Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis Preview

By Amer Ajami, GameSpotPosted Nov 5, 2002 3:31 pm PT

It's not the first park-building game to feature dinosaurs, but it is the first to use the Jurassic Park license. Find out all about Operation Genesis inside.

Though you might not realize it, nearly a dozen Jurassic Park-themed games have been released for PCs, consoles, and arcades in the 10 years since Steven Spielberg's original dinosaur flick hit the silver screen. And though they've ranged from fighting games to platformers to light-gun shooters, none have been particularly memorable, with the exception of DreamWorks' Trespasser, though most people remember that first-person shooter for all the wrong reasons. It's funny that, of all the games based on the Jurassic Park series, none have focused on the premise of all three movies: the creation and maintenance of a commercial theme park. None until now, that is. Vivendi Universal and Blue Tongue, the developers of Starship Troopers for the PC, are currently putting the finishing touches on Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis (previously Project Genesis), which is a park-building game in the same vein as SimCoaster and Zoo Tycoon. We recently had the chance to take a first-hand look at Operation Genesis, and we gleaned some new details about its gameplay and overall structure.

All the dinosaurs in Operation Genesis will have completely unscripted AI--so don't do anything to piss them off.

In designing Operation Genesis, the developers at Blue Tongue wanted not only to differentiate this game from other Jurassic Park games, but they also wanted it to stand out from the admittedly saturated park-building genre. To do that, they've made Operation Genesis completely 3D, and they've added an action element not typically found in these types of games. In addition to simply building and maintaining various structures in Operation Genesis, you'll also be able to take control of a number of vehicles in order to take a more hands-on approach to the art of designing the perfect theme park. Most of this action-oriented gameplay will originate at the ranger station, which is a structure that comes standard with a jeep and a chopper. You'll use both of these vehicles to chase and coral loose dinos, tranquilize them if they're on a rampage, or give them a dose of medicine if they become sick. These sequences add driving, flying, and even first-person shooter elements to what would otherwise be a straightforward park-building game. When you choose to tranquilize a dinosaur, for example, the game will switch to a first-person perspective, and you'll actually have to aim and shoot as you would in an action game--certainly not something that you would find in a typical strategy game.

But Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is very much a park-building strategy game, and the action-oriented sequences that you'll run across don't detract from the overarching theme of having to build a dinosaur-laden complex intended to draw large crowds. As in typical park-building games, you'll start Operation Genesis with a clean slate--or, in this case, an empty island. The game uses a random terrain generator to create an infinite number of islands that you can customize by altering one of four variables: its shape, the density of its forests, the number of rivers, and its overall height above sea level. You'll adjust these parameters using four slide bars, and once you've created an island of your liking, you'll jump into the game. From here, you'll need to build your park entrance, which is the primary structure of your complex. It's with these massive wooden gates--which feature the recognizable "Jurassic Park" in bold orange lettering--that you'll be able set the entrance fee, set park hours, and choose when to open the park to the public and when to close it off for maintenance.

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jakeboudville
Posted Sep 14, 2006 6:10 am PT

looks good
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