Jurassic Park Review - PC Game Reviews

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis Review

movies but thankfully doesn't feature many facts from the movie. The theme is picked up from the original JP movie released 10 years back in 1993. INGEN, the company behind the recent dinosaur cloning, has provided you with a prosperous tropical island in the middle of North Pacific and some big bucks to create the most marvellous theme park in the world. You play the role of the manager who is in total control of the park. Basically your challenge is to prove to INGEN and the world that Jurassic Park can be a success.

The gameplay is more or less similar to most of the other park building games. You have to build a paradise from scratch and more importantly see to it that you keep both your dinosaurs and visitors happy at the same time. Anyone who has played the tycoon series of games should start feeling comfortable from the very beginning. But creating and preserving dinos is not at all easy. To create a certain species of dinosaur, you must have 50 percent of its DNA; secondly the player has to research vaccines, which of course comes for a price. To search for a DNA you can buy teams and place them over various dig sites all over the globe. Initially you have only a few sites to dig but as the park's popularity increases additional sites get unlocked. Finding the required amount and type of DNA is rare but sometimes you may find gold deposits and opals, which add to the park funds.

Keeping the dinos and the visitors happy is altogether a different ballgame. The game provides you with an option to change the landscape by putting more lakes, trees and even mountains. While some species of dinosaurs feel comfortable with some other species but at the same time get annoyed to see others. Keeping a herbivore and a carnivore in the same pen is also not a safe bet cause eventually the carnivore would kill the herbivore. This sure does decrease the dino population but is definitely a crowd pleaser. But beware; more carnage can also destroy your park's population.
There are four types of visitors in the game. A cool feature allows the player to view what does a visitor feels for the park and how many species has he seen and believe me it is not always good. JP:OG provides you with a variety of features that can help you to keep the visitors happy. You can put up food kiosks and restrooms at key locations and being the park manager you are given the luxury of deciding the price of the various items available. Also there are 5 attractions that include 3 viewing areas, a balloon ride and a safari ride which can be put all over the park (I always felt that more number of attractions could have improved the gameplay). Once I had the entry fee lowered to just $100 still some of these visitors complained for high prices also if they spot any dirt they start leaving the park saying its not been cleaned for a month not realising that they are standing in the most spectacular park in the whole world and it takes a chopper to bring them to the park and then back.

Since you are there to manage the park obviously you are not alone. You've got a staff and a team of advisors to assist you. Most of these staff members are characters from the movie itself. There is a certain mailing system within the park by which the staff members keep on informing you about the latest of reports. At times this was frustrating. The park administrator kept on bugging me even if one of 90 visitors felt dissatisfacted. The guy from the research keeps on mailing if you don't give him a project to research on without realising that you don't have enough money to do that. At times I felt throwing them in a cage with a hungry T-Rex!
Luck is a big factor in the success of your park. Since your park is in the middle of North Pacific so there are frequent storms and tornadoes and if a tornado strikes your park you are doomed for certain. They sweep away the electric fences that hold the dinos and moreover damage huge number of buildings. The time taken by your park to reach 5 stars depends on the number of twisters that you face.

The graphics are ok. The only thing that really impressed me was the lush green vegetation when seen from top. Animal and human models look fine until you zoom. The animal models are pretty well detailed but the human models lack details and have lower polycount. At times it seems that the dinos and the environment are the only thing getting all the glorious details.

The sound is impressively done. Upon zooming you can hear the animals as well as the visitors. Other details like chirping of birds and rustling of leaves is quite striking. Still the best sound feature is the John William soundtrack that is similar to the one in the movie.

If you are really bored with the park building thingy, the game provides you with some missions that will keep you engrossed. These missions include taking photographs of dinosaurs from a land cruiser or even shooting carnivores to rescue the president. This definitely is a really cool feature and provides longevity to the game. Also present is an encyclopaedia that incorporates cool information about nearly all dino species known (great feature for real life dino-nerds). And if even this doesn't satisfy you can always explore your sadistic side by freeing the angry carnivores and see them ripping your visitors apart (I wish I could do that to some of the staff members). Just make sure you save your game before that.

Finally, JP:OG is a fun game. This game is a mixed bag; while it delivers great gameplay there are times when you feel frustrated. With so many missions to choose from Operation Genesis should keep you occupied for some time (why do I say this for every game). Give it a go and trust me you won't be disappointed.

GAME RATINGS

Gameplay - 8/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 9/10
Technical - 7/10
OVERALL - 7.5/10
Note- The Overall rating is not an average but reflects the reviewer's thoughts on the game as a whole.

Pros - Great sound and environment, lots of gameplay options, animal details are well done.
Cons - Human details could have been better, a few gameplay flaws spoil the game's credibility.

The final word.
An entertaining and addictive game, nothing groundbreaking but fun nonetheless.

Minimum Requirements -

-Windows 98\Me\2000\XP
-400 MHz. Intel Pentium III, Celeron or AMD Athlon processor
-128 MB RAM
-4x CD-ROM/DVD drive
-700 MB hard disk space with additional space for saved games and 300MB for Windows swapfile
-DirectX 8.1
-Minimum 16 MB Direct 3D-capable video card with DirectX 8.1-compatiable drivers
-DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
-Keyboard and Mouse

Recommended Requirements -

-800+ MHz. Or higher Intel Pentium III, Celeron or AMD Athlon processor
-256 MB RAM
-4x or faster CD-ROM/DVD drive
-2.5 GB hard disk space with space for saved games
-Minimum 32 MB Direct 3D-capable video card (with hardware T&L) with DirectX 8.1-
compatible
-Directsound compatible sound card