LEGO Jurassic World™ Review

LEGO Jurassic World™ (from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games, The LEGO Group, and Universal Partnerships & Licensing) has the tried-and-tested format of LEGO games with the added advantage of dinosaurs! Players can experience all four Jurassic films (Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III & Jurassic World) – with key characters, memorable scenes and action sequences adapted into the game. A great mix of game play, story, videos, humour and action – now you can smash things up, build them, solve puzzles and even dive into Dino poo!

Playing LEGO Jurassic World™

Like I say playing LEGO Jurassic World™ is just the same as the other LEGO games but with dinosaurs. This is fantastic for my boys who just dived in and knew how to play straight away. My 6 year old was quickly pleased as he had completed a stage. I do not really make time to play computer games, it seems to be the thing that I let the boys do when I need to do something else. Therefore, my boys were delighted that I was playing with them in order to review the game.

LEGO Jurassic World™ – A Novice Guide

The Controls

Things have certainly moved on since my days of game playing. For start off the Playstation controller is a lot more complicated with lots of buttons and extra directional buttons! For me I liked that actually LEGO Jurassic World™ wasn’t too complicated and it was easy enough to pick up which button did which (okay with a lot of help from my 7 year old).  Apparently, like all LEGO games you smash things up with the square button (and build with the circle button. When things are smashed LEGO studs will appear and these are the virtual money of the game. There are Silver, Gold, Blue and Purple – each holding different values.

You can tell if something wants building as the bricks hop up and down. If in doubt you can check whether it shows you on the screen what to do – or ask Mr DNA (you do this by hitting the floating DNA symbol). He is an unlockable character who is from the 1993 Jurassic Park film, and he also tells the player dinosaur trivia. To walk up ladders you simply go straight forward, and if you need to use the analogue controller it is shown in a circle with either L or R inside it (depending on whether it is for the left or the right). You can move heavy items on checkered tracks by just walking into them. You can get into vehicles by pressing the triangle button, and then drive them using the analogue sticks, and using the square button to use your horn. You can also ride animals (cows/dinosaurs) the same way.

An important thing I learnt was that save and continue DOES NOT mean that when you come back you will be in the same place in the level – it just means that all your collectables are saved.

The game has an amazing split screen which splits depending on where the two players are in relation to each other – which was a little confusing for me at first but made so much more sense to help find each other.

The Characters

The game can be played in either 1 or 2 player mode and to start with only 2 characters are available to play with (Robert Muldoon or Jophery Brown).Only certain characters can do certain things and so you can switch between characters during game play. Things such as digging for stuff, or building a dinosaur skeleton with the bone kits (which can then be utilised as a bridge), or can only access certain areas (little people for little spaces/people with lights can go in dark areas). My sons tell me that girls are introduced in the harder scenes and that girls can jump higher than boys – like in other LEGO Games. I heard lots of screaming from girls too – but my 6 year old who has completed the game assures me that it is not just girls who scream in the game.

During Story mode you are limited to which characters you use, but then once you complete this you can use the characters you have unlocked in free play (once you have paid with LEGO studs to use them). You do not need to finish the whole game in story mode to use free play – so can start to do free play after you have completed your first level. There are over 100 unlockable characters which includes more than 20 dinosaur species: Plus you can manipulate DNA and customize them too!

LEGO Jurassic World™ Verdict

My children had never seen any of the Jurassic films but happily got into the game purely because it was LEGO. It encouraged my youngest son to play with dinosaurs again and watch the Jurassic films after he had completed story mode. The game was so like the films that he was able to predict what was going to happen in the film (and tell me all about it) because he had played it in the game. He loved being able to play as dinosaurs especially the skeleton dinosaurs and the T-Rex. He has Sensory Processing Disorder and Global Developmental Delay and so it was a real delight to hear him talk so confidently about the game and films. He was able to identify the characters from the game in the film – as their LEGO resemblance was so good, plus the use of voice clips from the films. The familiar game play also made it easy for him to pick up and I feel it has helped his confidence.

LEGO Jurassic World™  is available on Playstation 3, Playstion 4, PSVita, XBOX360, XBOX ONE, STEAM, Nintendo 3DS and WiiU from Amazon and other leading retailers.

I was sent a promo copy of LEGO Jurassic World™ on the Playstation 3 for purposes of review. All words and opinions are my own. No financial incentive has been given.