Score: 6/10
Pros:
Exploring Isla Nublar
Playing as dinosaurs
Fun for adults and kids
Cons:
Tonal Issues
Dubbed Audio
Lazy design choices
Developed by Travellers Tales, Published by Warner Bros
PC, Mac, 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, PSV, 3DS, WiiU
Jurassic World is the latest movie to be transformed into a lego-fied romp.
There was a time, not too long ago, where the idea of an adult wanting to play a video game aimed at kids would have been ridiculous. However, the Lego games over the past decade have skillfully found that sweet spot of making games that adults would want to play with kids, offering both age groups something equally rewarding in the experience.
However, over the past couple of years many Lego games have become to feel complacent in the same way licensed games used to feel. The games have lacked the passion they used to hold for the franchises they were adapting and began to feel increasingly like cash grabs. Unfortunately, Lego Jurassic World is an example of this.
The common issue in the Lego titles with this problem is that they all have begun to use dialogue directly taken from the films and dubbed over their Lego characters actions. Tonally, this just doesn’t work.
In the past, Lego characters in games were completely silent, miming out the story instead. It was from here that developer Travellers Tales developed their distinct goofy and light-hearted tone for Lego adaptations. In later years they would start writing dialogue for their original stories, such as their Batman games, and they managed to maintain the tone that people loved.
But their latest franchise games attempt to amalgamate dubbed film audio with goofy original dialogue and unfortunately it really doesn’t work, tonally or otherwise.
Fortunately, the experience of exploring the lego-fied world of Jurassic Park is still an endearing one. You have free reign of Isla Nublar, using vehicles to explore the island in between missions. Each film is broken up into its key moments which you play through as new and clever puzzle based extrapolations of scenes from the movies.
Throughout the game, you also unlock the ability to play as dinosaurs and use them to progress the story as well as solve puzzles and unlock treasure. The dinosaurs are adorable, which is both good and bad, as it makes them great for kids, and your inner kid, but just adds to the tonal issues the game has. It’s hard to understand why everyone is running away from the T-Rex when it’s so cute.
Lego Jurassic World is another example of Travellers Tales increasing complacency with their licensed games, but it’s still a lot of fun to explore a Lego world full of dinosaurs.
Review by Baz Macdonald aka @kaabazmac
This content is brought to you with funding support from New Zealand On Air.
