Telltale Games have their own take of how events unfolded in Jurassic Park, and it looks promising. Known for their 'story first' approach, they decided to branch out into this new territory and let the game-play unfold.
Jurassic Park will be an episodic game, playing a lot on what they've done in previous titles, while adding new elements to enhance game-play. Focused on story and character, they will be true to the licence and avoid it being a mere "dinosaur shooting game." "It's a game about people," Telltale Designer's Joe Pinney stated, "and running and screaming from dinosaurs as well."
The choreographed action scenes are super intense; Telltale strove to achieve the "Spielberg effect" to reinvent and revolutionize what a Telltale cinematic adventure is. You care a lot more about the outcome of your actions, and the balance between action and exploration is well met.
Starting halfway through the events of the first movie, on the stormy night of Dennis Nedry's attempt to smuggle dinosaur DNA off the island, the game shows a new perspective as to what happened on Jurassic Park after that point. People are coming on the island to infiltrate Nedry and get the canister, you meet staff who were left behind like Gerry Harding, chief veterinarian, and his daughter Jess, and a rescue team to boot. Through interactions and hopefully good connections, your goal is to meet other survivors, survive as a group, and get off the island.
As you explore, you must problem-solve to thoroughly scan the scene, from tweaking the direction the jeep lights are facing to light up a certain area, to interacting with the scenery in hopes of getting good results. Certain events occur which have you choose between up to four decisions, each with a very different result. Some can prove fatal, especially when the dinosaurs arrive, others could help you survive.
The play style is similar to Heavy Rain, where as the heart-pumping sequences occur, you have a split second to react and complete the action as shown on-screen. You fail, you die. Luckily, should you die due to a poor choice or inability to complete an action, the deaths themselves are quick and you start from a point mere seconds prior to your previous death, saving you the trouble of getting to that point yet again.
When interacting with the people you run into, your actions or suggestions can have different results based on who you're with, and must be considered. If you tell someone to distract the dinosaurs, while you hope they will throw a stick or do something to distract them, you chance being shoved toward the dinosaurs while your "friend" runs away. People you interact with can die, and those same people can be saved, but their survival really does depend on how you approach every situation.
Jurassic Park looks to be a wild ride, with lots of suspense, surprises, and a new species of dinosaur previously unmentioned in the movie will make its appearance. Experiencing the aftermath of Nedry's decision from this new perspective is quite refreshing, piquing one's curiosity as to what happened to others on the island after everything went wrong. It will be out Fall 2011 on the PC, Mac, iDevices, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.