I once played it for so long my thumb got cut by the controller grip. This was my first xbox game and playing it in coop with my bro was an experience to remember. The tame lego violence and suspense was a gatway drug into much worse, but in true lego fashion there were some funny ass moments. I also remember this hyper specific glitch I discoverd where if you turn into a flying dino bird thingy in this one enclosure and glitch out, you can traverse the open world as the unplayable bird. Back to the game. The sound track of classic Jurrasic park tied in perfectly to some of the environments. Some enclosures genuinely felt like a fever dream upon reflection, maybe my memory is just bad overtime but the whole oversaturated-green lego foilage thing makes me feel like a dumbass kid.

41

Amongst the countless LEGO games released throughout the last 18 years, we’ve gotten some absolute bangers with LEGO Batman: The Videogame, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, and my favourite—LEGO Marvel Superheroes; however, there are always bound to be some that are nothing more than average, and this is one of them. I’m amazed at how consistently Traveller’s Tales picks franchises that simply don’t translate well to their formula. I mean sure you can have the witty humor, the massive character rosters, and abundance of collectibles; but none of that really matters if the foundation is shaky at best.

Some of this really works! The story levels are fun to go through for the first three movies, with World easily being the weakest for reasons we’ll go through later. Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and Jurassic Park III are adapted almost perfectly; the levels are kept short, they contain engaging puzzles that aren’t too repetitive, and are mostly entertaining—with humor that occasionally works. Although I’m bothered by the fact that the opening scene of The Lost World isn’t adapted at all—strange, considering it has the most potential for a funny moment with the hilarious transition of a woman screaming turning into Jeff Goldblum yawning… but whatever I guess. Jurassic World on the other hand isn’t that good… It’s honestly a fucking snore-fest, which is odd considering the game is named after the movie; it’s clear that almost no effort went into those five levels, as they completely throw pacing out the window, they drag on endlessly with monotonous objectives and boring gameplay mechanics (the camouflage). I like the dino fights though! Those are definitely fun for the sheer spectacle of it all, but they don’t offer much in terms of gameplay besides spamming QTEs. There are also these out-of-level segments where you have to clear a path to progress to the next level, and they suck; I sort of miss the days where you’d have a set of doors to walk through or a quick menu, because anything other than that just aims to waste your time. Bonus levels are present here too, and those are a joke; they’re literally just the chase sections ripped from the main levels, all six take about 10 minutes to do and they’re laughably stupid.

I’d say the biggest issue with this game is the voice acting, or should I say lack thereof. It’s all taken from the movies; and it sounds like shit. It never stopped taking me out and was incredibly distracting throughout the entire game. Just hire some fucking actors please! It all sounds so cheap and fake, not to mention that it takes away from the humor since they’re constrained by the movie’s lines. They can’t add any jokes that aren’t just mindless mumbles, and it’s noticeable when compared to their other games. One thing that I’m happy they took from the movies is the soundtrack though, it’s always nice hearing those iconic themes as you’re doing typical, mundane LEGO stuff—and it never really gets old.

As I said before, the foundation for this game is a bit iffy, as it’s just Jurassic Park—like what can you really do with the character roster? The world? And this exact reason is why the game is so middling. Is it cool that it contains 140+ characters? Yeah. Is it cool that it has all four islands? Yeah. But it’s not cool that all of those things are boring as hell. This is one of the worst LEGO rosters because these characters are not fun to play as. The Dino’s are nice though—but again, there’s not much you can do with any of them. And two of the hubs—which are forests (I hate forests) are essentially just narrow lines that have some of the most repetitive activities I’ve seen in a LEGO game. Oh and since this is indeed a LEGO game, expect loads upon loads of bugs that softlock/hardlock your progress. Like fucking hell, can they ever optimize a game? Guess not.

Playtime: 21.2 hours

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One of the best Lego games and that's seriously saying something.

Perfect open world, perfect vibes from the films, perfect humor, and YOU GET TO PLAY AS THE DINOSUARS!!!

Love love love it!!!

No way Chris Pratt is in this lego game like that has ever happened before. I got the one that came with a Henry Wu minifigure this was back when they refused to make any sets on the original series so this was the closest to that at this time. Why am I mentioning this idk I they think it’s neat. I really do like that they give you the options of the only decent Jurassic park movies right out of the gate. I don’t have anything really bad to say about this game since it’s just a solid game but some of the source material is Jurassic park the lost world and 3. Fuck it the rest of the review will be about the Jurassic park novel because I have more to say about it spoilers for the book ahead. I really do like the horror in the book because Micheal crighton really likes to describe things in high detail like with Dennis’ corspe which the gang find later in the book. Alright plot time remember that scene at the start of lost world with the girl dieing from compies yeah the book opens with that. It’s definitely a good opener since all of Iteration 1 (think like story arcs) is dealing with what killed the kid. It introduces the characters you love like Alan, Ellie, Ian, and the best character in the book Don Gennaro (I’m serious). They then get invited to the theme park by a more capitalist version of John Hammond. Now John Hammond is basically a different character is basically the main thematic changes from book to movie. If I want to describe him Movie Hammond is a lot like a mix of what Hollywood wants you to think Walt was with a combination of Santa while book version is reminds me more of a Jeff Bezos like character. The reason why Dennis sells out Hammond in novel is because he was treated like shit and wanted to jump ship. Another thing is with Tim and Lex where they switched ages and book Lex was even more immature then movie Tim. In the movie he brought them over so they could get away from their parents divorce while in the book he brought them to help make a better case for why they should move forward with the park. Their fates are also vastly different with movie Hammond realizes that the park was a bad idea and that you can’t control these creatures. Meanwhile book Hammond dies from compies a nice way to tie back to the start of the book with the girl dieing. He wasn’t redeemed he just wanted to give the park another chance instead of coming to terms with the fact it can’t be controlled. I really like both of these takes and is up to you who is better. Another thing I would like to mention is the side plot of animals coming to the main land which is similar to the Fallen kingdom but it isn’t on purpose. That’s why Alan is trying to get back since he needs to warn the crew of ship that dinosaurs are on board. It does lead to at the end of the book mysterious disappearances of local chickens showing that some did get out. Cool idea wish it got expanded a little more and not in a shitty 2018 movie. Now for the major changes to deaths. Hammond and Wu die meanwhile Donald and Moldoon survive. Ian also does but that gets rectoned in the lost world books. I really like Donald since he’s basically just another Moldoon but cooler and doesn’t kick the bucket. Lastly I finally understand where Jurassic park River adventure (the universal studios ride) is based just a scene in the book that was really cool finding out 10/10 read it for yourself