Revisiting The Islands Of Dinosaurs In LEGO Jurassic World

Dinosaurs are cool. There’s not really any denying that these creatures which once roamed the Earth have captured the imaginations of countless people, and a big part of what helped to cement them in the modern psyche is Jurassic Park, an iconic film series that really set a new benchmark for cinematography in the early 90s. So there’s an understandable excitement at the prospect of Traveller’s Tales giving these films the LEGO treatment, even if they’ll live under the Jurassic World brand of this year’s upcoming film.

Speaking to Tim Wileman, Associate Producer at Traveller’s Tales, he said, “I think our fans have always wanted a Jurassic Park game especially. Obviously the Jurassic World franchise is something that’s come along relatively recently, but the Jurassic Park trilogy is seen as a classic series of films and it’s something that fans of our games have wanted for a long time. Not only our fans, but gamers in general have wanted a true representation, a playable representation of those three films.

“So that for us is good, and there’s so much action in there, so many great storylines in there and so many great characters and so many great events that it makes sense to make that game. Not only that, it sort of appeals to the older audience, having those films, but with the new film coming in, Steven Spielberg is getting involved again and it is a reboot of the original franchise, but it’s very much a new story and a story in its own right, and that will appeal to the younger kids as well.”

Of course, you know what to expect from a LEGO game these days. They’re stuffed full of a wide variety of characters, both central and ancillary to the source’s story, and there’s plenty of hopping between characters as you punch and smash everything that can be punched and smashed into coins and solve some relatively simple puzzles along the way. They’re nice and relaxed, with an emphasis on being nice and accessible to kids, and in this case, as Tim put it quite simply, “Kids love dinosaurs.”

But what makes these games special is how they adapt the source material, with plenty of slapstick humour married to knowing nods and winks for older fans. So it is in the first scene shown in the demo, as the still awestruck party of visitors to Isla Nublar come across a sick triceratops. Naturally, in the film, Dr. Ellie Sattler is eager to get her hands dirty with helping to diagnose the dinosaur’s malady, by digging into its poo. In LEGO Jurassic World, she dives head first into the mountain of poo and roots around for clues. Dinosaur toilet humour at its best.

Dino doo-doo diving for this skilled paleobotanist lets her figure out the handful of things that will help get the triceratops back on its feet. In this case, searching the nearby area with the help of one of the keepers at the park – Gerry Harding, who’s able to track trails in the area and shoot things with his tranquilliser gun – allows you to grow an apple tree and also dig through more dung to find a carrot and an ice lolly. I can only imagine the kinds of… interesting combinations needed to heal the other poorly dinosaurs in the game.

As always, you’ll be hopping between characters to make use of different abilities, such as Alan Grant’s raptor claw to hack through foliage or Lex’s glass shattering scream. It turns out that even Dr. Ian Malcolm – Jeff Goldblum’s wisecracking character – has some abilities. “He does have some abilities,” Tim replied when I asked, “but there’s lots of weapons in the game as well, so he’ll be quite weapon focussed.” Though it was only once I stopped recording that Tim recalled Ian’s puzzle solving abilities, as a mathematician and chaos theorist.

Tim continued, “He does bring an amazing amount of wit to the game, and as you saw in the demonstration, he’s got all of the classic one liners and he brings his personality to the game more than his abilities. He does have certain abilities, like all of the characters do, but his personality is what shines through at the end of the day.”

However one-liners for a dinosaur manifest themselves in the form of grunting and hellish roars, and in a rather unique twist for this game, as the triceratops gets back up on its feet, you can now take control of the dinosaurs. They’re new allies for you to make use of, smashing through tree trunks and breaking open rocks with a charge attack, in this case, but with each of the twenty playable dinosaurs – a new one in each level – come new abilities.

With five levels devoted to each of the four films, LEGO Jurassic World will look to really pick out the iconic moments from each. It could be the “Must go faster!” chase, the research bus sliding off a cliff or the velociraptors in the kitchen, but let’s face it, there’s nothing more recognisable than the sight of a T-rex chewing on the tyre of one of the park’s tour vehicles. This entire scene is given its own unique LEGO twist, with far less pressure and stress than in the film. Instead, you’re roaming the area to solve a few little puzzles in order to distract the dinosaur (building a jack in the box with a big bone does the trick nicely, it seems) and get the kids to safety.

Yet what really stands out here is just how TT have absolutely nailed the look of the scenes. As Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm stand next to their vehicle waiting for you to take control, the rain is lashing down, the lighting is pitch perfect and even the camera angle is hovering close to the ground, to give that classic horror film framing.

“We try to stay as true to the source material as we possibly can,” Tim said, “and that goes for all the locations in the films, so in the game they’re all as accurately represented as we can. The team go to great lengths to ensure that authenticity is there; not only in the levels, but in the camera angles, in the lighting, in the way the dinosaurs behave and their animation. We’ve got the VO [voice over] in there as well and the music. It all comes together.

“Not only that, but we add our own brand of humour to the game. You may have noticed in the demo that we inject that LEGO TT Games level of humour as well. It works on lots of different levels, where some of it’s quite subtle that maybe the older fans will get and understand, but there’s also more slapstick moments in there.”

One oddity, however, is that rather than re-record the dialogue, TT have gone back to the original films and borrowed the actual audio from all of the actors. It’s allowed them to drop in the exact tone and inflection of each line, and bring those memories of the films themselves right to the fore. My only issue is that it also came out sounding like a film from two decades ago, though I’m sure there are several passes of audio processing yet to come before release.

When I asked about how TT are adding to the existing voice work though, Tim replied, “I don’t want to talk too much about that. I mean, we have got a lot of original voice talent in there, a lot of which will please and surprise a lot of people. I don’t want to give too much away, because if I talk too much about that, I’m going to give up maybe too much about the fourth film, and the film makers are very keen to protect that. It’s very important that we don’t talk about that yet, there’s no reveals on that, but yes we have expanded on the VO, we have got some people in there to do some original VO work.

“For example, the Mr. DNA character, he makes an appearance in there, and we’ve got a bunch of new lines recorded for him as well, as he guides the players around the levels and holds some of the younger players’ hands.”

While clearly reticent to discuss Jurassic World, its influence can be felt in more than just the game’s title. Not only can you take control of the dinosaurs, but by finding bits of amber throughout the levels, you can make your own, by mixing body parts into all manner of unholy creations with a unique mishmash of abilities. You can then roam the free areas that represent Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna, open up new areas and do battle with the dinosaurs you find.

“It’s such a cool feature, and it’s not something that we’ve tried before, but we’ve put a lot of work in,” Tim explained. “Basically, you’ve got these 20 playable dinosaurs which feature throughout the game, and they vary in size and style. So we’ve got velociraptors, the triceratops, you know?

“As you play through the game, you unlock these 20 dinosaurs, but not only as complete entities, you also unlock the elements that make up the dinosaurs. So we’ve broken it down to head pieces, body pieces, tail sections, legs and things like that. All of these elements become unlocked in the customiser, which is in a special location on one of the islands, and you can pick and choose from all the elements that you’ve collected so far, splice them all together and create your own dinosaurs. You can give them names, you can change the colours of these dinosaurs.”

Admittedly, when Jurassic World was revealed, this kind of Dino DNA jiggery-pokery and monster creation was a poorly received aspect of the story, but it feels like it will open up an interesting new avenue for TT to explore in their seemingly never ending stream of LEGO games. You know what you’re going to get in a LEGO game these days, but with the advent of a new film, it means this can be just a little bit more than a retelling of the original trilogy. And even that would have been quite brilliant in its own regard.