Jurassic Park Video Games: The Lost World Review

Of all the Jurassic Park video games, The Lost World is not one of the best. It’s fun, but there are many aspects of the game that will have you dying for cheat codes.

First of all, when you pick up the box and flip it over you see that in this game, you get to be the T-Rex. Who doesn’t want to experience life as a mighty T-Rex, king of the dinosaurs, wreaking havoc on all who cross your path? Well…you do get to be the T-Rex, but only on certain levels. You certainly don’t start out that way.

There are 30 levels, and five different characters to move through the levels with. The first nine levels have you as a Compsognathus (Compy), which is a dinosaur about the size of a football with legs. Basically, for the first part of the game you are food, and spend most of the time jumping around platform-style.

Then, you get to be a human for six levels. You have a gun, but there never seems to be enough ammo for it so you spend most of your time sprinting for your life. Then, you graduate to being a raptor, which would be cooler if you had the power and cunning that the raptors in the movie had. This raptor is a little wimpy in comparison.

Then, finally, you are the T-Rex! This is at level 20, and it is worth waiting for as it’s pretty fun charging around eating everything. The game as a whole would have been better though if you didn’t have to work so hard just to get to this point. Finally, you’re a human again for the final three levels, running madly from all the different predators who want to have you for lunch.

The graphics are okay. Some of the animation is really amazing, but the levels don’t look all that great until you get to the later ones. All in all it is smooth though, just nothing to write home about. The sound makes up for it though. The music for the game is original, composed only for this game, and it’s a full orchestra that sounds as good as any movie soundtrack. When you are playing as the T-Rex, you can let out an insane roar anytime you want, which is also fun. Warn the neighbors!

There are some issues that come up all the time in this game that will drive you crazy. The worst is that when you go behind something, like a tree, and something is blocking your view, it is almost a guarantee that an enemy will be there behind you and attack you while you can’t see it. When you try to move to a better position to fight, another enemy appears! Very annoying, and you will die. A lot.

The Lost World is not the best of the Jurassic Park video games, but the higher levels are fun…if you want to try it, rent it and then go find the cheat codes so you can skip some of the early levels and get to the good stuff.