Jurassic: The Hunted
Jurassic: The Hunted (previously known as Jurassic Hunter and Jurassic: The Hunter) is a first-person shooter video game developed by Cauldron HQ and published by Activision. The game was announced on October 16, 2009.[1] The game was released on November 3, 2009 for the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 consoles. Jurassic: The Hunted received mixed reviews from critics.
 | |
| Developer(s) | Cauldron HQ |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Engine | CloakNT |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
Plot
The player takes control of former Navy Seal Craig Dylan as he accompanies his war buddy Amando "Rock" Depiedra, and scientist Sabrina Sayrus to the Bermuda Triangle searching for Sabrina's father, Dr. James Sayrus. The trio are forced to jump out of the plane after a vortex interferes with the plane. Each jumps through a different vortex, landing in a different place in the Bermuda Triangle.
Dylan is forced to trek across the island, passing a beached cargo ship and volcano, before discovering a fort that has been maintained by the missing Dr. Sayrus, Sabrina's father, as well as Rock, who was marooned on the island years before Dylan and is now past his prime. Dr. Sayrus warns Dylan of an impending disaster and instructs him to find a Temporal Vortex Engine (TVE) that will allow them to return to their own time, located in a German submarine in a cave.
Dylan finds the TVE and whilst returning to the fort, meets up with Sabrina again, who is being chased by a massive Spinosaurus, nicknamed "Spike." A Tyrannosaurus arrives and fights Spike but is easily overpowered and killed when the Spike snaps its neck.
Dylan and Sabrina manage to escape and return to the fort, only to learn that the uranium battery that powers the TVE no longer works. Dylan manages to recover another battery from a drone that apparently arrived on the island via a temporal vortex from the future and returns to the fort, but the Spike attacks again. Dylan fends him off whilst Dr. Sayrus repairs the TVE, allowing Dylan and Sabrina to escape whilst he and Rock remain to fight off Spike.
Emerging on a sandy beach, Dylan and Sabrina ponder what to do next until another portal opens up, and Dr. Sayrus and Rock emerge of the repaired submarine one year after Dylan and Sabrina returned, with the apparently dead Spike tied to the hull.
As the game ends, the Spike opens his eye, ending on a cliffhanger.
Gameplay
Combat encounters include arena style fights, fortification sieges, survival modes and boss battles. Adrenaline bursts give you an edge – this gameplay feature allows the player to visualize and then target an opponent's weak point such as the heart, lungs, brain, ribcage, backbone, liver, and intestines in slow motion.[2]
Development
The project was kept largely under wraps until Activision issued a press release advertising the game.
Reception
IGN gave the PlayStation 2 version a 6.5 out of 10, and criticized the game for its large number of Velociraptor enemies: "Yes, they were scary in Jurassic Park, but after blasting through your fourth pack of raptors, it simply becomes a nuisance. You couldn't throw in a rampaging Stegosaurus to switch things up?" IGN also criticized the game's "muddy" textures and "generic" explosions, but praised its "Survivor" mode, and referred to its "Cheesy B-movie dialogue" as "amusing".[3]
Nintendo World Report gave the Wii version a 5 out of 10 and wrote "even though it's initially a lot of fun, Jurassic: The Hunted gets bogged down by technical problems, and repetitious missions and dinosaur types. [...] there are entirely too many raptors interspersed by the occasional badly-rendered Jurassic Park-style dilophosaur. Big bossasaurs are few and far in between, and when they do appear, they're so overpowered that it's hard to enjoy the battle. [...] 90 percent of your foes [...] end up being raptors. This gets pretty boring." Nintendo World Report also criticized the game's "terrible" graphics and wrote that "many dinosaurs bizarrely teleport into the environment right in front of you."[4]
References
- Prehistoric Survival Unleashed in Activision's upcoming Jurassic: The Hunted
- Jurassic: The Hunted Gameplay Summary
- Haynes, Jeff (November 3, 2009). "Jurassic: The Hunted Review (PS2)". IGN. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- Miller, Zachary (December 18, 2009). "Jurassic: The Hunted Review (Wii)". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved March 12, 2015.