Lego Jurassic World
Blocks with bite
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Reviewed on: PS4 Also on: PS3, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, 3DS, Wii U Publisher: Warner Bros
The lazy
version of this review would be “Lego games are all brilliant, and this one lets you play as a dinosaur”. Lazy, but true. Lego Jurassic World – which actually covers the entire four- film series – has all the stuff that made previous games great ( mischievous vandalism, gentle puzzles, the gluttonous consumption of studs) in a setting alive with the undiminished spirit of childlike adventure.
As is traditional for Lego games, key character traits are transformed into abilities, used to solve puzzles. Alan Grant can chop through vines using a Raptor claw he excavates; Owen Grady can sneak around while cloaked; Tim Murphy can use his night vision goggles to explore dark places. The ladies come off slightly worse: they’re generally stuck with the “can jump a bit higher” trait. Ellie Sattler, being a palaeobotanist, comes with a watering can and the Poison Ivy- alike ability to grow plants; Lex gets the ability to scream and shatter glass. It’s slightly less rubbish than it sounds, and she also gets a consolatory baseball to chuck about.
Not all the additions are so bright. Characters can track by following a glowing breadcrumb trail of information, uncovering secret solutions to puzzles. Think Mosquito In Amber: The Game – it’s tolerable, if humdrum, and needlessly slow. The QTEs are less welcome, reducing iconic Jurassic Park moments to timed button inputs. But you can happily overlook this stuff because other bits are so perfectly paced. The kitchen scene, with Lex and Tim scrabbling away from Velociraptors, is a masterpiece remade with interlocking slabs. Pans sizzle. Pots clank. Lizards get locked in freezers. Plot and dialogue are gleefully folded into the game, and it rarely feels forced.
An obvious word of caution, though: it’s rather spoilery if you haven’t yet seen Jurassic World. Matt Elliott
In a fitting tribute to both Lego and you can build your own hybrid dinosaurs from the bits of dinos you’ve defeated.
Has all the stuff that made the old games great