To understand this review, you must understand why I wanted to play this game... I have a problem. That problem is called being a Trophy Whore (or Achievement whore if you prefer the 360 terminology). I've played bad games, just to add to my trophy count. A trophy count that has not assisted in getting me laid or earning me money. I don't even think it's earned me much respect within the Trophy Hunting community. With that said, I was pretty excited with a budget title that came out of nowhere with one of the easiest platinum trophies you can obtain. I knew I had to get it.
Once I got my whorish hands on the game, I was pleasantly surprised. This was a budget title that didn't completely suck. The game starts off with one of the shortest tutorials you will ever find in this generation of games. Run forward, crouch and shoot. Not that the length of the tutorial is a bad thing. It tells you what you need to know and then throws you right into the action.
What becomes very obvious with the first cut-scene is that storyline was not a huge priority here. We have something about time travel, the Bermuda Triangle and of course, Dinosaurs. The voice acting here is about as bad as it gets, but thankfully it's so bad it's good, in the sense of your favorite B movie. I'm going to be honest in saying that I didn't pay much attention to the story here, and neither will you. The base of the game is a direct carbon copy of what the Turok series has done for ages. Pick up guns, run into dinosaurs and shoot them as fast as you can. What the title lacks in originality, it makes up for with fun, fast gameplay.
You journey through 14 levels of jungle, volcano and cave levels. The enemies are fairly common throughout the game with Raptors, smaller Raptors that have a different name, Raptors that spit and have funny floppy things on their face and Scorpions (don't ask why). This is where the title shows its budget nature, the lack of creativity in enemies and landscape. If the game was longer than it is (about 3 hours to play-through) it would get really boring due to the lack of diversity. At the length the game is at, the boring backgrounds and enemies are enough to get through without being too terribly repetitive. There are a few boss battles sprinkled throughout the game which help to break up the potential monotony and they are fun in their own right.
The best part of the game is probably the controls which work in tandem with a surprisingly large list of weapons. There are more than 10 guns to plow through Dinos with. None of the guns are terribly creative (shotguns, RPG's, plasma rifles, grenades, etc.) but having such a nice variety can keep the Dino killing action fun. The controls are spot on throughout the game, something big releases can't always claim.
The one area of gameplay that I need to specifically mention is the fortification sequences, the one area of the game the developers tried to be original with. These fortification areas pop up 3 or 4 times in the game. They pit you in a guarded area with Raptors constantly on the attack. This makes it similar to any other games "horde" type game mode, but adds on a twist. All of the areas you are stuck in or behind have windows which can be repaired to aid in your protection. Now, we can go on and on about how stupid it would be to try and guard yourself with rooms made of big wooden spikes and then to add windows to these rooms, but remember that B movie analogy I used earlier. Just like zombie movies can't be fun if people don't leave safety, this mode of the game wouldn't be fun if you could not be attacked. During these sequences it's your goal to come out alive and it's more challenging than you might think. Thanks to the fortification sequences this title has something that is just unique and fun enough to make this game worth playing.
While there is a lot to enjoy about this game, relative to its price, it's not all puppies and flowers. The game has no online to speak of. Just a simple deathmatch mode might have been fun with the amount of weapons and precise controls, but that apparently wasn't in the budget on this budget title. The game is also very short. We are talking about a platinum trophy which you could easily obtain in one play-through, if you have 5 or 6 hours on your hand.
This is probably a title that a lot of people can pass on and not really miss anything. For trophy hunters however, this is a must play. Quick and easy trophies in a game that isn't terrible. If you are truly a trophy whore, you have played games way worse than this for much longer as well. This might also please shooting fans in look of a quick fix. You can easily purchase this game in the $10 - $15 range on the used market and the title is easily better than any number of $10 purchases you may have already made on DLC or PSN only titles.
Is this in the running for Game of the Year? Absolutely not. It's just a solid shooter that came out of no where. If you like shooting your way through a Jurassic Park tribute, you'll find a lot to like here. Give it a shot, you've probably played worse.
