Often times, there’s the argument that “If you’ve played one LEGO game, you’ve played them all” and thankfully, TT Games has managed to avoid this generalization by providing strong gameplay, unique scripting and enjoyable settings for each of its games. However, there’s still the visual style which falls into that trap, especially since there’s only so much you can do to improve the quality of LEGO blocks on your screen.
LEGO Jurassic World may not look much different from your typical LEGO game but that’s not really what its players are in for. They’re here to have a good time. So the question is whether it leverages its technology to make an enjoyable experience or not. Unsurprisingly, it does and like previous games before it, LEGO Jurassic World is reliable and solid throughout. It’s still an incredibly subtle update to the overall LEGO game formula and TT Games has saved many of its biggest leaps for when it’s ready to impress. However, there are still many little tweaks and changes for long-time fans of the series to notice.
If you’ve played a LEGO game, you’ll no doubt have noticed the various little LEGO bricks that can be collected along with the various mini-figures on-screen. TT Games has refined this little visual spectacle with advanced shading and lighting along with post-process effects to lend a more realistic approach to the proceedings. There’s even some screen space reflections to ogle this time around along with effects like rain have also been added along with smoke.
How different could a LEGO game be across different current gen consoles? The PS4 and Xbox One versions both sport a native 1920×1080 frame buffer. Post-process anti-aliasing has been used in both versions though. This kind of solution offers a softer look ad does a fantastic job of eliminating jaggy edges.
Shadow quality is the same across both consoles and screen space ambient occlusion is also present across both. Combine this with camera and object blur and LEGO Jurassic World fulfills its cinematic obligations in more ways than one. It should also be noted that the cut-scenes are presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which add to the cinematic presentation (since the game is based off of a series of movies) and results in black bars at the bottom and top during cut-scenes.
An interesting little discovery is the use of lower resolution assets in some places across both the PS4 and Xbox One versions. The porting process might have missed that extra bit of clean up but the texture detail is identical across both consoles. The level of detail on models is also pretty much the same on both. Along with low-resolution assets, some low-quality reflection map shave also been used.
Head to head video comparison between PS4 and Xbox One versions. Select playback in 1080p and 60fps for best possible video quality.
Speaking more on the characters, they look pretty impressive with the different material shaders which now have different reflective properties, we get to see how these objects look under different environmental conditions. It’s an extra layer of polish that’s much appreciated and the result looks great.
When it comes to the frame rate, both the Xbox One and PS4 versions run at 30 frames per second. You may think that 60 FPS would have been better but this frame rate serves the LEGO gameplay just fine due to the lack of any real twitch movements. As noted, object blur is used judiciously and somewhat improves the perceived frame rate when the game is in motion. And again, it only adds to the overall cinematic presentation.
LEGO Jurassic World won’t be breaking the mold with its visuals or competing with the most bleeding-edge AAA titles. What it offers is a visual style that fans will be comfortable with while providing numerous improvements and little touches on top of this. It may be a while before we see a giant step forward in the visuals (on, say, the level of The LEGO Movie) but for now, TT Games has shown a deep understanding of what presentation is appropriate for each property. Since LEGO Jurassic World coincides with the release of the feature film, it only makes sense to give it that sense of cinematic wonder that also defines the old films.
Technically, LEGO Jurassic World works in many ways. Despite clipping light shafts in some scenes and a few low resolution assets, the game offers a strong mix of post-processing effects and anti-aliasing set in 1080p resolution with minimal jaggies and an excellent combination of shaders. There really isn’t any difference between the PS4 and Xbox One versions so purchase whichever version you see fit since you’re essentially getting the same experience.
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