LEGO Jurassic World

[DisturbedSwan]

So, I know this probably won't be a popular thread, but I started playing this on Saturday and thought I'd create this to jot my thoughts down.

As a general rule with the LEGO games I try not to play too many too quickly, as I feel the repetitious copy n' paste nature of the games and the way they're designed would condemn me to tedium if I played some back to back, its been quite a while since I last played one actually, the last I played was the excellent LEGO Marvel Superheroes on my PS4 back in the Winter of 2013 when it had just come out, really enjoyed that, and the only previous LEGO game I'd played before that was the equally excellent LEGO City Undercover on the Wii U.

I dabbled in LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Star Wars back in the day but never really enjoyed them until I played City Undercover on the Wii U, the humour, the city and the gameplay really clicked with me in that game and I ended up enjoying it FAR more than I ever imagined I would.

Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent here, needless to say, LEGO Jurassic World is the first LEGO game I've played in quite a while, as a massive fan of the Jurassic Park franchise it always seemed like a no brainer to pick it up, I think the LEGO games resonate the most with you if you're a fan of the subject matter in the game so I thought it would probably be a reasonable assumption that I'd like this if I bought it, and....4 hours in, that assumption seems to be correct.

In LJW you get the chance to play through all 4 films in the series, however, only JP and JW are unlocked from the start. Being the JP fan that I am, I wanted to start back with the original JW, after I was done with this I moved onto the slightly maligned 'The Lost World:Jurassic Park' which struggles to live upto the heights of its predecessor, but is still a pretty good film in its own right.

I think for anyone that's a fan of the films, you'll love this game. From John Williams' spellbinding score to some of the original actors' voices being included in the game, everything feels like an authentic JP experience, just in LEGO.

Whilst I've a relatively short history with the LEGO games I've noticed in the 4 hours I've spent with this that there doesn't seem to be too many puzzles anymore, in Indiana Jones, SW, LCU and LMS I would find myself getting stuck on the odd occasion, not knowing which gadget/ability I needed to use a specific point in a level, and where to use it, but everything seems really straightforward in this, they seem to have taken out any difficulty the puzzle-elements of the game had, the other new addition is playable Dinosaurs, and yes they're as cool as they sound!

The playable characters definitely aren't as memorable as the ones in LMS though, that's for sure, I was struggling to remember who some of the peripheral characters you can play as in the game were, obviously the main characters through all 4 films are recognisable, but beyond this I had no recollection who some of them were, a far cry from the spades of recognisable characters in LMS.

So, yeah, just wanted to give a few thoughts on my opening 4 hours with the game, don't expect anyone else picked this up, but its been pretty cool so far, a nice relaxed easy going game that should keep me occupied for a few days, but nothing more.

[AndyKurosaki]

Sarah is interested in this,so I may get it when its cheap. No rush though,bit burnt out on Lego Games. They are consistently fun,no doubt. Its just theres 13 billion of them.

[DisturbedSwan]

10 hours played now in total, finished JP, TLW, JP3 and started JW.

It's pretty fun and I'm still enjoying it, TLW and JP3 seemed more fleshed out to me than JP, they both felt longer and featured some more variation but maybe I was just imagining things I don't know.

Started JW and ran into 2 game-breaking bugs unfortunately, playing as a Raptor I had to pounce onto this ledge to get up, kept doing this over and over again but there seemed to be some invisible wall at the top that would stop me climbing up, kept trying over and over and eventually managed to spam my way through and up onto the landing above, then in the next area I had another one of these ledges to grab onto with my Raptor, grabbed onto it and it just got stuck in the animation, with the Raptor juddering over the ledge, so had to restart the level, tried again and it stalled at the same spot, tried again and it stalled at the same spot, after this I was close to giving up and calling it a day but I persevered and managed to engage player 2 with the keyboard and use that as a workaround, seemed to work fine with 2 players and I was able to continue on and finish the level, thank f**k for that! Thought I was a gonner there for a bit and was going to have to throw in the towel.

Should finish it off tomorrow, think I'm on the 3rd mission out of 5 in JW so shouldn't take much longer.

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished this yesterday.

I enjoyed it I must say, it was a nice change of pace from what I usually play, extremely relaxing and fun. It's definitely not the best LEGO game I've played (that's a tie between LMS and LCU) and lacks a bit of the humour found in some of the other games, nor is it as innovative (for a LEGO game) as something like LMS with the characters moves, weapons, equipment etc. being pretty basic compared to LMS, the only real addition and innovation is found in the dinosaurs, and they are very cool to explore but you only really get any real time with the Raptors, every other Dinosaur you can play as feels like a fleeting moment in the campaign, used as a mechanic to get forward to the next area more than any meaningful gameplay, but the Raptor sections are really cool.

Unfortunately, I did encounter some almost game-breaking bugs at times. The one mentioned above with the Raptor getting stuck in an animation on a ledge appeared only on two occasions, on the first JW level and the last, both of which I managed to continue on, but it was touch and go at times. The first instance was remedied by using the Keyboard as the 2nd player and this somehow worked, but the second time, the final climatic boss battle of the game with the I-Rex, I tried everything and it just wouldn't work, turned V-Sync on as a last resort in the options menu and it worked like a charm, managed to finish the level and complete the game, I was incredibly relieved I must say.

Managed to get 100% bricks in every story mission, ended up with about 37% completion I believe, cannot be arsed to do anymore collecting of bricks etc. so that'll be it for me, quite tempted to download one of the other LEGO games I've got in my library (Lego Batman, Lego the Movie Game, Lego Harry Potter) and give one of them a go after I've finished Yoshi's Woolly World.

[AndyKurosaki]

Lego Movie game is really good,id definitely recommend that.The Lego Batman games are brilliant,I've only just started 3.

If I'm honest, I prefer the "non open-world" Lego games,though most people are the opposite.And the puzzles can sometimes be a pain in the arse. I love Marvel. But I didn't enjoy Lego Marvel much at all.

Interesting "review" Blakey,nice one mate. Have you looked at Lego Dimensions yet?

[DisturbedSwan]

Yeah, heard lots of good things about the Lego Movie Game and Lego Batman, they're meant to be some of the best in the series I think.

I've heard of Lego Dimensions and read up on some of the info about it from E3, but the price-tag puts me off I must say, if it gets good reviews when it comes out, I'll consider it for Xmas or something but I haven't pre-ordered.

[AndyKurosaki]

Lego Batman 1 and 2 are indeed excellent, I 100%ed the first, and almost did the 2nd too. 3 I've only just started.

As cool as Dimensions looks,my wallet genuiniely couldn't take the battering.