Amiga version The Amiga version of
Jurassic Park received generally positive reviews, with many critics praising the game's indoor sections in particular, Bradley wrote that maneuvering Grant's character was difficult, particularly while trying to shoot dinosaurs because "you've got to be directly in line with them". Bradley also felt that the game lacked action and variety, and criticized the game's first-person mode: "This basically consists of wandering through a maze of passages clutching a gun and blowing away the dinos as and when they appear. This, however, is not quite as exciting as it sounds and you can spend an age just trying to get out of there, even with the aid of a map. Inevitably, in such a huge park, there are times when you get completely stuck". Bradley subsequently reviewed the Amiga 500 and Amiga 600 versions and noted that their graphics were not as impressive, while also writing: "Sure, there's a huge gaming area and it does have some fetching and atmospheric 3D point-of-view perspective levels but, on the whole, it's a disappointment. Too much wandering around and not enough action". Although McGill stated that
Jurassic Park was probably "the most beautiful game you will ever see on the Amiga" and called it a "vibrant exciting work of art", he considered most of the gameplay to be "utter crap", describing the game as "basically a big maze that you've got to explore", with the "real disappointment" being the linear puzzles. McGill praised the game's "genuinely scarey" indoor environments, writing that it is "the part of the game which could be considered the saving grace of the package. It's not that it plays all that differently. It's still a walk-around-collecting-things-and-switching-things-off-and-on kind of a romp. But oh, the atmosphere. [...] For the first time ever in my life I was afraid. I was very afraid". McGill concluded that the first-person sections "stop it from being an utter flop". Peter Olafson of
Amiga World praised its graphics, and its first-person perspective in particular: "These climatic sequences are worth the long slogs through the game's outdoor portions. Let's just say I was biting one hand and holding onto my chair with the other". However, Olafson wrote that playing through the game was "not always exciting enough, or even busy enough, to make you feel any sort of harrowing stake in the outcome. If they'd just given us a bit more to do–there's a lot of ill-used space, and many of the existing puzzles are treasure hunts–we might have had a classic on our hands".
CU Amiga called the game "original, good to look at, excellent to play and varied throughout".
CU Amiga wrote that the game's overhead perspective "plays a lot better than it looks", and complimented the dinosaur animations.
CU Amiga particularly praised the game's first-person mode for "some amazing 3D graphics" but also wrote that the "smoothly-scrolling backgrounds aren't as detailed as they could have been considering they are on the
1200, but the dinosaur graphics more than compensate. The scaling as they come towards you is pixel-perfect with no nasty blockiness to spoil the atmosphere". John Archer of
Amiga Action praised the smooth movements of the interior sections, and wrote: "Seeing a 'raptor tail dart fleetingly through the shadows ahead of you really sets the nerves on edge as you inch forward, gun poised, eyes sweeping left and right, trying to predict where the inevitable attack will come from next". However, Archer stated that the game was occasionally repetitive despite the "extremely impressive and intense" first-person areas; he believed that the inclusion of more puzzles or discoverable objects could have improved the gameplay. Archer criticized the game's large levels as well, stating that they felt "just a little too big for their own good". Archer also wrote that the background graphics "tend to be rather bland - and a bit more variation in the way different levels look wouldn't have gone amiss either. Most of the effort seems to have gone into producing the actual dinosaur graphics. These are sometimes frighteningly excellent". Jonathan Maddock of
Amiga Computing praised the interior levels for their "brilliant" soundtrack and "dark and moody" graphics, writing "it really generates a spooky feeling within you". Maddock concluded that although
Jurassic Park "looks like one of the best film licence tie-ins" ever released for computers, the game "unfortunately is let down by some really bad playability. This makes the game boring in parts and gamers are easily going to lose interest with it which is a crying shame because, it could've been a classic". Matt Broughton of
The One Amiga wrote that Ocean's reputation for film-licensed video games was further enhanced with the release of
Jurassic Park. Broughton wrote that while the game followed the plot of the film "reasonably closely", the differences allowed for gameplay improvements. Broughton however noted that the game was "not perfect", writing that in the game's interior sections, "you can often spend long minutes wandering about with nothing to fight, and aiming at the smaller creatures in the top-viewed stages can be tricky".
Later reviews Broughton reviewed the Amiga version again in 1995 and wrote: "When Ocean snapped up the rights to the world's biggest and most expensive movie, cynics expected a straightforward
platform licence with an obligatory 'driving bit'. Though at the time this assumption may not have been totally unfounded, it could not have been further from the truth. [...] Had the game been top-down only, then things would soon become tedious". Broughton called the game's interior levels "without a doubt the most exciting of all. Although the window in which the action takes place is small by today's standards, the graphics here are atmospheric and fast". Bradley also reviewed the game again in 1995, criticizing its large exterior levels and praising its "frightening" interior levels, but ultimately concluding: "This cannot save
Jurassic Park from the could-'ve-been-a-lot-better bin".
CU Amiga praised the graphics but criticized the gameplay.
DOS version Robin Matthews of
Computer Gaming World in February 1994 favorably reviewed the DOS version of
Jurassic Park, approving of the "very high quality graphics". He concluded that "Ocean has done an excellent job ... this is a respectable film tie-in". The magazine's Neil Harris gave it a negative review in June, writing that the game's dinosaurs "aren't particularly scary", and that the game "can't decide whether it's an action game or a puzzle game". He concluded that it was "amazing" that Spielberg's company,
Amblin Entertainment, "allowed this game to get out the door". Paul Rand of
Computer and Video Games found the first-person stages to be superior in the DOS version.
Power Play rated the DOS version 76 percent. ==References==