Jurassic Park Survival: Saber Interactive is making the dinosaur horror game of my dreams.
Jurassic Park Survival is a game that I have often seen in my dreams since my childhood. An interactive experience where we are immersed in the events of the legendary film with few means to save ourselves instead of building a theme park or allowing dinosaurs to be killed in the comfort of an arcade machine.
Hiding in the kitchen with Velociraptors, praying that stray ladles aren’t inches away from causing your destruction on the tile floor, or walking out the iconic door only to be greeted by a bloodthirsty T-Rex, you know this. Should be. And the burning glow may be the only means of giving it life. The trailer for Saber Interactive’s next adventure was mostly bits of horror-themed fan service for the original film, but it really does a good job of selling what this game could be and why it already has me so excited. Is done.
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Jurassic Park Survival: Survival immediately reminded me of Creative Assembly’s Alien
Perhaps most importantly, Survival immediately reminded me of Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation. For years, I’ve been shouting from the rooftops that Jurassic Park is the perfect candidate for this kind of formula, swapping out the unstoppable Xenomorph for a series of dinosaurs capable of hunting you down at every opportunity. With little means to protect yourself and possibly no training in handling firearms, you will have no choice but to hide and outwit your larger opponents while solving puzzles and finding a way to escape.
This type of game writes itself and I’m very glad Saber decided to take on this task, even if the final product doesn’t lean entirely toward survival horror. In the official announcement it is described as an “action adventure”, so there’s a good chance we’ll have weapons, or at least a means of defending ourselves against hordes of dinosaurs. However, the trailer doesn’t show that element, instead emphasizing the isolation (ugh) and anxiety of living alone on an island full of dinosaurs who want nothing more than to eat your ass.
The only glimpse of actual gameplay footage we get comes right at the end of the trailer, when the protagonist, Dr. Maya Joshi, is left stranded on Isla Nublar after Alan Grant and his friends manage to escape from there. The fallen dinosaur bones in the Visitor Center Plaza show that the events we remember have already happened, and nothing remains except this wet banner fluttering in the wind. When a herd of dinosaurs starts chasing her, Maya also gets injured and starts writhing in pain. Some people may be curious, while others have already marked it as prey. It’s full of fan service, but still tense in that classic Spielbergian way, where you can’t help but hang on the edge of your seat. Hopefully the real thing will come out.
Jurassic Park Survival: Survival will play on the whims of nostalgia
Survival will play on the whims of nostalgia, though subverting the familiar with a movie I’ve seen dozens of times may also be one of its greatest strengths. An entire island filled with familiar landmarks and sentient dinosaurs, allowing you to treat them to destructive attractions like dead employees, scribbled notes, or the beginning of an intense simulator filled with sweet clues that point toward a deeper narrative. . Survival is our main objective, but this will not prevent us from seeing places of interest or moving slowly through the park for fear of being discovered.
No matter how much virtual tourism I allow myself, I end up getting stuck in situations where I can only bravely run away from unknown danger, knowing it’s going in the wrong direction. Only a step separates me from the jaws of an apex predator. If you can combine that with a constant sense of dread and a lot of fan service, we could see a lot more in Jurassic Park Survival than your usual licensed fare.
