| Considering the popularity of tycoon games, amusement park simulators and Jurassic Park, it’s actually surprising that it took this long for all three to come together. (Except, of course, on Game Boy Advance.) Heck, we’ve even seen JP first-person shooters (the underloved Trespasser) and knockoffs (Dino Island).
It’s high time, then, for Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis (JPOG), which combines traditional park play with some interesting action features.
JPOG occupies a sort of side universe where the bad stuff from the first movie just didn’t happen: Drs. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler are happily employed by InGen, and John Hammond hasn’t learned the folly of playing God. Heck, even some of the player’s trusted assistants - Ray Arnold and Robert Muldoon, among other characters - are back from the dead. (Ian Malcolm is conspicuously absent.) All are voiced competently, and often sound eerily like their big-screen counterparts.
The game is divided into three areas: Operation Genesis, which is the sandbox mode; Exercises, which begins as a tutorial and stretches to longer, more challenging park management; and Missions, timed action sequences. For the Exercises and Missions, you’ve gotta win each level to proceed to the next scenario.
Park management is divided into three phases: making money, raising dinosaurs and finding the DNA to accomplish that second phase.
Unfortunately, making money leads to my biggest complaint: Visitors to the park are treated as walking wallets. JPOG only offers a few attractions and amenities, designed to make visitors happy so they spend a little more money before leaving. Yeah, I know, that’s what any park simulator boils down to, but here it’s more obvious. There are no education-related facets to the visitor experience and on the other hand, there are very few actual amusement-park rides. You’ve got various viewing platforms, and safaris via hot air balloon and sports utility vehicle. I want more!
Raising the dinos is a more satisfying experience. Here you can choose which dinos live together, and in what environment. You can research various safety and quality-of-life enhancements. You can take control of the ranger ‘copter (or the safari vehicles) and perform missions, snap photos to sell or just see the dinos up close. This is one of the best and most free-form parts of the game, and it’s obvious everything else was built around that.
Finding DNA is the most hands-off of the three. Dr. Grant reports on the status of search teams sent to various spots around the globe. (Only certain spots are available in the Exercises.) Each dig site has the remains for three species; the team can also find ores or jewels (to be sold) or amber. Amber is a gamble: It can be sold for upwards of $10,000, depending on the quality. Or the DNA inside, always a fairly large amount, can be extracted - except that the player won’t know exactly what’s inside. Extract DNA from a dino you’ve already got at 100 percent and, well, you’re out what would have been a nice profit.
As for the Missions, they’re taken from the first-person facets of the rest of the game. Sometimes you’ll be taking pictures (which are scored); other times you’ll be hunting. All are timed. Finish all of ‘em, and you can unlock a Site B, where you can apparently build a park without monetary restrictions. I’m still trying.
Graphics are very good. Dinos have signature animations, lending an authentic feel to the game. On the highest settings, you’ll get some really gorgeous scenes, with reflecting water and smooth animation. Even lower settings work well. I did sometimes find it hard to differentiate dark-colored trees and dinos against the dark green ground coloring in the default gamma setting.
The score is another John Williams classic, taken from the movies. Which is entirely appropriate here, combining majesty and awe. The dinos have distinctive calls, which is quite fun. I mean, you’re scrolling over happy tourists and then catch a velociraptor honk or T. rex bellow, and get a quick case of the chills.
Operation Genesis is a good Site A. It’s the cheerful, mostly harmless combination of park management and dino-raising. I’d love to see expansions that either expand on that - give us some new buildings, new dinos, new Exercises or Missions - or an add-on with a lot more detail in genetic manipulation and research. Until then, Jurassic Park’s gates will quite gladly stay open.
Want to try JPOG for yourself? Check the ESCmag Downloads page, or the official game site. | 
