Teaser Trailer For Jurassic Park Mod Looks Dino-mite
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Half-Life 2, despite being released in 2004, is still hogging a big chunk of the spotlight, due to additional releases, including episodic expansions that could have altogether served as an entire sequel. But a major bulk of this continued fascination comes from the user-created Mods, made possible by the Source engine, which include games based around everything from unofficial Portal games to to GoldenEye 007 to George Romero’s zombies. Last year’s odd indie hit Dear Esther? This is where it came from. You’ll notice I didn’t mention dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs! Now I did it. Jurassic Life, a Mod modelled after, you guessed it, Jurassic Park, spent the better part of last year in the creation stages, but the first actual gameplay footage has recently been released. Here it is…
I used to work in an arcade that featured the Jurassic Park game whenever it came out, and while that was a great experience in and of itself, this game already looks like it’ll be a placeholder for the franchise for years to come. Even if another movie forces console systems to dredge up their own ideas of a good dinosaur game, we’ve already seen those.
It’s isn’t even immediately obvious that it’s been designed on such a dated graphics engine, except for some parts that are obviously in the middle of development. The textures on just about everything, especially the lush greenery, are impressive, and it’s incredible how much detail shows up on some of the many dinosaurs shown.
The Jurassic Life guys have made something of a side-story to the original film/novel, tweaking the story and character elements to their liking. Since the first film looked nothing like a first-person shooter, I think you’ll agree it’s not a punishable offense. The “in development” status, and willingness of the game’s creators to accept outside help, means we probably won’t know an actual release date until the game is complete and in the post-production stages. But their help will probably come in droves, so we just might get to go dinosaur hunting by the year’s end. And if not, we’ll at least have some more videos and fried raptor wings to tide us over. Pass the ranch and check out the game’s detailed synopsis below.
Biotechnology society InGen, created and lead by the rich american John Parker Hammond, built a park on a Costa Rican bay island, Isla Nublar, called “Jurassic park”. This park is somewhat special as it allows fortunate people to see real live dinosaurs, created from a combination of genetic manipulations and dinosaur blood found in fossilized amber.
Due to recent incidents in the park, InGen investors start to worry, and demand that the park calls in specialists before it’s opened to the public. Thus, after long negotiations, paleontologist Alan Grant, paleobotanist Ellie Sattler and mathematician Ian Malcolm are sent to the island for the week end, with lawyer Donald Gennaro, who represents Hammond investors, in order to investigate the incidents. The visit starts out well, park systems work fine so far and everybody is amazed by seeing the first dinosaurs. Robert Muldoon (you!!) is checking the park an system security…
But some unexpected things are happening in the meantime: InGen’s biggest competitor, Biosyn industries, wishes to obtain Hammonds technology; Biosyn’s main advisor Lewis Dogson contacts the extremely qualified programmer Dennis Nedry, who programmed the entire Jurassic Park system, and gives him an opportunity: in exchange of a huge amount of money, Nedry would steal a few InGen’s embryo and deliver these to Biosyn. Unfortunately, Nedry decides to start his business this week-end.
Furthermore, a violent tropical storm falls on the island in the moment, electricity turns off, visitors are stuck, and dinosaurs start to escape from their enclosures…
