After bringing the big-screen adventures ofStar Wars,Indiana Jones, andHarry Potterinto playable Lego form, TT cooked upLego Jurassic Worldto coincide with the release of the 2015 reboot of theJurassic Parkfranchise starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. In addition to adapting the 2015 reboot, the game depicts the original three movies, with five levels being dedicated to each installment.
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It’s not a perfect game, but re-enacting all the dino-infested set pieces from the movies isplenty of fun forJurassic Parkfans. Ultimately,Lego Jurassic Worldis a mixed bag, with both flaws and redeeming qualities.
10Right: The Open World
The hub inLego Jurassic Worldis an open world in which players can get a helicopter onto Isla Nublar or Isla Sorna, or even take a boat to San Diego (becauseThe Lost World’s third act takes a weird detour intoGodzillahomage).
Rather than being confined to a single location like Dex’s Diner or Mos Eisley Cantinafrom the originalLego Star Warsgames, players are free to roam around andexplore the titular theme park.
9Wrong: Finding Levels
Long gone are the days of simple Lego games likeLego Star WarsandLego Indiana Jones, which had a door for each movie and easy access to every level. Now, Lego games like the hide their levels, so that finding the level becomes a level in itself. There’s a trail of translucent studs to follow, but there are always a bunch of annoying obstacles along the way.
Trying to find the next level in an open world based on a movie with vaguely defined geography likeJurassic Park IIIcan quickly become an endless existential nightmare.
8Right: Playable Dinosaurs
Ultimately, the main draw of theJurassic Parkfranchise is the dinosaurs. Well-developed human characters like Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm and philosophical musings on the dangers of playing God are the icing on the cake. What moviegoers really come for is the dinosaurs.
InLego Jurassic World, players don’t just get to fend off dinosaur attacks;they get to actually play as dinosaurs. Having Sattler and Malcolm and Alan Grant and John Hammond and Robert Muldoon as playable characters was cool enough, but the playable dinosaurs were a nice touch.
7Wrong: Repetitive Gameplay
The gameplay inLego Jurassic Worldstarts to get repetitive after a while as players are required to do the same things over and over again. Approximately once a level, players are asked to collect three items to heal a sick dinosaur, because Ellie Sattler healed one sick dinosaur in one movie.
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The game is filled with these kinds of tedious activities being repeated over and over again. It would be nice to mix it up every once in a while.
6Right: John Williams’ Sweeping Score
After filling theLego Star WarsandLego Indiana Jonesgames withJohn Williams’ iconic music, TT did the same withLego Jurassic World. All throughout the game, players are treated to Williams’ sweepingJurassic Parktheme (and will spend the next few days humming it uncontrollably).
There’s not as much of Williams’ music in this game as those previous ones, as he only scored the first twoJurassic Parkmovies, but there’s still plenty to enjoy.
5Wrong: Dodgy Dialogue Clips
Unlike the early Lego games whose characters spoke in indiscriminate grumbles, the characters ofLego Jurassic Worldhave spoken dialogue taken from the actors in the movies themselves.
Some actors fromJurassic World, including Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, recorded new lines for the game, but all the dialogue for the legacy characters was ripped straight out of the films and some of the audio quality is dodgy, which stands out when it’s played opposite newly recorded material.
4Right: Vibrant Graphics
The graphics inLego Jurassic Worldare vibrant. Every level is bursting with color. Taking cues from the breathtaking production design of the movies themselves,Lego Jurassic Worldrecaptures the sense of wonder and adventure from the original movies.
The jungle environments and hordes of dinosaurs are really brought to life by the bright palette. Even whenLego Jurassic Worldbecomes frustrating, it’s beautiful to look at.
3Wrong: Lack Of Tension
What made the originalJurassic Parkmovie sucha timeless masterpiecethat has sustained a franchise for five movies is its palpable tension. Much like he’d done two decades earlier withJaws, Spielberg used Hitchcockian suspense-building techniques to elevateJurassic Parkabove its monster movie premise.
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But all the most suspenseful sequences, like the T. Rex’s escape, lost the tension they had in the movie when they were translated to the game, because there’s no sense of danger. The players have as long as they want to defeat the T. Rex, because it poses no real threat.
2Right: Raptors In The Kitchen
While a lot of theJurassicfranchise’s tensest set pieces lost that tension in their Lego game adaptation, the scene with the velociraptors in the kitchen makes for one of the game’s best levels.
Keeping out of the raptors’ way is a real challenge, unlike a lot ofLego Jurassic World’s gameplay, and when they attack, it’s a genuine fright.
1Wrong: Glitches
Like most Lego games that appear to have beenrushed to market to coincide with the release of a popular movie, likeLego Marvel’s AvengersandLego Star Wars: The Force Awakens,Lego Jurassic Worldis riddled with glitches.
At any point in a level, the game could get stuck in an irreversible glitch, forcing the player to manually shut down the console, turn it back on, and restart the level. And to add insult to injury, the so-called “checkpoints” are meaningless, so the player is sent back to the very beginning. They’re not difficult levels to overcome, but it is frustrating.
