Summary
Jurassic Park: Survivalis set to take players to new areas of the island not previously shown in the movies. The upcoming adventure game wasrevealed at The Game Awards in December 2023with a trailer that introduced Maya Joshi, an InGen scientist who was left behind on the island after the events of the original 1993 movie and must use her wits to survive as she plans to escape the park.
As reported byIGN,whileJurassic Park: Survivalwill be adapting the movie’s aesthetic, it will be branching out from the confines of what was shown in the film,with Universal Products & Experiences executive producer John Melchior and Saber Interactive creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick stating that not only would players be revisiting iconic locations from the 1993 film, but they’ll also be seeing brand-new ones as this particular setting offered the opportunity to explore places that were only implied in the film, but never seen.
Every Jurassic Park Video Game, Ranked
Over the near-30 years since the franchise’s inception, dozens of games based on Jurassic Park have been released. Here’s how they stack up.
What New Areas Could Appear In Jurassic Park: Survival?
Could The Game Recreate Locations From The Book?
Whereas games likeJurassic Park: Operation GenesisorJurassic Park Evolutionlet playersbuild and manage their own parks, and Telltale’sJurassic Park: The Gamewas linear in the way Telltale’s games usually are, offering little room for exploration,Jurassic Park Survivalcould offer perhaps the richest version of Isla Nublar in gaming to date. TheIGNreport confirmed thatsome of the new locations consist of distant buildings, places where visitors were meant to stay the night, and more, with locations that fans are familiar with, such as the T-Rex paddock or the Visitor’s Center, which have been changed in the aftermath of the film.
It’s worth noting that while the visitor accommodation on the island was never explored in theJurassic Parkmovie, it did appear in Michael Crichton’s originalJurassic Parknovel. This poses the question of whether Saber Interactive could be looking to the original novel for inspiration, asthere were other locations and attractions present in the book that were never translated to film, most notably a boat ride attraction that was storyboarded and appeared in concept art but was ultimately cut from the film due to how complicated it would have been to film with the technology available in the early ’90s.
The report also suggested that there may be other characters aside from Maya on the island and the possibility of “special dinosaurs” in the game that aren’t in the movie, which could further draw from the original novel or even earlier drafts of the screenplay. Stegosaurus, Procompsognathus, the flying Cearadactylus, and a baby triceratops called Ralph that Lex rode in the novel - which even had an animatronic made by Stan Winston Studios - were all cut, for example, and could easily appear in the new game.
With these new possibilities,Jurassic Parkfans could have plenty to look forward to whenJurassic Park: Survivalis eventually released. Despite a recent bug that suggested Xbox players could pre-install the game, leading to rumors of a shadowdrop during the Summer Game Fest, Universal and Saber have confirmedJurassic Park: Survivalwon’t be out in 2024.
