Jurassic Park Hands-On

GDC Mobile, San Francisco--It's hard to believe that Jurassic Park is now about 12 years old; those first computer-generated raptors still stand fresh in our minds after two lukewarm sequels and a ton of copycat summer blockbusters. Indiagames is taking aim at the phenomenon with an upcoming action adventure game that follows the plot of the movie. The game is definitely in its early stages, but enough of the foundation was laid for us to get a feel for its huge environments and nifty story-driven play.

Jurassic Park will follow the plot of the movie pretty closely. You'll play as Sam Neill's protagonist, Dr. Allan Grant, and you'll have to fulfill objectives like restoring power to the theme park, seeking out the various members of the ensemble cast, and collecting items like DNA canisters. The game's five or six environments are also based on locations from the movie, and they're equally enormous. We spent some time traipsing around the hotel level, which features diverse sections like the kitchens and the front hallway. The game will be split up into about 40 objectives. The ones we saw in the demo were fairly standard searches for items and people--find item A and return to person B seemed to be a common theme. However, Indiagames told us that some of the objectives will require you to backtrack to previous areas or find secrets. This dynamic is sure to add depth, given the sheer size of the game.

The version of the game we played wasn't yet feature-complete, but it still looked great on our preview N-Gage QD. Realistic-looking raptors roamed freely throughout the game's environments, although their behavior hadn't been implemented yet, so they were totally docile. Jurassic Park's many areas also impressed us with their detail. For example, when you venture outside, large raindrops fall from the stormy sky and splash on the ground. All in all, the game's graphics look like they will equal or exceed most SNES games. You won't get too confused by this resplendence, either, as large blinking arrows indicate the way to your next objective.

This game's ambitious scope really raises the bar for Indiagames, which has made a lot of mobile games that were on the shorter side. The company wasn't too specific with Jurassic Park's release date, but by the sound of things, the game should be ready for prime time this summer. Check back here for more details.