“Hold onto your butts.”
So said Samuel L. Jackson as tensions began to mount on Isla Nublar during the power outage that would eventually cost him his arm (and his life) in the 1993 classic film Jurassic Park, and so said us to ourselves as we entered Telltale Games’ San Rafael headquarters and sat down in front of the Xbox 360 version of Jurassic Park: The Game, a $40 retail release due out on November 15.
Yes, Telltale, of all developers, got their hands on the license to our generation’s Jaws, and they’re making, of all things, an adventure game. Huh? Puzzle-solving with dinosaurs? Could that scenario possibly end well?
As it turns out: yes. It becomes immediately apparent that JP for 360 is not Telltale’s usual point-and-click affair, however. Rather, it’s more akin to the PlayStation 3’s adventure-thriller Heavy Rain…if raptors had whisked Jason away and Ethan had an awkward romantic moment with Dr. Sadler. It’s still an adventure game, but it’s much more cinematic, as rapid-fire events require immediate gamepad responses (yes, Quick-Time Events).
The game opens with a prologue, starting you off as a wounded female mercenary from South America, fleeing through the pitch-black Isla Nublar jungle. You’re in possession of the Barbasol can that fans of the film will immediately recognize as the embryo storage container Dennis Nedry tried to smuggle off the island, establishing the game’s timeframe as concurrent with the first movie. Strange eyes are peeking out through the darkness, and you must tap various buttons to avoid tripping and being eaten by your mysterious pursuers. Still, you eventually tumble down a cliffside and land on the side of a road, where one of the inGen park Jeeps barrels towards you before the screen fades to black and the opening credits – complete with the classic JP theme – unspool.
Don’t throw yourself into the raptor pit at the mere mention of the dreaded QTE just yet, though. Telltale deserves a longer leash (cattle prod?) than that. In our playthough of the first 45 minutes of the first episode (the disc is broken up into four of them), it doesn’t take long for Telltale’s strengths to shine through. Need a little humor? After a tranquil post-opening-credits scene as the other player character, Dr. Harding (the veterinarian who briefly appears in the movie), we rewind to earlier that day when the mercenary has just arrived on the island at the dock and is talking to Miles Chadwick, a squirrely man who’s hired her to track Nedry and retrieve the Barbasol can if he doesn’t show.
He’s on the phone with inGen rival and embryo-buyer Dodgson, who’s miffed at Miles using his real name over a phone. In a funny reference to the film, Miles echoes Nedry’s line from the movie, raising his voice and yelling, “Dodgson! I’ve got Dodgson here! See, nobody cares.”
You’ve got to get past the guard at the checkpoint in order to get into the island, and to do that you’ll need security passes. Naturally, they’re on the guard station desk, but you can’t reach through the window and grab them without being spotted. Walk back over to Miles and ask him to call the guard house (after spying the phone number on the wall through the window) and keep him busy, making it easy for you to swipe the passes. From there, it’s up to you to make up a ludicrous story about why you’re there. We won’t spoil it, but ours involved justifying ourselves as a plumber with a machete.
While this barely counts as a puzzle, it’s also the very beginning of the game. Things get much more involved later, when you discover Nedry’s Jeep (including its grisly contents) and have to scour the area to find the Barbasol can.
The QTEs may grate on some gamers by their very nature, but the sharp Telltale writing and engaging storyline were more than enough to keep the controller glued to our hands. Besides, you’re actually going to enjoy failing from time to time, if only to see the hilarious and gruesome deaths you can suffer. Here’s hoping for a cameo from Samuel L. Jackson’s severed arm.
