I make no excuses for playing and enjoying video games. I do, sometimes, have to make excuses within that community for my choice of games to play. I like the Lego games – most of the Lego games. The first ever time I’ve gotten a 100% on an xBox game was a Lego game. The second time I’ve ever gotten a 100% on an xBox game was this week with Lego Jurassic World.
The experience was a little different than before. When I purchased Lego Jurassic World, I decided that I was going to get another 100% on it. I made game play choices based on that goal, and I didn’t play any other games until I achieved it. Now that I have, I reflect on the game.
Lego Jurassic World is fun, in its own right, but it was more about puzzle-figuring-out than about enjoying a visit to Islas Sorna and Nublar. The puzzles weren’t terribly complicated, though I did have my frustrations. Rather than “solving” puzzles, it was mostly about having the right character or dinosaur unlocked and available. In some cases, that meant taking three steps away so that the game would let me select a dinosaur on the character selection. Unlike Lego Batman 2, where Gotham city sprawls before you, the islands give you strict paths through the jungle. It would be cliche to say that you’re on rails, except Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar literally has a rail running along its tour path. On the subject of “on rails,” every previous Lego game has one (or two) chase levels. These are those sequences where the game fixes the camera looking behind you and you frantically try to stay on a path with only a fraction of a second to react. Lego Jurassic World has at least eight, and if you miss that minikit piece on that trail you didn’t see as it whizzed by (or failed to destroy three of a particular type of object), you’re playing that level again.
There are more abilities than previous Lego games, which means more character types. As you select the characters, the large select screen lists the individual’s abilities, which is necessary because there is a difference between accessing “InGen,” “Jurassic World,” and “Hacker” panels (use John Hammond, Claire Dearing, or Lex Murphy respectively). I suppose knowing all the characters is no less daunting that knowing all the DC Superheroes or Star Wars minifigures, but I found the list of regular human names to be difficult to remember who anyone was. Some of the interaction objects had the same problem — is that a pile of dino-poo (use Ellie Sadler) or a dig site (use Alan Grant)? The game isn’t terribly buggy, but it is the first time I’ve gotten both characters stuck in terrain and had to quit to get free.
I still throw in Lego Batman 2 sometimes to run and fly around the city. Lego Jurassic World is worth a play through, but it just doesn’t have that replay appeal.