"Jurassic: The Hunted" Review (PS3)

In "Jurassic: The Hunted," an appropriately if generically titled game if ever there was one, you play as a gravelly voiced hired gun (who sounds oddly a bit like Serious Sam) trapped in some kind of space-time vortex (caused by the Bermuda Triangle) where dinosaurs still roam free. Your task is to find a missing scientist and return home alive. It's really that simple, and there's little else that might pass as plot. Which is absolutely fine, since this is a game based solely on the fact that it's you vs. dinosaurs. Hell, good enough for me!

Let's kick off this review by stating something that is VERY important. This is a budget title. When you don't pay full price for a brand new retail product, you should probably expect the video gaming equivalent of a B-movie released direct to DVD. Some of these types of games surprise you with their awesomeness ("Earth Defense Force 2017"), or just barely manage to entertain you on an otherwise boring rainy day ("Shellshock 2: Blood Trails"). This, I'm pleased to say, falls somewhere in between. It's not as good as some, but definitely better than others, and considering the price point it definitely qualifies as a guilty pleasure. Hell, it's better than "Rogue Warrior," and they expected you to pay sixty bones for that one!

This is an FPS where your sole motivation is to A: keep breathing and B: kill lots and lots of dinosaurs who think you look a lot like lunch. You run through linear stretches of colorful and decently rendered swaths of jungle, occasionally venturing into caverns, as you seek to do both of those very things. Locales are pretty enough but would be faulted for being repetitive if the game weren't so bloody short (more on that momentarily). For a budget game, it's not at all bad looking, and the dinosaurs, despite a lack of variety in enemy types (far too many raptors and not nearly enough of everything else), look quite believable and inspire the appropriate feelings of dread and awe when they are expected to do so. One tiny quibble, however -- why does every dinosaur-themed game throw giant scorpions into the mix as well? One wonders...

Anyway, it's fortunate that you have a surprisingly cool number of weapons at your disposal with which to deal with these creatures. From exploding arrows to heavy duty shotguns, machine guns, and pistols, the weapons on display here pack a punch, prove satisfying, and perform their respective jobs admirably when it comes to making these bastards extinct all over again. There's nothing more important in a first-person shooter than good, enjoyable first-person shooting, and here "Jurassic" fits the bill. Throw in a neat bullet-time like ability that allows you to slow down time and take aim at your enemies' vitals, and, hell, this game just works.

Some of the game's most intense moments come when you find yourself defending abandoned forts from attacking dinosaurs. On harder difficulties, and even on the normal setting, these segments can best be described as frantic. While trying to repair the fort's defenses and shoot the raptors intent on breaking inside, you inevitably leave other defensive areas vulnerable -- and so the tension builds as you try to keep out the things that want to eat you and survive until they finally stop swarming your barricade. It's good stuff.

So what's the problem then? Well, aside from an unfortunate lack of enemy variety, terrible voice work, and a bare bones story, there's not much here to moan about considering the cost of entry except... the game's length. I wasn't expecting a grand climax or anything, but it's safe to say I certainly wasn't aware that I was fighting the game's final boss dino when I was, and that I didn't realize I had actually finished the game until the credits began to roll. The length of the story mode would be criminal if you forked out sixty bones for it (again, see "Rogue Warrior"), but since that's not the case, and because new modes can be unlocked, it's definitely a downside to owning this game, but not a dealbreaker. After all, a game that leaves you wanting more, even if it's justifiable, means that it's a game that was at least entertaining while you were playing it, right?

In the end, if you want an excuse to kill dinosaurs but don't need to be bogged down with such trivial things as decent storylines, bleeding edge graphics, innovative gameplay, or a lengthy single-player option provided you have plenty of cool weapons and even more dinosaurs to shoot them with, "Jurassic" is definitely a good way to spend an afternoon. But you can beat it in that afternoon too.

FINAL SCORE: 7.1 (Good)