The Lost World: Jurassic Park

The Good
At first glance The Lost World seems like a fantastic game, which it is, but it's not perfect. It possesses all of the hallmarks of a quality license. It clearly has high production values, varied level design and clear intention on providing something more than a simple, mediocre 3D platformer.

To begin with The Lost World uses the True Motion codec for video compression putting the quality of FMV's on par with the STR codec native to the Playstation. The quality introductory FMV leads to a pleasing front end that allows you to choose your difficulty, starting level and adjust sound levels. It's functional and clean and loads briskly.

Many platformers on the Saturn were simply platformers, with little imagination and only one or two simple hooks that didn't particularly amount to anything. As attractive and addictive games like Astal and Mr. Bones are they are still just platformers with a slight quirk. Therefore the beauty of The Lost World comes from how charming and varied the gameplay is. At first, it seems like a simple platformer wherein you control a tiny little dinosaur called a Compsognathus who must wander around a jungle on a 2D plane busting skulls and eating things to stay alive. The simple control of the Compsognathus is actually an introduction to the basic dynamics of the game that are expanded upon as it progresses. To begin with the Compsognathus is quite weak, obviously, however upon collecting claws and making kills his "ferocity" increases and the damage dealt through attacking is augmented. Any dinosaur characters must also eat to replace any lost health.

After a few levels of Compsonathus action you suddenly have to adapt to controlling a human hunter in what are undoubtedly the best levels present in the game. The switch to playing the hunter isn't just a skin change, he has his own unique dynamics that you must become accustomed to.
Instead of simple platforming the hunter has a piton which can be fired straight up and diagonally that he can use to swing to out of the way items and ledges. The hunter can do all of the basic things like running, jumping and collecting weapon powerups, switching from his default machine gun to gas grenades, poison darts and explosive tipped rounds. In addition to the piton the hunter can also use a tactical roll which can be used to avoid attacks and navigate tight spaces.

Suddenly having to adjust to playing different characters is part of the Lost World experience. The cast of characters doesn't stop with a Compsognathus and a hunter, you also have to use a Velociraptor and a T-Rex to eventually escape the hellish Isla Sorna.

The pace of the game is fairly quick, with each level taking no more than 5-10 minutes to complete depending on the character used. Some characters get more screen time than others and the introductory Compsognathus sequence may seem to drag. The point is the variety in play styles for each character keeps the game refreshing and gives you more incentive to continue playing. It's a wonderful design choice and one of the primary reasons this game transcends established licensed stereotypes; great design.

The levels themselves are complicated and often packed with secrets. You'll never find everything on one individual run of a level as paths branch off here and there and caves lie out of sight which must be piton jumped to.

Graphically the Lost World is a very solid game. It runs at a steady frame rate, rarely dropping frames at all. The texture work is smooth and clean and there are no jagged edges in sight. Rocks look like rocks, trees look like trees and each dinosaur is rendered and animated with immaculate detail. The animation of the hunter is beyond reproach and his character model runs, jumps and rolls fluidly and realistically.

As for sound? The authentic movie like compositions work perfectly to tie this game in with the film. Every screech, squawk and croak emitted by the dinosaurs on the island is high quality and beyond reproach.

When all is said and done the Lost World features a password system for you to replay your favourite levels and a ranking system for you to improve your runs with. The large variety of collectibles and simple, addictive gameplay will make you want to continue playing this game for a while.

The Bad
Remember at the start of the review when I said this game wasn't perfect? Well...it's not. In fact there is a lot wrong with it, so much that it really becomes detrimental after a while of playing. I have actually turned the game off from frustration many times.

To begin with the collision detection is really off. Normally you wouldn't consider this a major detriment to gameplay as occasionally passing through something isn't such a big deal. That is, however, until you realize that the collision detection system determines your success of landing on platforms. When you jump, it doesn't matter on what, there is a slight chance you will fall through it. Luckily this only applies to platforms, if you suddenly just dropped through the floor while walking along a solid piece of ground I would have completely disregarded this game completely.

Then there is the inconsistency of some of the gameplay mechanisms that play into the botched collision detection system. The piton is a fantastic idea and when it works it's a really satisfying dynamic. The issue is, when you fire it there is no guarantee it will attach to what you intend on attaching it to. You could be centimetres away from the intended target and it will either pass through it or refuse to go in the direction you intended. Then, even if the piton works, there is a chance you will fall right through the edge of the platform into the spikes below. This is incredibly frustrating.

The distinction between the Compsognathus, human and T-Rex are very obvious. The issue is the Raptor simply plays like a big version of the Compsognathus with even more frustrating platforming sections. It seems kind of redundant in comparison to the varied gameplay styles of the other characters.

The graphics engine of the Lost World is generally very solid however you'll notice characters disappearing into rocks or flickering in and out of existence from the entrance of tunnels. I've found myself occasionally disappearing for a moment in certain situations, unsure of the direction I'm facing, having to use trial and error just to find my way out of the situation.

The Bottom Line
What you have in the Lost World is a fantastic license full of variety, charm and an accomplished graphics engine. The varied characters and interesting gameplay dynamics like the necessity to feed to replace lost health and the piton when playing as the human are inspired.

The issue is the technical problems plaguing the game like the disappearing character models, inconsistent variety in level design and ultimately frustrating collision detection system might eventually put you off the game.

If you can look past these issues, you'll love this game.