Review - Jurassic Park: The Game

Review - Jurassic Park: The Game

Pros: Captures the feel and mood of the original movie.

Cons: Repetitive gameplay and forgettable storyline.

Final Judgement: Worth the download for fans of the movie who want to relive the experience in an interactive environment.

http://www.telltalegames.com/jurassicpark

Available for: Xbox Live, PS3 Store, PC (Steam), iPad

If I had been writing the Redcoat Review back in early 2010 and not just ranting about various titles to my associates over fermented vegetable drinks, I probably would have named a little ditty by Quantic Dreams as one of the best games of the year. The game was called Heavy Rain and it followed the exploits of four different protagonists as they tried to catch a serial killer and save a young boy. The game was full of intriguing characters, branching plot lines, gripping narrative and gratuitous female nudity. It focused on the narrative storytelling and played like an interactive movie. For example, players interact with characters and the environment through controller movements and button sequences displayed on screen instead of the traditional game controls. Heavy Rain was masterful in execution and I enjoyed every second of its play through. Whenever I jump on my soap box and argue that video games are a legitimate art form that can stand up to award winning books and movies I always speak of Heavy Rain in hushed reverent tones and then hold it aloft so that its radiance can shine down on the masses. If you have never tried this game, go pick it up, you'll thank me.

This man is hardcore, he dosen't look it, but trust me... he is. For the love of god, go play Heavy Rain.

I’m not writing a review of Heavy Rain however, nor am I writing a blog about a sequel to Heavy Rain, This week is a review of a game based around Jurassic Park and all its rippling water and cutting edge CG dinosaurs circa 93. Ah… I remember the first time I saw Jurassic Park the movie. Those were the halcyon days my friends.  I loved everything about that flick, from the T-rex’s enjoyment of freeze tag to the inexplicably complex GUI that the parks computers employed. I also loved the top down/fps video game for the SNES that came out the same year. I fondly recall one warm summer weekend where I set up two TV's in my bedroom so I could watch the movie while I played the game. To me this was the greatest thing ever, it was like being the guy that discovered that Peanut Butter and Jelly together tasted fucking amazing, top of the world... halcyon days..

Ok... So we've come a long way since 93' I know, but this game is still fun.

Any who, the point I'm trying to get across to you is that I loved Heavy Rain and I also loved Jurassic Park. So when I downloaded Jurassic Park: The Game (yes that was the best name they could come up with - Jurassic Park: The Game) off of Steam and found that it was a blending of these two particular joys of mine; it was peanut butter jelly time all the fuck over again. My expectations were high, mayhaps unfairly high, and I found myself slightly disappointed. Jurassic Park: The Game is nowhere near Heavy Rain's calibre.  The plot of Heavy Rain was far more complex and superior to that of Jurassic Park. However, the Jurassic Park game did capture the feel of the original movie and when the credits rolled I wasn't upset by what the game provided me. It was definitely a far better sequel to Jurassic Park then The Lost World or Jurassic Park 3 ever was. Not that it’s hard to top those movies, I mean you could probably just loop keyboard cat for an hour and a half and it would be a better sequel then the lost world.

Now much like Heavy Rain’s plot line , you play as six different protagonists, three of which are main characters and another three that play a supporting role. However, unlike Heavy Rain where the characters are looking at different sides of the same question, and it is only near the end of the game that you see how they are all truly connected, in Jurassic Park the protagonists get thrown together fairly early on and then are forced to work together to escape the dino-ridden island. The three main characters are:

·         Gerry Harding: Jurassic Park's chief veterinarian / absentee father consumed by work stereotype.

·         Jess Harding: Gerry's 15 year old daughter / Lex rip-off / misguided teenager with daddy issues stereotype.

·         Nima Cruz: An Industrial Spy / displaced resident of Ilsa Nublar / little guy trodden on by a large corporation stereotype.

The supporting characters are:

·         Billy Yoder: Soldier of Fortune #1 / wisecracking solider stereotype

·         Oscar Morales: Soldier of Fortune #2 / cold blooded serious solider stereotype

·         Lara Sorkin: The Doctor that originally cloned the dinosaurs / dino rights activist / genius horrified at the application of their discovery stereotype.

The game is split into four episodes with the first one taking place parallel to the movie and the last three taking place within a day or two after the movie.The first episode of the game picks up right around the point in the movie that Dennis Nedry (The guy played by that actor who’s best known as Neuman from Sienfield) steals the Dinosaur embryos from Jurassic Park and shuts down the park's security systems to cover his escape. As we know from the movie, Nedry hides the embryos in a Barbasol can that is a portable cryogenic freezer.  During hisattempt to escape the island his car crashes and he is eaten by a Dilophosaurus. A Dilophosaurus which I can only imagine then developed hyper tension and cholesterol related health problems, as Nedry wasn't exactly a svelte man.

I suppose you could call him human kobe beef

Cruz is sent in to locate Nedry after he fails to show up at his appointed rendezvous.  Upon locating Nedry's ample corpse Cruz searches out the barbasol can.  When she finds the can she is attacked by a venomous dinosaur with sinister glowing eyes and staggers off into the jungle slowly succumbing to the venom. As she emerges from the jungle and on to one of the parks maintenance roads Harding, who is trying to drive his visiting daughter to the dock so she can leave the island, nearly hits Cruz. Harding collects Cruz and upon seeing her condition turns his vehicle around and heads towards the visitors center of the park to treat her. While en route to the visitor’s center it slowly dawns on Harding that the park is in serious trouble and that the wheels have really come off. Before long Harding is face to face with an escaped T-Rex and  the group is forced to work together to survive Jurassic Park and try to escape the island of Ilsa Nublar.

Harding and his Daughter, Lex... I mean Jess

The first episode was great; a large part of the episode is devoted to Nina and her investigation of Nedry's crash scene. As you move about the area you piece together the last few minutes of Nedry's life. The game also completely and faithfully recreated the movie set from the scene where Nedry's demise takes place as well as the visitor’s center.  The rest of the first episode also follows a parallel story line to that of the movie. It felt like I was seeing another side of the movie I enjoyed so much as a kid. However, that is where my enjoyment ended. 

YEAH! Its the tree! With the Jeep! And you can even find that stick Nedry throws!

In the second episode Sorkin, Yoder and Morales are introduced.  The two mercenaries are hired by inGen to rescue the remaining survivors, and from there on out the story of the game really falls on its face.

Episode two as I said introduces the two aforementioned mercenaries hired by inGen to rescue the remaining survivors, and from there on out the story of the game really falls on its face. While Nina, Jess and Gerry are fairly stereotypical characters they are at least enjoyable to watch and play, mostly because the characters do have some development, you learn about their motivations and reasons for doing what they do. Billy and Oscar however are downright cheesy. It’s like they just grabbed two default characters out of the stereotype handbook and rammed them into the plot. For example at one point in episode three Oscar decided that it would be jolly good fun to stalk a velociraptor, and then, using only a knife, goes toe to toe with one because he’s awesome and has every person he’s ever killed tattooed on his arm as a skull. Alternatively Billy gets chased by the T-Rex and instead of doing what a normal person would do which is… probably scream… he cracks wise while fleeing for his god damned life, because he’s the comic relief but still hardcore. It’s like Michael Bay was hired as a consultant for character creation.

I mean look at him... I bet when you heard the name Oscar Morales, you probably pictured exactly that.

There were many points throughout the remaining episodes that your merry band of survivors basically escaped from Jurassic Park only to get re-stranded on the island. At these points it felt like the writers shoehorned in a reason to continue the story. This created a decidedly ho-hum plot line in the remaining episodes and essentially just played the "escape from the dinosaur" scenario over and over. If it wasn't for the occasional character interactions between Gerry and Nina where you see some glimmers of character development and the soundtrack, which is taken directly from the movie, I might have not been able to finish the game. This is not say that the plot doesn’t take a bit of a rebound near the end of the final episode and start to get good again, but for the most part episodes two, three and four were all but disappointing.

"WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING??"

The plot isn't really helped either by repetitive gameplay which quickly transitions from novel to tedious.  Again, in Heavy Rain, the traditional control method was eschewed for a system which had players follow on screen ques to perform actions in game. This worked because it was well implemented.  There were many different types of actions and the gameplay was paced appropriately so that players still felt drawn into the game and challenged. Jurassic Park: The Game also went for this style of game play but falls short of Heavy Rain's implementation. There are only a handful of different actions that players need to perform and the game really isn't that challenging, all you need to do is have rudimentary motor skills and any player can stumble their way through a scene successfully. They may not get a "gold" rating for the scene, but the ratings don't affect the plot or story in anyway so there is no incentive to want to replay scenes to obtain that flawless result.

You could try to dodge the spit... or you can just take it like a champ and continue on... your choice, either way no big deal.

Jurassic Park: The Game is a hammy waltz through the world created by the movie. The characters are flat and the plot isn't exactly ground breaking. However fans will enjoy the game for what it is - an extension of the movie. With a cost of about $35 Canadian I'm willing to overlook many of its flaws given its value price point. It’s like the straight to DVD movies that invariably follow Disney's blockbusters, sure they aren't great, but you watch them because it’s more of what attracted you to the movie in the first place. Yes gameplay isn't too challenging, but some days you don't want to climb Kilimanjaro, sometimes you just want to go for a stroll in the park. A stereotypical, repetitive, park.

Review - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Review – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Pros: Fantastic Graphics, Excellent multiplayer, polished gameplay.

Cons: Nothing new innovations from the last two Modern Warfare titles. The quest for an epic conclusion to the saga goes over the top and campy.

Final Judgement: Heavily slanted towards multiplayer, a must for online shooter players.

 

www.callofduty.com/mw3

Available for PC, PS3, Xbox, Wii

Oh Boy…

Where do I begin? Let me start by saying that I’m not a real fan of Military shooter sims, specifically the ones in the Battlefield and Call of Duty vein.  Although I enjoy the relentless explosions and noise, the developers invariably rely on you playing the multiplayer aspects in order to flesh out your gaming experience. They’re like a full course meal. They give you a single player campaign appetizer to get your mouth watering, hoping that you’ll then fill up to bursting on capture the flag and king of the hill and death match. As a result, the single player campaigns are, as a wise man once said: Nasty, brutish and short. Now I play video games to escape from people.  A game which requires me to play with others in order to gain the full gaming experience is not my cup of tea.  This is not to say that I have never thoroughly enjoyed multiplayer games, but those are always under the right circumstances with the right people. Getting repeatedly shot in the face by a pimple faced, overweight, basement dwelling, mouth breather half a world away while he decries the sexual promiscuity of my mother and his extra marital relations with her is not my idea of a good time. I simply don’t have the patience to sit there and get as they say “pwned” for days on end while I build the rudimentary skills to not be called “noob”.  Now I don’t necessarily dislike Battlefield and Call of Duty, I just don’t want to pay full retail price for a game that I’m only buying for twenty to thirty percent of the game that makes up the single player experience. That being said, I went out and bought Modern Warfare 3 at full retail price because I’m committed to you dear reader and to bringing you timely and insightful rants about video games.

Because I’m cool like that.

Let me start by saying, I am all for fantastical tales of adventure, magic and danger. I`ll suspend my disbelief to the point where I`ll allow you to say that Yanni is fucking metal provided you give me a framework to deal with. That being said, Modern Warfare 3`s plot is like a bad Nicholas Cage movie. It’s like Infinityward`s writers gave up on trying to come up with a plausible story for a world war, broke out the jack daniels and started throwing plot hooks at the wall to see what would stick.

Actual photo from theLead Writer's Office

As you may or may not recall, in the previous game, Russia invaded The Eastern Seaboard of the United States after the villain, Vladimir Makarov, engineered a slaughter at a Russian Airport in which an undercover CIA agent took part and then was killed at and left at the scene to implicate the United States.

You know, I'm for the most part against censorship in games, but even I thought this level was a bit much.

Well, in Modern Warfare 3, the first part of the game focuses on the US Army repelling the Russian invasion of New York. After you succeed in halting their advance and forcing them to retreat from America`s shores. The game switches to the Russian President on his private jet with his daughter flying to meet the US President for peace negotiations… Peace negotiations. Hang on a second, didn`t he just declare war on the USA because of the actions of one, possibly rouge agent? Now, Modern Warfare didn’t mention any elections or regime change in Russia, So this is the same guy that just declared war literally days before, and now he’s all “We must make NATO our friend, so that we may have peace.” I don’t know how receptive the USA or NATO are going to be to that olive branch considering I saw a lot of dead civilians in Manhattan.

It will be like 9/11 times 2356!

But before he can get to the peace talks he’s kidnapped by Makarov.

Russia’s response to this is then to invade Europe. All of it, at the same time, in one day and no one saw them coming. Didn’t anyone notice the legions of soldiers and companies of tanks parked at their city limits grunting and gunning their engines? This is where I really call bullshit. How does Russia have so many resources that it can attack America and then invade all of Europe the next day? How did they manage to attack London, Paris, Prague, Berlin and others at the same time? Like shouldn’t it take them at least a few days to get across the continent?

It seems like every movie and game lately in France features the Eiffel Tower getting all fucked up.

The only concession to the story line I can make is the way in which Russia kicked off operation “invade everywhere right the hell now”. They start their master plan by detonating trucks full of chemical weapons in all of the major cities of Europe, terrorist style.  I’ll give them this one because this was an actual Russian plan during the cold war that was to be implemented by the Vympel unit of the cold war Spetsnaz (Russian Special Forces). You see the Vympel were created by the KGB for deep penetration, espionage and covert action. Operatives spoke foreign languages and were intended to act in countries, deep behind enemy lines. They were also trained in special and improvised explosives and used terrorist style attacks as part of their operations. So I suppose a bunch of Special Forces guys detonating chemical weapons in city centers is crazy but plausible.

Anyway, the story goes on and the war escalates.  Just when humanity seems doomed the Special Forces Task force, that you play, determines the location where Makarov is holding the Russian president.  You then engage in a climactic battle underground in a diamond mine. The prez is rescued at the expense of most of the US Special Forces… And then World War 3 abruptly ends. All is forgiven, the invasion of North America, the unprovoked attack on Europe and the use of Chemical Weapons on non-combatant civilians. You think that would all make for a fairly awkward first round of peace talks, but no it’s all Vodka under the bridge and the world goes back to normal. It’s a bit too perfect of a wrap up I was half expecting one of the main characters waking up and realizing it was all a dream. I really don’t know what happened to the writing in this game, the first story was great, the seconds was a bit more fantastical and James Bond-ish but still very good, this… this was just out of hand, I was half expecting Russia to invade the internet so that they could destroy the moon or some shit.

They're getting to it... its on their list.

Any who, let’s talk a bit about gameplay. Now let me see if I can properly crystalize the experience of playing the game for you in a written format; it goes a little something like this:

AHH! SHITS ON FIRE! AHH! SOME DUDES ARE SHOOTING AT YOU! AHH! THAT BUILDING JUST EXPLODED! AHH! LOOK OUT GRENADE! AHH-aww you died, here’s a quote about war. Its ok though because you re-spawned so look out because- SHITS ON FIRE!…

The above is literally how the entire single player campaign plays out. Is it exciting? Definitely.  Repetitive?  Yeah, a little bit. Almost every mission follows the exact same formula:

·         Your character enters the battlefield and things go sideways fairly quick. 

·        Just as things start to go your way your character gets hit by an explosion or other catastrophe and is knocked senseless.  You are then rescued by a squad mate, allowing you to pick up a gun and finish the battle all Rambo style.

The above would be great if it wasn’t the norm. Modern Warfare 1 and 2 both used this formula, however it was used sparingly, which made it exciting when it happened. It made the battle feel that much more pitched and reminded me of some of the great war movies like Blackhawk Down and We were Soldiers.  However, when it happens in every mission like it does in MW3, the formula loses its effect and becomes more of a sign post for how far through the battle you are.

"Get up! Big finale time!"



There really is nothing new or revolutionary about Modern Warfare 3’s gameplay elements.  You still switch between different characters and some missions break away from the action to allow you to command Predator Drones, Gun Ships or air strikes. Which is still fun but MW3 has lost some of the novelty and wow factor that the original AC-130 mission had back in Modern Warfare 1. I`m sure Infinityward would argue that they`re just giving people more of what they like and I would tend to agree. I still enjoyed raining down fire and brimstone on my hapless foes from a gunship, however it would be nice to see them pull out an event or mission that we hadn`t experienced at least three or four times prior.

Repetition aside any veteran of the Modern Warfare Series can tell you that one of the games signatures are the details. The graphics are incredible, the visuals, the environmental effects and the character models are all top notch. As well, Infinityward takes pride in putting out a technically accurate package; they’re like the Gran Turismo of Military shooters. All of the firearms and equipment that you can pick up and use in the game exist in the real world more or less exactly as they are depicted in the video game world.

Credit where credit is due, this game looks awesome.



The game’s AI Is also very polished. Your foes use cover techniques effectively and will attempt to flank you or flush you out with grenades if they notice you camping behind cover for too long. The enemy also has some unique behaviors that add flare to the combat. They’ll react to injury and battle damage, limping or laying on the ground and firing at you with a pistol while crawling to cover. They’ll also pick up specialty weapons that their fallen comrades drop which can make a threat that you thought was neutralized reappear rather suddenly and pick you off when you turn your attention elsewhere.

So overall the game play is great.  You`ll enjoy the battles, the graphics, the vehicle sections and the authenticity of the gear you use. You will not however, experience anything new or see anything that you haven`t seen at least a couple of times before in the previous modern warfare games

Although I haven’t played the multiplayer aspect of the game, several of my associates have and they all swear by it stating that it’s the best multiplayer experience going at the moment. As for the single player campaign, it’s pretty, it’s exciting, it’s fun, but the plot is a bit on the crazy side. Shut your brain off, don’t think too hard about it and you’ll have a good time. Do I recommend Modern Warfare 3? For the online gamers, you already have it by this point I’m sure and don’t need my opinion. For the casual or single players, think of it like a campy summer action flick. You aren’t there for the story, you’re there for the explosions and action. Modern Warfare has both in spades.