I first played this game on release and not only enjoyed it but got rather far, which either means I was much more patient back then, or I just really really loved dinosaurs.
The good: the music score by the one and only Michael Giacchino is first-rate, and the dinosaurs are really well animated, showing a lot of character. I love that there are some actions that don't do anything from a gameplay perspective (the compy can roll around like a cute puppy and the T-rex can do its signature roar) but add personality to the dinosaurs you control. The structure is rather interesting as well, with you gradually working your way up the food chain (you start as a compy, then a hunter, then a raptor, then the T-rex, and then Sarah Harding trying to escape the island).
Unfortunately, the core gameplay is a trainwreck. It's one of those "2.5D" games fashionable in the era, where developers wanted to show off 3D graphics but keep the gameplay in a 2D plane since it was a design space they were much more familiar with. But every frustrating element that could possibly exist in 2D platforming rears its ugly head here. Hazards obscured by foreground objects, flying enemies that can't be hit with either crouching or standing attacks, tiny platforms, blind jumps and fall damage seem like a bad enough list of things to deal with, but there's also the finicky controls. Seriously, trying to jump onto a platform in this game is a soul-crushing affair. The compy gets a special mention because he handles like Sonic rollerskating through an oil slick.
To add insult to injury, once you've finally worked your way up the food chain and get to control the T-rex, you realize that the king of the dinosaurs has been reduced to a sadpunching biting bag. The T-rex stages end up being the hardest because unlike the other dinosaurs, the T-rex kills enemies by standing still and chomping on them for 5 seconds, which looks cool except you're wide open to attack during those 5 seconds, and all the T-rex stages have you fighting off a swarm of respawning enemies.
This made me particularly sad because unlike a game like say Bubsy, which was simply crap all around, there were some very interesting elements and ideas that could have been made into a great game. But as a platformer, it lives and dies on its platforming and its controls and it was definitely a miss for me.
The good: the music score by the one and only Michael Giacchino is first-rate, and the dinosaurs are really well animated, showing a lot of character. I love that there are some actions that don't do anything from a gameplay perspective (the compy can roll around like a cute puppy and the T-rex can do its signature roar) but add personality to the dinosaurs you control. The structure is rather interesting as well, with you gradually working your way up the food chain (you start as a compy, then a hunter, then a raptor, then the T-rex, and then Sarah Harding trying to escape the island).
Unfortunately, the core gameplay is a trainwreck. It's one of those "2.5D" games fashionable in the era, where developers wanted to show off 3D graphics but keep the gameplay in a 2D plane since it was a design space they were much more familiar with. But every frustrating element that could possibly exist in 2D platforming rears its ugly head here. Hazards obscured by foreground objects, flying enemies that can't be hit with either crouching or standing attacks, tiny platforms, blind jumps and fall damage seem like a bad enough list of things to deal with, but there's also the finicky controls. Seriously, trying to jump onto a platform in this game is a soul-crushing affair. The compy gets a special mention because he handles like Sonic rollerskating through an oil slick.
To add insult to injury, once you've finally worked your way up the food chain and get to control the T-rex, you realize that the king of the dinosaurs has been reduced to a sad
This made me particularly sad because unlike a game like say Bubsy, which was simply crap all around, there were some very interesting elements and ideas that could have been made into a great game. But as a platformer, it lives and dies on its platforming and its controls and it was definitely a miss for me.