This game is better off staying extinct.
THE GOOD
-Great audio
-Fun supply of weapons
-Nice variety of dinosaurs
THE BAD
-No save feature
-Annoying messages pop up and obstruct your view
-Sluggish controls
-Tight camera
OVERVIEW
The 1993 blockbuster movie, Jurassic Park, takes place on an island where a few scientists, under the direction of the park leader John Hammond, have been able to grow dinosaurs from fossilized DNA. But things go wrong and the park looses power which disables the cages that house all types of dinosaurs and now the few humans there are overrun by the giant lizards. Jurassic Park, the video game, has the same type of premise. Dinosaurs have taken over the island and it's up to Dr. Alan Grant to complete a few necessary objectives like restoring generator power and reboot the main computer before reaching the Helipad for evacuation. All the other characters from the movie like Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm and John Hammond aren't playable but do give you helpful advice along the way. Jurassic Park is completely non-linear but if you don't complete certain tasks in order you'll find yourself doing a lot of backtracking. Basically, Jurassic Park is a mediocre video game adaptation based on a movie.
GAMEPLAY
As far as the game play goes; there are two playable views. While you're running around outside, in the park, you'll control Grant via a top-down view and when you enter buildings the view changes to first person. In theory this switch in game style was a great idea but unfortunately there are a few annoying quirks. The top-down view, which is the better of the two, has the camera too close to your character which makes avoiding enemies quite difficult but they'll seem to jump out of nowhere. The first person view is nauseating because the controls are way too sluggish which makes it easy to get lost.
While you're running around the park you'll encounter many different types of dinosaurs; most of which will try to attack you directly. Just like the movie, you'll see creatures like Velociraptors, Dilophosaurs, Triceratops, and the ever popular Tyrannosaurus Rex. The many different types of dinos keep the game challenging because they all attack differently so you'll need to come up with unique strategies. Plus, dinosaurs are just plain cool. When you pause the game for any length of time random dino facts will appear which are quite interesting. However, there are a few points in the game where random messages will appear when you come across certain dinosaurs. This wouldn't be a problem if the messages were off to the side of the screen but putting them right in the middle of the screen was a terrible idea. For instance, there is one part where a message pop-ups and tells you to be careful of a charging triceratops. Well, as you continue to walk down this path, with the pop-up obscuring your view, you don't even notice this stampeding lizard crushing you.
Fortunately, you don't have to be afraid of these huge lizards because you'll find a bunch of effective weapons to defend yourself. Besides your electrical prod type weapon that you start off with, you'll be able to find a shotgun, a tranquilizer gun, a rocket launcher, a Bolas launcher, and a gas grenade launcher. Each weapon works extremely well against most of the dinosaurs and there is plenty of ammo lying around.
The controls in Jurassic Park are a huge let down because their sluggish nature puts you at a disadvantage in defending yourself. When you're outside your character moves and turns a little too slowly making it frustrating to hit faster moving dinosaurs. That coupled with a tight camera make it easy to take unnecessary damage. The top-down view isn't too bad but the first person view is just plan awful. Your turning is so lethargic that if a Raptor started attacking you from behind it would be able to get two good hits in before you could complete turnaround to confront the enemy.
The fact that Jurassic Park is a non-linear game does help it out a bit because there is quite a bit of exploring to do. Unfortunately, there is no save feature which is just absurd for a lengthy (about 3-7 hours) adventure game. I would of come to expect this if it was on the NES but an SNES game without a save feature is just plain lazy on the developers part.
GRAPHICS & SOUND
The level design for the game is pretty good but the graphics are only sub-par; especially inside buildings. I've seen better graphics on the Super Nintendo so there really is no excuse for the lack in detail here.
Despite the many setbacks that this game has to offer, the audio is actually really well done. The jungle-like soundtrack for the outdoor areas are quite fun to listen to and they change up frequently to keep things from sounding repetitive. The music inside of buildings adds plenty of suspense to the game. The sound effects with the guns are nice but my personal favorite is the creaking doors that you'll open in buildings; very scary and very effective.
CONCLUSION
Well it isn't the worst movie to game adaptation but it isn't great. The non-linear game play and dinosaurs may make this game appealing on the outside but there are many frustrating drawbacks that compromise the entire game. I don't recommend getting this game, not even to Jurassic Park fans. Instead, just stick to the movie and just forget that this game ever existed.