"Everything is Awesome, Kinda"
When the summer blockbuster movie season rolls around there is usually a Lego game following in close proximity. Travellers Tales are the to go to developer for all things Lego. But has the Lego magic started to wear a little thin? Jurassic World has been the summer blockbuster hit this year and now it has its own Lego game. But this isn't just Jurassic World, this includes all four movies from the Jurassic Park franchise.
For anyone that has never played a Lego game before it's this simple. You break up anything you can find and when you come across blocks that bounce on the ground you rebuild them into a structure which will enable you to move forward with the objective in hand. Of course there is more to the game but that's essentially it. And that's the problem with the Lego games because very little has changed over the years. The switch here is you get to play as dinosaurs but even that just revolves around smashing things.
You can start the game from either Jurassic Park or Jurassic World and every major scene from each movie is playable here and it can be quite a blast playing out various scenarios from each film. In jokes are scattered about quite liberally and there are is a lot of poking fun at other movies going on here but this is the norm for Lego games. And before you ask about the sausage it makes an appearance in every level I have played so far.
You will instantly recognise scenes as soon as you start to play them with the only difference being you have to solve the various puzzles dotted around so you can move the level/scene forward. It's your typical Lego character switcheroo gameplay here where you can control one of two characters with each one having different strengths/abilities to tackle the puzzles with. Some characters can jump higher than others, some can squeeze through small spaces, some carry guns or grappling hooks. I am strong you get the picture by now. There is also a drop-in split-screen co-op mode but still no online co-op another baffling omission. Surely by the nature of their gameplay these games are crying out for some form of online mode.
The puzzles in Lego games range from the ridiculously easy to head scratching annoyance but this never takes away the charm these games ooze. No matter how stupid the puzzles in Lego games make me feel sometimes I always find myself grinning after finally working out the solution. And that's part of the reason why I always find myself coming back for just a little bit more. Free play mode is also present here and allows you to use any character you have unlocked in previous levels and use them and their skills to unlock and find more content in levels you have previously finished. Doing this is the only way to find every red, gold and amber brick and each stages mini kits.
As much as I enjoyed playing Jurassic World my frustration with the gameplay grows and grows with every new release. This is basically the same Lego game we have been playing for years but with a different setting. There is nothing new on offer here and while that might be comforting for those of us who know what we like in our Lego games if I closed my eyes I could be playing any of the Lego game series. Something needs to be done because there games are loosing their charm very quickly. Maybe a new developer needs to be brought in to shake things up a bit.
Yet again the camera is the biggest problem here. Why can't I move the camera angle around? After all these games I still have very limited control over the camera. When a puzzle is obscured and I can't move the camera around my character to get a better view it’s so frustrating. Surely in this day and age this would be something easy to implement into such a puzzle heavy game.
The dialogue from the first three films has been lifted straight from the movies and sounds bloody awful especially the dialogue from the original film. It sounds like it has been recorded off a TV with a cassette recorder. It's so tinny it just takes you right out of the scene. I would have rather had original dialogue recorded or the movie dialogue recorded by other actors because anything is better than listening to that mess. Thankfully Chris Pratt recorded all his own dialogue and the difference is very clear.
I know this review is ending on a few negatives but that's not to say that I hate the game, far from it. But the same old gameplay is really wearing thin and the lack of a fully controllable camera has been one of the lego games biggest downfalls for years and still remains the same. I do hope that any new Lego games are given a new lease of life by trying something different. But as the old adage goes “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.
Review copy supplied by XCN.
Game: Lego: Jurassic World.
Genre: Action Adventure.
Developer: Travellers Tales.
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
Platform: Xbox One.