E3 2011: Jurassic Park Brings Something Old, New, Borrowed, Black and Blue

Ah the mighty Telltale Games, how far you have fallen! Psych!

Jurassic Park: The Game looks great, but for some matters of personal taste and expectation, I’m on-board. Keep in mind, I probably watched JP1 at least eight times in the theatres during the summer it came out. To say that my adolescence was shaped by a love for dinosaurs, computers and theme parks would be a cosmic understatement. Hold onto your butts, we’re about to take a trip back to Isla Nublar.

Telltale know what their strong points are as a developer: characters you become invested in and strong stories. With a property like Jurassic Park, aside from the prospect of watching human beings run for their lives from rampaging carnivores, the people and their interactions with one another are the most compelling aspects of the storytelling. In dramatic study, there are four main sources for conflict: man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. society and man vs. nature. Aside from society, JP has ticked three of the four, heartily and Telltale looks to elaborate on these myriad of conflicts with a new cast of characters from all walks of life.

The story starts out with two new characters who have come to the island to recover the iconic Barbasol can/cryogenic storage container Dennis Nedry attempted to smuggle off of the island as the catalytic act of corporate espionage which brought about the fall of the greatest fictional theme park in the world. You start out playing as a female saboteur who is working with InGen’s rival to aid in the theft. When Nedry misses his appointment at the docks, you investigate and find his jeep and what’s left inside. From there the game allows for classic adventure game dialog with your partner, but also a new investigation mechanic, similar in function to recent titles like Heavy Rain or even L.A. Noire. This section didn’t look like a puzzle challenge, but rather a great opportunity to engage the player in actively learning about new developments and engaging their imagination, not to mention building tension.

Action sequences are definitely the highlight of Jurassic Park‘s adventure. Joe Pinney, the developer who gave the demonstration, explained that these sequences were challenging to build but brought new life to the team working on them. Pinney wasn’t giving up too many of the gory details, but players can (and hopefully will) fail critical action sequences, thereby succumbing to nature and becoming dino-chow. He said these deaths were a constant source of entertainment and challenge for everyone involved in the project.

This will mark the first time Telltale characters have been able to be killed, so I sensed a healthy dose of pent up hostility that should make for some gruesome good fun. I was worried failure would only be a product of missing a button press during one of the action sequence QTEs, but there are dialog decisions interspersed, where appropriate, that can lead your character to their mortal end if you make poor decisions of how to handle a critical situation. Don’t worry though, if your character does die, the game won’t continue without you (a la Heavy Rain), instead you’ll be brought back to a recent checkpoint to replay the sequence.

I’m not in love with QTEs in games and some of these interactions seemed artificially lengthened to keep the player physically engaged with the action. However, making an action game with all of the modern expectations for controls in 3D environments would be too much of a departure for the studio, and it’s one direction I’m glad they didn’t pursue. The action sequences I witnessed were exciting and full of surprises, so I don’t expect anyone will be disappointed with the content. Though, if you’re looking for Uncharted: Jurassic Park, this isn’t it.

There’s certainly a heightened level of production in place for JP. Pinney admitted that they had increased staff to handle the volume of artwork, animation, etc. necessary to bring a more realistic game world to life. It seems as though the process has been a challenge, but one that Telltale is uniquely equipped to conquer, considering their pedigree and like-clockwork episodic release schedule.  I’m looking forward to revisiting the land that time forgot when Jurassic Park comes out later this year.