LEGO Jurassic World Review

Dun-duh, dun-duh! Duh-duh-duh, de-duh-duh-duh! As a youngster, many of my hours were spent reading about dinosaurs. When Jurassic Park came out, I was very eager to go, and regretted nothing when I heard that opening tune. Until the Dilophosaurus arrived. But more on that later, because LEGO Jurassic World needs reviewing!

The game is like nothing you’ve experienced before, unless one of those things was a previous LEGO franchise title. In that case, it’s pretty much exactly the same… Run around breaking things, building other things and fighting dinosaurs, with hacking, running and overworld sections. Though LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham went kinda backwards on that last one, and for a change it’s dinosaurs you’re jacking in the face.

This is not an uncommon event in this game...

Being a LEGO game, it doesn’t really need to break new ground, except for a surprising amount of QTE (quick time events). It would be nice, but it will sell loads because it’s reimagining a beloved franchise in the guise of a beloved toy. This time it’s (if you hadn’t yet gathered) the Jurassic Park movies. Using audio from them, it recreates Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World, or rather, the highlights of each movie across five levels each. The basic plots are present and the set pieces are well done, making for a fun experience for fans of dinosaurs and especially the franchise. If you remember something from the movies despite not watching them for years, it’s present in the game.

There are fewer characters than usual to collect (though over 100 including different clothing, and 20 dinosaurs), but that’s made up for with the 275 golden bricks, 200 minikits, 20 red bricks, 20 photographs, 20 pieces of amber, 20 people to rescue, 20 races and 10 sick dinosaurs to cure. There are other dinosaurs, but those are smaller - the 10 big ones are for destroying large objects and walls.

Curing dinosaurs using the poop to the right of the screenie...

You can unlock a bunch of vehicles, but I honestly found little use for them which may seem odd, given the fact that each movie’s level hub is pretty huge. But the handling was so poor, and oddly glitched, that it was truly faster to run everywhere. At one point, the car on tracks stopped moving along the tracks despite there being absolutely no obstacles, which was almost as annoying as the quad bike that wouldn’t turn left.

On the subject of glitching, this is unfortunately one of the buggiest LEGO games I’ve ever played. Due to my wife’s obsession with them, I’ve played them all across multiple systems, so I have some idea of what I’m talking about. Playing co-op, the camera has split and not joined back up like it should do, remaining split when both characters were stood still next to each other. One time I changed characters to one walking in a straight line by itself and ignoring the controller luckily apart from Options, so I could drop out. In the infamous kitchen scene, Lex was crawling and not responding to controller input, requiring Timmy to beat his sister to death to make her respawn and respond. In the open world I managed to lock-on to things I couldn’t even see with Lex’s long-range weapon (a baseball), and hit them unless it was one of the many things locked on to through a wall. Two different gun using characters went into autofire mode - which is not a thing that exists in LEGO games, they were just glitched at firing single-shot weapons at ~60 rounds per second. There’s the aforementioned vehicle glitches, but in another instance I had to try multiple times to get into the driving seat of one vehicle, winding up in the rear and passenger seat with the camera focussing inside the car both times - and I was stood on the driver’s side. Seven glitches in one movie is more than enough to make me write them down and adjust my score accordingly. It had a Day One patch, too.

The kitchen, where little Timmy had to commit fratricide...

The graphics are average for a LEGO title, but the dinosaurs actually do look quite menacing. Though not as terrifying as in Jurassic Park, I still didn’t like the Dilophosaurus when they appeared - and unfortunately I didn’t have my dad’s thumb to crush in my grip like I did when I was nine… Damned spitting lizards and their terrifying scariness… And whenever there are raptors, it’s likely you will get leapt upon, putting you into a QTE-fueled fight for your hearts. These QTE can occur even when you’re controlling a dinosaur, which does tend to grate a little.

The quality of the sound suffers in some sections, due to whatever effects being present in the movie audio not quite syncing with what’s on screen. The non-movie lines and dinosaur effects are perfect, though.

The non-movie lines were actually some of my favourite moments in the game. Whenever there are NPCs stood around, there will be a few bits of dialogue exchanged between them: it’s usually very funny stuff. One of them kept getting called out for not knowing any of the dinosaur names, instead calling them things like Big-o-saurus, for example. The dinosaurs are also hilarious when they’re not trying to kill you, such as the t-rex who is eating with a knife and fork, or the velociraptors that keep winding up wearing LEGO people’s clothing or even hair!

This guy needs to give up paleontology...

My favourite part overall, is the inclusion of Ian Malcolm’s laugh. I haven’t finished to 100%, so there is still time, but so far there is no Hahahrawrrahaha Laugh Remix… It has appeared more than once, but like a fine wine you must savour it.

The large open worlds of each island are quite fun, with lots of stuff packed into each for every type of character, from long-range to able to use a wrench, all the way to being able to construct a bone build item and diving into a pile of poo.

The levels are great to play and funny, which makes the bugs stand out even more when they do occur. The glitches seen are not from new features or because of a new system. This is the fifth LEGO game on PS4, by the same developer behind the rest of the LEGO franchise titles over the last decade, so there really is no excuse.

This is only three of the ludricrous amount of chases...

Being a LEGO title, it is fun to play - as you would expect. It has nothing new to offer except for dinosaurs and an annoying amount of QTE. If you’ve been waiting for a LEGO game to change your opinion of them, this isn’t it. If you’re a fan of the games, definitely go ahead and get it - just beware of the bugs.