life could also be researched and cloned for placement all over the park too. Could be a necessity for some herbivore species.
Bonus:
I think it would be fun to go on the tours in first-person mode, much like you would in Rollercoaster Tycoon or Pokemon Snap. I also think a Tomogotchi pet approach to all the Dinosaurs would be a nice option, allowing the player to personally tend to them.
In closing:
This is a game that wouldn’t have a defined end, like SimCity. I could see this being buoyed by DLC/expansion packs to help prolong the lifespan.
I am aware of Jurassic Park Builder (GBA), a Dino-flavored Zoo Tycoon expansion, and an old PC game called DinoPark, but none of these are close to the scope I’ve described here. At least Builder had the license going for it, but being a ten year-old game for the Game Boy, I’ll wager it wasn’t that good.
Like this? Check out Jurassic Park 4 plot ideas.
Posted on November 23, 2011, in Video Games and tagged Dave's Jurassic Park, Films, Video Games. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park:_Operation_Genesis
Try that. Not as good as the game you’re describing but not terrible either.
D’oh! Previous-gen PS2 and Xbox. But I like the fact there is a PC version, which has also seen some community mods (a sign of a good game), so I’ll see if that is still alive and kicking. Thanks!
Epicness,All I can say.You have no idea how many months,Or even years this has
been my ultimate daydream.What your describing fits my previous thoughts perfectly.
One requirement that I’d have though,Is that it stay completely true to the films in
dinosaur design,And with JPTG out,comes the opportunity to build a mosasaur aquarium.
This thing has topped my thoughts for at least a year now,Good to see I’m not the only
one who sees crazy potential in this.
Oh,And about JPOG,I have it,And I’ll tell you some things.
The visitor ai STINKS,The guests will pass dino exhibits by completely,
And then leave discontent.Once,I had a safari tour that never got any
attendance because it wasn’t on the guests “track”.And another time,
I had more than ten visitors just walking back and forth constantly and
starving to death (yes they can do that).
Also,You can only place fences horizontally and vertically,No curves in the fence
just an enclosure made completely of straight lines. I’ll also give a heads up,That
there aren’t any aviaries.
Also,The dinos aren’t true to the movies,But if you really want to try
this out,I heavilly reccoment this:
http://www.jplegacy.org/index2.php?load=games/modding/pcjpogfcm.shtml
Overall though,Its a fun game,Worth trying out,I had serious fun
with it until getting bored.
Yikes that AI sounds dreadful. Maybe the visitors need to be corralled like cows? It’s those kinds of issues that undermine the overall experience of a game - how unfortunate.
I wish JPOG was available on Steam of GOG or some online retailer. I wouldn’t mind checking it out. With SimCity 4 (2004) only arriving on Steam last year, there is hope.
When Jurassic Park 4 happens we can expect a new batch of games. and a park simulator would be near the top of the list. Here’s hoping.
I have the game, and, while I haven’t played it extensively, I’ve never had visitors starve! Check out reviews of the game and see if there are, in fact, issues with the AI.
I hope it stays true to the classics though,Because I hear ol Jack Horner has
some some things planned for 4 take a look:http://www.news.com.au/technology/jurassic-park-scientist-give-me-1m-and-a-chicken-and-ill-make-you-a-dinosuar/story-e6frfrnr-1226189983030 btw,read the whole thing.
I wish they’d just leave the designs alone,I tolerated JP3′s changes,If anything
I was hoping jp4 would take us back to the classic raptors from nublar.
But,I don’t know if this is official just yet,So I have vague (but not too high) hopes.
It was because I had a gift shop to attract people to the safari ride,They all got in front
of the gift shop,And started walking back and forth,It was at the end of a straight path,
With a safari ride preceding it. Even then,The guests won’t actually seek out exhibits,
Like the aforementioned safari attendance. I also have a huge park with dinos everywhere,
Yet I still get those messages about visitors not seeing much dino activity,When its
all over the place. They may not starve in your park,But if your parks ever get to be as big as mine,They will completely ignore the farther out enclosures,Which aren’t that far out,
So if you want to build a very big jp,And want people to actually see all of the dinos,This
isn’t the best. My park was so big that one time,That I placed the previously mentioned
gift shop,In hopes of drawing guests farther out,It worked,But after a while I had guests
walking back and forth in front of it. It wasn’t until one died that I noticed,And then I
started getting fined for their mass suicide. And don’t go telling me its my copy or pc,
Because I’ve owned 2 copies of this game on 3 pcs,And the ai has always been the same.
Luckilly for me,I didn’t save,And I went back and deleted the gift shop,And the guests
started leaving. Oh,And I may be forgetting to mention that if a guest is off the path
by considerable distance,They won’t just go back to the path,They’ll stand there and
die of “exposure” the game calls it,Unless you take a chopper out and “rescue” them.
Don’t even get me started on “site B”,You choose an Island,Let dinos loose,And
set free,Their ai isn’t that good. They all head straight for the corner of the game
map and you’ve got an island covered in dinos,But they’re all in or near the ocean
on the same corner of the map,And yes this happens with every site B I start.
I’ve owned this game for a LONG time,And have played obsessively,So I know
what I’m talking about when I say all of this.
Yo, Mr Delisle and other JP:Operation Genesis frustrated dude that wasn’t good at the game,
Jurassic Park : Operation Genesis was an awesome game for the time. The dinos movements are still up to date realistic, the game soundtrack epic, the dinos sounds totaly getting you into the game. Overall, the little problems it showed such as the squary fences were nothing; most often, the game is refered to as being adictive and the PC version is hard to find - or way to costy.
I use to play a STEAM version that could do it all but not stick the JPLegacy mods on it. I still got to transfer the audio to my computer and use it often to either enhance the JP music list i love eating breakfeast on OR scare my neighborhood with *hardcore loud* T-Rex roars at 2am on summer nights. Try it, you’ll be pleased.
Your ideas are good. I wish you get to program the sequel of the game one day
- DBX -
I got my hopes all up for the tell tale game jurassic park, I watched the entire game on youtube and from the looks of it, after watching there was no sense in buying. After watching I started thinking of ideas about how they should do a jurassic park game. To me it seems like a sandbox style game would be great. The island itself would be the boarders of the sandbox and fences and security access would allow for a sensible way to subdivide the island into sections and allow for the player to explore different areas at different times.
PS i played the JPOG game, and was very let down. The concept is great , but the execution was very poor. From the movies and books to me it seemed like the most important thing was tour, and that the fences separated the tour car from the dinosaurs. The fact that the car goes inside the fences is just completely wrong. I have other complaints but all of them fall short to the main idea of the books and movies being violated.
I’ll have you know,I was obsessed with this game,Beat all missions and challenges,But I can’t
do anything if visitors won’t visit certain areas of my park. I don’t know where you get the idea that it has to do with not being good at it. And though food stands are quite common,
And viewing areas are near every enclosure,I still get messages about visitors leaving
“without enjoying our dinosaurs”.
My apologies if I made it sound a little worse than it is,I’ve been playing for possibly
over a year,And have had decent fun,I simply wish the visitors would seek out dinos
and ammenties,And I’ll admit that the mass starvation was an oddball situation,But I
could do a repeat if I did the same gift shop/safari placement.
And yes,The dinosaurs will flock to the corner of the map,Go ahead,Start a site B,
Populate it with ceratopsians and other herbivores,Sit there for a while,And watch em
head for the ocean.
But,back on topic:
The game being described here has topped my thoughts since WAY before
I even found the site.
One thing I’d like a game of this sort to do is stick true to the film designs for the
animals,And use both types of raptor. Something else nice would be to see not
very well known dinos from JP like:mamenchisaurus,herrerrasaurus,Baryonyx ect.