Announced at The Game Awards last December, Jurassic Park: Survival certainly caught the eye with its promise of single-player adventure where players will be surviving against terrifying dinos on the iconic Isla Nublar, but gameplay footage for the first-person action-adventure title remains elusive even now. That said, some interesting new details on the game have emerged, thanks to an interview with the folks behind the game published by IGN.
For starters, it has been confirmed that while Jurassic Park: Survival is of course going to have players explore familiar locations from the movie – like the Visitor Center and the T-rex paddock – it will also feature entirely new locations across Isla Nublar.
“”We have been working with all our stakeholders on what the island would have looked like after the events of the film,” said John Melchior, executive producer at Universal Products and Experiences. “This includes areas we all love like the Visitor’s Center and the T-Rex paddock. But also, what we didn’t see, things that were not part of the tour or got cut off by the storm. Those on the island were supposed to be there overnight, so what does that mean? What would they have seen and where would they have stayed if everything went according to plan? That is where we are starting. One thing is certain – the island is as much a part of the story as the characters and dinosaurs.”
Meanwhile, Oliver Hollis-Leick, who’s the game’s creative director at Saber Interactive, has also confirmed that the game will feature new characters – in addition to Maya, the game’s protagonist – while when asked about whether or not the game will also feature new dinosaur species that we did not see in the original Jurassic Park film, Melchior cheekily teased, “Life finds a way…”
And exactly what kind of game is Jurassic Park: Survival going to be anyway? Details on that front remain scarce (though reports have claimed that it’s taking inspiration from Alien: Isolation), but as per a brief description by Hollis-Leick, players will have to “use a mixture of intelligence, grit and patience to survive the island’s many challenges”.
“The island is full of different types of terrain, many of them quite challenging,” Hollis-Leick said. “The player will need to use caution and planning in some cases, checking routes in advance. There will also be times when the player will need to move very carefully through an environment to avoid the attention of certain predators. Maya, the main character, is neither superhuman nor an action hero. There are real risks for her around every corner and the player will need to use a mixture of intelligence, grit and patience to survive the island’s many challenges.”
Jurassic Park: Survival is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It doesn’t yet have a release date or window.