LEGO Jurrassic World Hands-on Preview – Taking the Kids to the Park

‘Welcome, to Jurassic Park.’

It was so long ago that we first heard those words – 1993 to be precise. Back then my twelve year old self loved this film that brought dinosaurs to life, and was enthralled at the spectacle of the beasts. Granted, the film gave me nightmares and many a time was spent worried that there was a T-Rex in my wardrobe, waiting to spring out and gobble me up. Irrational really, there was no way a T-Rex would ever fit in my tiny little wardrobe.

Fast forward to 2015 and Jurassic Park is with us again, the fourth film is about to hit cinemas and TT Games is bringing it, along with the previous three films – in LEGO form – to our consoles. I now have a son, who Has yet to see them (considering my past experience with the after-effects of the first one I am a little bit reticent), but this could be his way into the world. My son loves dinosaurs, and he loves games too. At his age he’s pretty good at the LEGO series, and he came with me for a hands-on with the game. After stopping to have his picture taken in a giant LEGO T-Rex head, get his face painted, and stuff his face with popcorn, he finally decided to have a go at the game. We were allowed to play two sections, both from the first film.

First up was the Triceratops scene, where Dr Sattler wastes no time with, well, waste. Plunging her hands into a steaming pile of dinosaur droppings in a effort to find out what is wrong with the poorly tri-horn. It’s slightly different here, she literally jumps up and dives in head first, muttering away to herself as she ‘mucks’ through it to find out what is troubling the poor creature. Once it’s found out that the animal has eaten something funky it’s decided that we’ll need to track down three items to feed it to make it better (if only things were always so simple eh?), which, in typical LEGO game style are gained by completing a series of simple puzzles.

Watering some plants, some dung diving, and a little bit of target practice later and we have a healthy Triceratops on our hands, of which we are afforded control of instantly. The beast has the turning circle of a tanker ship and moves at a fair lick. There are some destructible elements to the scenery which can be broken by holding down the square button to charge at them. These moments and pretty fiddly as the poor turning can throw you off on your run up, missing the point of entry by just enough for it to not register. It’s a minor quibble, at the end of the day you’re controlling a dinosaur!

Next up is the scene where the T-Rex escapes its enclosure and proceeds to terrorise the tour car with the two kids in it. While it’s busy trying to open up the vehicle like a tricky sardine can, Dr Grant and Jeff Goldblum are free to wander around the area once again solving basic puzzles. Some tall plants hide a wheel, the wheel allows us to drain some water, which gives us LEGO parts with which we can build a distraction for the behemoth to focus on, so we can work on moving the kids. Lex is freed first, but Tim must stay behind while we find another way to get him out. Cutting it short, Goldblum’s character does his most useful part by leading the T-Rex away allowing us to nearly succeed in rescuing Tim, but as in the film one thing leads to another and we plunge into the T-Rex enclosure.

There’s a jarring cutaway directly after, Dr Sattler turns up to find Dr Grant and the kids missing, and a groggy Blum in the ruins of a toilet, after throwing him into the back of their jeep, a chase scene begins with the Rex chasing you down. It’s kind of on rails, with you moving left and right, but the general line is controlled by the game itself. According to the developers, chase scenes will feature in the game throughout all four films. But later you will be able to play these same scenes from the dinosaur’s perspective instead, which got quite a few of the kids in attendance excited.

As we know, the basic puzzles aren’t what the LEGO titles are really about. As you progress, you unlock more characters with different abilities, you can then go back and do these sections again with those characters and find the secrets dotted within. The secrets on this occasion are dinosaur bones, picking up enough of these unlocks dinosaur skeletons which in turn unlock playable dinosaurs, with which you’ll be able to battle other dinosaurs with. Additionally, dinosaur parts can be chopped and changed, want a Triceratops with a T-Rex head? Go right ahead. I’m sure there will be some interesting combinations coming up.

Our time is up and we start to head home. My son is sold on the game, he’s looking forward to everything he’ll be able to do in it, and four movies worth of game for him to play means it’ll keep him occupied for a while. Unlike the T-Rex of my youth, the LEGO one is cute, and kind of bumbling. The playful aesthetic removes any kind of horror from its visage. Maybe my son will really like the game, maybe this is how I get him into the films. I may have been scared by it when I was younger, but this may mean he won’t be.