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Jurassic Park III: Survival Preview
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Can JP: Survival pick up the bones where the first film left.
The Jurassic Park franchise hasnāt always endured a good relationship with the video-games industry, ranging from the good (Jurassic Park SNES), to the so-so (Lost World PSX), to the so-bad-it-would-be-turned-away-by-a-pack-of-hungry-velociraptors-if-it-were-a-piece-of-meat (Trespasser PC). Universal Studios Interactive and Savage Entertainment are hoping to change that with Jurassic Park: Survivor on the PC and PS2.
Surprisingly Universal has opted to stay away from the plotlines generated from the upcoming Jurassic Park 3 movie and create an entirely new scenario for the game. Yep, Jurassic Park: Survivor has got nothing to do with the upcoming JP movie, giving them the freedom to step outside the conventions of the series and concentrate on making a great game
You take the role of David Vaughn a security expert brought in to close the original Jurassic Park. Unbeknownst to Vaughn, however, the armed security team protecting the substation is actually a spy group smuggling dinosaur DNA off the island in order for a rival corporation to catch up on years of dinosaur research. When ambushed, chaos ensues and the unassuming hero, Vaughn must confront the dinosaurs defeat the terrorists and single-handedly save his colleagues from certain death.
Adventure fans will be at home with the premise; Survivor pits players in a third person adventure that fuses elements from Tomb Raider with those of Turok. There will be quite an array of puzzles to solve throughout the game but donāt let that put you off -- donāt think push block collect key -- instead how about rounding up a pack of hungry raptors and luring them to a patrolled area and leaving them to do what they best, eat the enemy.
Itās also been hinted that stealth play will feature, at times youāll have to cross areas packed with dinoās without any artillery backup. The promise of an ATV scene being produced by Swingin Ape ā“ formed by Hydro Thunder developers ā“ is an exciting prospect.
The game will feature 12 varied and vast levels, throughout his journey David will comb the island's beaches, traverse its treacherous cliff-speckled canyons, endure its bug-infested jungles, fumble around its darkened network of caves, and infiltrate the security compounds. Thanks to his security clearance, though, David will have access to the island's computer and transportation network.
There are eight different dinosaurs included in Survivor, along with four types of enemy officers and numerous bosses. Included in the dinosaur roster are the likes of flying pterodactyls; compies; triceratops; JPās favourite velociraptors; truadons; Tyrannosaurus Rex and the fearful Spinosaurus.
Of course the dinosaurs are the stars of the show and this shows in the production values, no expense has been spared to ensure they look as realistic as possible. Each is composed of aprox 1500 polygons a piece, a single-skin texture is then applied which feature intensive details such as wrinkles. Each dinosaur currently has about 10 different animation routines, these include the likes of dinosaurs throatās enlarging as they gorge on their prey.
To ensure authenticity the developers are using the same exact dinosaur cries that will be used in Jurassic Park III. The musical theme for the game has yet to be determined; Savage and Universal Interactive are still in the process of sorting out the rights to use the music from the movie.
Movie tie-ins have a history for being appalling, Savageā decision to create itās own story for Jurassic Park: Survivor is a bold one but should end up being the right one, giving them the freedom to step away from the constraints and concentrate on making a good game. Which it will have to be as the likes of MGS 2 and Max Payne will (probably) be out.
