At this point, I think we can safely say the Lego games are a genre unto themselves. Take a successful existing franchise, Lego-fy all the characters, toss them into levels that explore key points in series history, and voila—another Lego game. I don't even know how many we've had since Lego: Star Wars first hit the scene, but it's a lot.And honestly I don't even know the last one I played. It's been a while. I got review code for Lego Batman 3 last year and it still sits in my Steam library, unplayed. That might change with Lego Jurassic World.It's a Lego game. That much is clear from the demo I saw last week at GDC. There are blocky renditions of all your favorite characters, including a sleazy Dr. Ian Malcolm and way-too-serious Dr. Grant.The game still straddles that Pixar line of "family-friendly fare with just a hint of edginess to appeal to adults." Playing as Dr. Ellie Satler, for instance, you'll dive headlong into a pile of dino-poop multiple times while trying to solve what's wrong with a triceratops—the iconic Jurassic Park scene, but tweaked for that Lego humor.
Other scenes are treated similarly. The terrifying T-Rex can be distracted with an enormous squeaky dog bone. Doctor Grant hacks through foliage with his trusty raptor claw. Jeff Goldblum winks at the camera because he's a creep. There's even a Lego version of Mr. DNA because of course.It's...well, it's a Lego game. I keep repeating that, but there's really not much more to say about the framework propping up this Jurassic Park homage. The game will take place across all four films (this summer's included) and there are five levels per movie.Great, now that all the boring stuff is out of the way.That's right: Lego Jurassic World will let you pit dinosaurs against each other. Or take control of a dinosaur and fight other dinosaurs. It's like one giant prehistoric PETA nightmare. It's like you're caveman Michael Vick (except, of course, cavemen didn't exist at the same time as dinosaurs).Each level has a piece of amber hidden somewhere. This is pretty par-for-the-course as far as Lego games go.
There are always hidden collectibles all over the place. These pieces of amber let you unlock dinosaurs though.All twenty are available in the hub world, where you can, I repeat, make dinosaurs fight each other. If you're not already standing up while reading this, slamming your fist into your chest and yelling with excitement, well then you're dead to me. I literally don't know what other dumb thing I could say to get you more excited than you should be right now.Oh, maybe that you can take the smaller dinosaurs into the campaign itself. You can play Jurassic World as a velociraptor! Do you want to know what it's like to reenact key Jurassic Park scenes as a velociraptor? Because I sure as hell do.So yeah, Lego Jurassic World is just another in a long string of Lego games, and that's how I was prepared to write this story at first. At this point, as I said, it's a genre. It's unlikely you're playing these because you just love Lego games. They're pretty much all the same. No, you're probably playing it because you like the source material.
And I like Jurassic Park. And I like dinosaurs. And I like dinosaurs fighting. No court in the world (or at least no court made up of second graders) would convict me for looking forward to this one. To comment on this article and other PCWorld content, visit our Facebook page or our Twitter feed. Jun 23, 2015 at 5:00 pm Jurassic Park is the best. Jurassic World was a ton of fun. The other two I wish I could forget. That's how I feel about the Jurassic Park movie franchise, and the same can almost be said for LEGO Jurassic World, which takes all four movies, removes the death, makes it more fun, and puts that LEGO spin on it that we've come to love. Part of the magic of LEGO Jurassic World is that it uses audio from the films -- dialogue and music. At times this can sound a little muffled, but having the real actors deliver the lines can’t be topped -- especially Ian Malcolm’s laugh. Visually, this is probably the most impressive LEGO game (not including LEGO Worlds).
From the frame rate to characters and dinosaur models, environments; everything look crisp and nice. Gameplay in LEGO Jurassic World play out like all other LEGO games. You play story missions, collect studs, unlock characters, vehicles and dinosaurs with those studs, and then use those characters in Free Play to get more collectibles and unlock more things. There’s quite a bit to unlock in the semi-open hub worlds, too. Instead of one single open-world hub like LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, you start off being able to play Jurassic Park or Jurassic World at the beginning. To get to Lost World, you need to beat Jurassic Park, and you need to beat Lost World to get to Jurassic Park 3. Each of the games have a semi-open hub world with things to do and collect. But they’re restrictive in where you can go. It’s also a hassle to switch between the games’ hubs. It’s preference, but I prefer a single hub world that isn’t restrictive. The story for each movie has the same type of puzzle and character types to solve them, with a few differences in each.
The puzzles feel a bit simpler in LEGO Jurassic World compared to other LEGO games, but the addition of dinosaur unlocks a new gameplay element. Needless to say, the dinosaurs are the best part of the game. Dinosaurs are used to solve puzzles, fight, and help your characters get through obstacles in the environment. They have unique abilities, like jumping high or charging to break stuff, and you can even create and customize the dinosaurs in the game’s hub. Unfortunately, there are a lot of throwaway characters in the game. The main characters mostly have different outfits from the movies that you unlock by playing, and the characters repeat their abilities across the movies. There’s not a ton of variety, and there’s a lot of characters to unlock that you probably won’t care about. They’re just not as cool as dinosaurs. The vehicles, too, don’t have anything that really differentiate them from one another -- for the most part. Each movie’s story mode has a few missions that unlock the other films, and I didn’t hate any of the levels or level designs across the four films.
That said, there are some levels where you’re being chased by a dinosaur that I could use less of. The camera angles are awkward and you don’t really feel in control of what you’re doing in those missions. We did encounter a few bugs where we would have to exit out and re-enter the game to fix (like not being able to interact with something you are supposed to to advance the level). But that happened rarely. Ultimately, LEGO Jurassic World is a game that both adults and children can enjoy. My son, who has never seen a Jurassic Park film, wanted to after playing these games. And what’s not great about dinosaurs?! The best and worst moments of the film are on display here, and unlock the movies, it’s all fun to experience -- even kicking a velociraptor out of a window. If you’re a LEGO fan or a Jurassic Park fan, you’re going to love this game. And even if you aren’t, it’s a solid enough game (with some issues sprinkled in) to warrant a playthrough, and with plenty replay value.