Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis – PC – Review

OK … starting off, I am a
big fan of Michael Crichton, and I loved the Jurassic Park books and movies that
came out as well. I recently played the Dinosaur Digs expansion for Zoo Tycoon,
and wondered how much different could this new “Sim Whatever” game could really
be. Well, to its credit … it does add some things to the genre on its own, but
also remains true to the mainstream style of the Sim building titles … minus
some areas that others offer.

Operation Genesis puts you
in the role of a new manager assigned by John Hammond himself to build and run
Jurassic
Park.
In doing this, you have a cast of people from the film like Sam Neil and Samuel
Jackson with you to help out by dropping info and hints, and of course you have
the big boss … INGEN Corporation … to answer to in success or failure.
Basically, build an amusement attraction to bring in as many people and as much
cash as possible. Take care of the dinos, and you’ll do OK … but if they aren’t
getting the attention that they need, they could wind up going into a rampage
and may get out, which is cool as heck to watch but obviously won’t help you win
the game.

Now, you might be saying
“OK, I’ve been there, done that before” … and you’re probably right for the most
part. You get a certain amount of money up front, and it’s up to you to build
structures, clear land out, build bathrooms, fast food places, viewing areas,
and other things that you’ve seen in just about every other park building sim
that you have played at one time or another. On a down side, the total number
and different look of the items you can build or place seems to be really
limited compared to some other titles out there like Zoo Tycoon or
Sim
Theme park,
which could hurt this one considering the expansive list of other similar games
that are out.

First off, if you’re not
much in a park building kind of mood, Universal added in a series of missions
that you can play which revolve around things like snapping photos of dinosaurs
in various conditions, rescuing people, or even herding gentle herbivores before
they get eaten by a rampaging T-Rex. It provides a good distraction to break the
monotony, and I personally found this to be the highlight of my playing the game
… but also found it to be pretty short and quick to go through as well. There’s
not much of a need to go back and play missions when their done either, since
it’s usually trying to beat a best time or whatever.

Rather than focusing on
rides or buffalo exhibits, this game of course revolves around getting dinosaurs
into your attraction. One neat twist that they put into Operation Genesis is the
research piece of the game. To get dinosaurs, you obviously can’t just run down
to your nearest Petland and grab a few. Instead, you have to hire archaeologists
to go to various parts of the world and dig for fossils. Once found, you have
your research team extract DNA that you THEN use to create the dinosaurs or you
can buy and sell fossils on the market if you don’t need the ones you found or
are looking for something in particular. The research team in the park also is
responsible for researching new rides or attractions like SUV tours as well to
keep it fresh and entertaining for guests.

Another neat addition that
they made to Operation Genesis is the use of the park rangers. When a dinosaur
needs to be moved or “put down”, you actually take control of a helicopter to
zip around the park and do what needs to be done. Hitting the left mouse button
also enables a zoom in sniper kind of mode, and its pretty fun to play as you
whoosh around looking for your prey. As a tip, make sure that you’ve closed down
the park if you need to use lethal force to kill a dinosaur. If you don’t,
people may get upset and find the treatment inhumane … even if that pack of
Velociraptors was getting ready to shred them for lunch.

As far as “reasons not to
get the game” go, most of the issues that I had with Operation Genesis revolved
around a couple of things in particular. First off, the lack of item styles and
types really dropped some points in my opinion, especially with some other long
running titles that are out which have a lot more to offer park builders than
this one does. Attractions are OK, like a balloon ride, but just don’t really
seem to give a big sense of gratification when completed. Also as I mentioned
before, I loved the missions … but they were a little too easy to beat and I
didn’t really feel a need to go back and try them again.

Secondly, the island that
you are building on is nowhere near as big as the one in the movie. OK,
realistically I don’t expect something that is 5000 square video game miles, but
since dinosaur enclosures have to be pretty big, you can quickly find your
island getting filled up after only a few have been completed. In addition, you
also can’t zoom out past about 5 stories up which can make it a real pain trying
to figure out how big your enclosures wind up being or how much room you have
left. There were a couple of times I had to scrap a whole map and start over
because something was too big or I hit a mountain due to the camera. 

Graphically, JP does all
right. The grass looks pretty good when you zoom in close, and the movements and
actions of the dinosaurs themselves were well animated and well done, including
the ones where one attacked and killed another. Want to see something cool?
Spawn an herbivore in a pen full of carnivores and watch what happens. It’s
worth the angry visitors to see it at least once. Other than the dinosaurs and
grass, I was REALLY impressed with the water effects. Reflections of surrounding
trees and clouds in the sky looked almost real. On a not so good note about the
water though, driving an SUV through it didn’t do anything to disturb the
reflections or the calm shimmer of the surface … nor did rain.

The sound to Operation
Genesis was pretty good, including the orchestrated music from the motion
pictures going in the background. The voices in the game also sounded pretty
close to their movie counterparts … but got kind of aggravating at times since
you get notified of things through e-mail and the e-mail went off A LOT during
gameplay. I spent a lot of time with “We need to talk” or “You have new mail”
going off to the point where I was looking for the little X to just shut it off
and take my chances on my own. The dinosaurs are the true heroes in the game
though, and they sounded accurate to what we heard while watching the movies.

Overall, I would love to
recommend Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis to you gamers who are looking for
another park building simulator … but I have to advise you to buy with caution.
Kids who haven’t really had the chance to play some other “sim this” or “sim
that” stuff yet and love dinosaurs will get a kick out of the graphics and the
game. If you are a veteran player looking for another title to tide you over
until the next Mall Tycoon comes out … you may want to pass this one up and
instead grab an expansion to one of the titles you already own.

Gameplay: 6.6
While everything
is straight point and click and easy to set up and get into in building your
park, the lack of items definitely leaves something to be desired and falls
short based on some other sim building titles that are on the market. The
mission mode is fun and was a big part of the enjoyment to me, but it also was a
little too short lived and doesn’t have enough reason to go back and play again
after all the missions have been beat.

Graphics: 7.3
Overall, not bad
at all. The dinosaur animations are fluid and look good, and the environments
also were done well. The water was particularly stunning in my opinion … but
things that should have caused surface disturbance were not present. Also, the
lack of camera zooming to where you needed to be was not present, and caused
some spacing problems.

Sound: 7.1
The orchestrated
music from the movies is here, and sounded good. Also, the dinosaurs sounded
like they did in the films and added to the overall aspect of the game. The
voiceovers weren’t bad, but the constant e-mails of info and requests got old
quick.

Difficulty: Easy
The game is easy
to figure out and easy to play and get into. To learn all of the ins and outs of
owning your own dinosaur park are also explained in a series of tutorials that
you can go through before getting in and playing the game.

Concept: 6.5
Jurassic Park has
always been a really unique and neat idea from the get go. Operation Genesis
also provided some fun and some neat entertainment, but it also doesn’t really
offer anything new to the sim market that stands out, and there were some things
that could have been done better.

Overall: 6.3
While it does get
addicting to build the park, it also doesn’t do anything outrageously new from
anything else that is out in a similar vein either. There were some areas that
were also lacking and could have been done better, especially considering the
1000 titles out that offer the same overall experience with more option and
items to utilize. If you are a big dinosaur nut or have kids who enjoy the
prehistoric lizards, this game can provide some good entertainment and value. If
you’ve already got something similar or are looking for another park builder to
play, make sure to hang on to the receipt.