Your Trespasser Reviews!

[Oddjob]

Nice review Oddjob, covers the pros and cons of Trespasser in a good length review, I think.

Good to hear the Linux technique is working so far with Mac. Make sure to keep us posted on that.

Thanks! Judging by all the positive feedback, I might just review other dinosaur related games on the other games section :333
And for now, the installing is stuck on place, but this far things have progressed promisingly. For example the installation window with the t-rex footprint opened up with zero problems. And even though I fear the worse, I won't give up this easily!

[LtSten]

I completely forgot to mention I've a huge Dino Crisis 2 fan. The first game was too scary for me when I first played it, so I went to #2. It's still fun even to this day, and I sometimes break out Warpath in the holidays to have a go on. Oh, such fun.

[Oddjob]

(Dude! We're getting seriously offtopic here 8DDDDD)
Ah, anyway, yeah, I never really got into the rest of the Dino Crisis games, I loved the scary (read: terrifying) atmosphere of the first game. Although I really should review it... Tonight evening if I have the time, I might just review it... Alongside the Lost World, Warpath and Disney Dinosaurs (yeah, you read right XD I just happen to own it so why not? Just for the kicks).

[Draconisaurus]

Welcome back - Are you the Finnish guy from here I added to messenger the other month? 'Janivahto'

No, my latest visit must date like... A year back? XD
And I don't remember adding anybody from here to my messenger...? Well, anyway, thanks!

~Oddjob

Ah lol alrighty. I just have a particular interest in Finland due to its highly nature-embracing pagan cultural origins. I'm currently on Poem 19 of the Kalevala..

[Oddjob]

Welcome back - Are you the Finnish guy from here I added to messenger the other month? 'Janivahto'

No, my latest visit must date like... A year back? XD
And I don't remember adding anybody from here to my messenger...? Well, anyway, thanks!

~Oddjob

Ah lol alrighty. I just have a particular interest in Finland due to its highly nature-embracing pagan cultural origins. I'm currently on Poem 19 of the Kalevala..

Ah, I see. I did a Kalevala based presentation this year, about Kullervoinen. I got a 9 (meaning A- )

[makairu]

After deciding to take a spontaneous trip to Mexico, you are somehow persuaded on a small almost personal-sized airplane flying over the ocean and of course you crash. Now what? You wake up and find yourself alone on an island crawling with John Parker Hammond's genetically engineered dinosaurs, and all of them are out to get you. This is the basic premises for the game Jurassic Park: Trespasser.

Trespasser is a game that had very good potential. Note the had. It was hyped up to be an amazingly realistic first person survival horror/ adventure game with advanced AI, realistic controls and an eerie atmosphere with industrial decay all around. And, in fact, evidence of InGen is all around, especially in the form of hundreds of identical crates that the main character, Anne, is able to lift with a single arm, which is for some reason her only functioning arm. Her other arm is never mentioned, some players assume that it was just broken, but I believe if it was then there should have been note (Anne perhaps saying something about her gimp, broken, or maybe even missing arm) immediately in the beginning. Her one functioning arm seems to have a mind of its own. The player literally controls everything done, from picking things up to manually aligning iron sights on one of the many guns that are just laying around on Sorna.This would be a really nifty control scheme had it been implemented correctly. Anne's arm continuously bumps against objects and the terrain causing her to drop whatever she is carrying. Only occasionly does the player actually need to be in full control of the arm (done my left clicking), and when the player isn't, her arm just swings wildly around, sometimes even getting caught in scenery. Anne can barely walk (understandable for someone who just crashed in an airplane, especially when only the tail and landing gear are left) and its is actually better to jump everywhere and to listen to the annoying 'hup' noise she makes.

Thankfully, Anne isn't the only thing on Sorna that is clumsy. Every dinosaur had trouble standing on it's feet, let alone hunting down a one-armed lame woman who has cleavage galore. Aren't velociraptors supposed to be fast, cunning and intelligent? Doesn't Muldoon say they run at cheetah speed? Neither are true with trespasser raptors, and even their modern chicken descendants would be ashamed. The Tyrannosaurs can't reach the character if they are crouched, and only pose a threat if they trip. However, all things considered, the AI doesn't seem too bad itself, the problem is more deep than that.

All the problems are due to one thing: the innovative physics world. Everything in the game world reacts realistically, or at least tries to act realistically. Throw a rock at one of those many crates and it will tip and fall as it should in real life. Sadly, this idea fell short, the engine was obviously not complete upon game release. I wouldn't even say we bought betas of the game, they were more like alpha tests. Nearly everything physics related is bugged really badly. Objects fall through the ground or fly away uncontrollably, the dinosaurs that use physics to make procedural animation trip and fall over rocks, stumps, and logs, and the player gets stuck in doors.If DI would have spent more time on Trespasser it likely would have been immensely better.

Sound design is really good, Lord Richard Attenburough's voice acting really hits home. Minnie Driver isn't bad but she isn't good either. Gun shots, animals' sounds, music and ambient noises all sound great.

Most of the level design really captures the idea of desolation and the decay of InGen's experiments and it all works really well, minus a few small points. Some of it is obviously incomplete.

The graphics are nice, but most of the machines back then couldn't run the game easily.

There is no HUD, which would have added to the immersion. However, staring at my boobs to see my health takes away from any of that immersiveness.

In conclusion, Trespasser could have been a really great game, but Dreamworks Interactive had to release it before it was ready for the public, and instead released a half-assed version of what the final game could have been. From a critical point of view, I have to give Trespasser a 6/10, however I am dearly in love with the game because of its attempts at something new. I personally enjoy the game mechanics and with tweaking they could have been much better. If you can put up with the bugs, glitches, and overall crappiness of the release, then you will see that Trespassser is an excellent game ruined by Dreamwork's haste.

[Draconisaurus]

Interesting review I personally thought Minnie Driver's voice was expertly done (seeing as she is a bona-fide actress), and that the absence of a HUD is often referenced here as what gave immersiveness, not detracted from it, since real life does not come with HUDs Glad you remembered to note that Rexes can pose a true threat when they trip. Found that out with this past arena.

Ah, I see. I did a Kalevala based presentation this year, about Kullervoinen. I got a 9 (meaning A- )

Hmmm oh Kullervo? Apparently he's in part of the Kalevala I haven't reached yet.. and I don't want to spoil by reading about him. Cool, anyway

[DeadEye]

Many of us have watched Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs escaping, the infamous T-Rex stomping through the fence. And the sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, about the second island, Isla Sorna, or Site B. The release of The Lost World coincided with the release of what some think to be one of the greatest games for the PC ever, and to some it is the worst. This game has spawned a great community dedicated to modifying it, making their own levels. This game is Jurassic Park: Trespasser.

Trespasser took three years to make, and was delayed a year due to technical issues. It was due to be released on the same day The Lost World hit theaters, but this deadline was the nail in the coffin that sealed Trespasser's fate. Trespasser was supposed to be a revolutionary game: a physics engine; allowing every object to free-fall and act as it would in real life. An advanced AI (Artificial Intelligence) system: Each dinosaur, from the raptor to the rex, would have its own emotions: Tired, happy, sad, angry, hungry, etc. However, Dreamworks Interactive, the company responsible for making Trespasser, went over-budget many times in the making of Trespasser. The deadline wasn't too close, so the developers weren't too nervous. Development went smooth, with not a lot of things having to be cut out. However, when the time came to make Pine Valley, everything went downhill. Pine Valley turned out to be incredibly buggy; filled with the oddest of glitches. In short, it was unplayable, and Dreamworks had to cut it. Development went smoothly, more or less, but then another problem arose: the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs were ovbiously a key part of the game, and couldn't be cut. However, the programming of them wouldn't be possible, not with the deadline approaching. It wouldn't be possible to code every single emotion, so they simply set all the meat-eating dinos anger to the max, and let it slide. The physics engine was ready, but even that was buggy as well. Sadly, the deadline finally came, and Dreamworks Interactive had to ship out Trespasser as it was, a half-finished, buggy game. Many people and game magazines were astonished and outraged; one magazine calling it "The worst game ever made.". However, Trespasser still got some good reviews, a few magazines saying "It was a thoroughly enjoyable game, and the bugs and glitches didn't take much of that away." I, personally, think Trespasser is a wonderful game, even if it is half-finished. It was released in 1998, with an astonishingly low amount of sold copies at 50,000 sold. It can still be found on the internet today, though the prices are fairly high for a rather old game.

[Oddjob]

I know, that this is an old topic and all, but recently I finished Half-Life 2 and the game inspired me to revisit Trespasser and re-review. My last review was very, very positive and praising, almost too positive to be honest and objective, which it was. I hadn't played any other FPS games with interactive physics or that open environments. I've never been a big fan of FPS games at all, so for a long time Trespasser was the only game in the world, which succeeded in combining Dino Crisis and Resident Evil style puzzles and excitement with widely explorable levels and more freedom in general. So now, it's time to see, if it still seems as amazing as it seemed before. Let's get started! I'll do the review in parts (level designs, NPC's, gameplay etc.) and I'll rate them using the one-to-ten method. Nothing spectacular coming up. But anyway, let's begin.

The Setting:

I've always enjoyed the Jurassic Park movies and dinosaurs in general. So a setting, where you are alone on an island with dinosaurs and some firearms has always been one of my favourite settings for any video games. There aren't that many games like this out there, which was one of the biggest reasons why I fell instantly in love with Trespasser when I played it for the first time. Before Trespasser the only game where I had experienced that certain Jurassic Park feeling was Dino Crisis on PSX, but that game lacked freedom to explore and had these weird camera settings, which Trespasser didn't have. So, judging by this I'd already give the setting a ten out of ten, but there are certain problems with the setting and it is the amount of weaponry in the game. I think the developers were going for a survival horror style game, a game where you are trying to survive rather than on a mission to wipe out every living dinosaur on the island. In a sense it is, but the amount of ammunition makes me sort of confused. Sure, the fact that you're able to carry just two weapons at a time and Anne doesn't seem to be an expert with firearms makes the game seem more like a survival horror game, but there are so many weapons on the isle that the only time you'll really run out of ammo is when you just can't manage to kill all of the tribe C raptors on the final levels. Also, some of the survival horror elements are merely side effects of the clumsy gameplay (I'll talk more about that later). So, in my opinion it seems like the game is somewhat confused whether it wants to be a shoot em' up game or a more puzzle orientated survival game, which does some harm to the enjoyability of the game at certain points (the end of the Town level in particular).
Overall the remote island-with-dinosaurs-and-stuff setting is one of my favourites and in Trespasser it works fine all things considered. Still I would perhaps enjoy the game a bit more, if there were less weapons scattered around.

7/10

Environment and level designs:

Much like the setting, I also like the environments in Trespasser. The jungle and the forest look alive for the time's technology and the sound effects just add to the atmosphere and feeling. The Jungle Road and Industrial Jungle levels just take your breath away. At it's best Trespasser is a very entertaining and pleasing game to explore, especially if you are a fan of the Jurassic Park franchise. The first levels are full of all kinds of points of interest and Easter Eggs, which even require some real searching! The Town level and Lab levels are without a doubt the best examples of this kind of exploring, which adds some replay value to the game. But even though there is a lot to cover on many of the levels, it still feels like that all of the levels were rushed and sadly are too linear. Sure, the aforementioned Town and Lab levels are very wide and open, but the final levels - especially Ascent 2 - are almost inexcusable with their lack of interesting objects and surroundings. The first three levels are the most impressive and well made of the levels, but after the Industrial Jungle, the levels begin to look more and more crude and unfinished. But at it's best, Trespasser is a neat game to look at and with a lot of interesting stuff to discover and check out. At it's worst, Trespasser is a very linear game with nothing else to do than to survive from point A to B alive in a set-up, which looks unimpressive and just ugly (the mountain on the final levels and the canyon in IJ, seriously?!). Also, I do think I'll have to point out, that as impressive as the levels are every now and then, your computer might just disagree and crash because of this, which sadly forces me to take a few points away from the final rating.

6/10

Audio:

This is the most well executed part of the game. The voice acting is superb and Sir Richard Attenborough as Hammond's voice really adds a lot power to the story and makes you feel like a part of a Jurassic Park movie. Minnie Driver isn't that bad either, although Anne doesn't have too many interesting things to say and some of the lines are somewhat pointless. The dinosaurs, weapons and environments (as stated in the previous chapter) all sound amazing as well. Only the sounds of boxes, barrels etc. are somewhat clumsy and even the slightest bump on a barrel for example sounds more like a car crash. But overall, the audio quality in this game is excellent.

9/10

Dinosaurs and AI:

Now, before I begin I want to say, that I do not know anything about the technical side when it comes to the AI in this game, so everything I say is based on reactions while playing.
There aren't any other NPCs in the game than the dinosaurs, which is a very minor disappointment for me. I personally think it would've been more interesting if you would've ran into other survivors as well, but that's merely my opinion. Anyway, most of the dinosaurs look good. The tyrannosauruses and the raptors are very detailed and look frightening (especially the final T-Rex on Ascent 2, dear god do I love that skin!), but then there are the terrible, terrible cases, which are the triceratopses. The rest of the dinosaurs look nice for the time's level. But now, the way the dinosaurs act. To my understanding, this was one of the very first games with primitive ragdoll systems and this is a huge problem. The AI functions fine, considering that you are in the open and there are no objects between you and the dinosaurs. The raptors, albertosauruses and tyrannosauruses just run all over the place and end up tripping after running into a smallest imaginable object. Sometimes it works to your aid, hell, there've been times when I haven't had to kill a single raptor in the canyon in IJ, because the raptors run straight into the ribs and impale themselves, commiting suicide. Sure, this does add some humour to the game, but seriously, that isn't what I want to see from a survival style FPS. It's also somewhat disappointing that no dinos are allowed indoors. When I first played Trespasser, I was dreaming of a huge lab complex with raptors around the corners and all you could hear was their breathing echoing in the corners. But no, this doesn't happen. It is possible, that the ATX patch randomly spawns raptors indoors, but these raptors end up going insane and most often killing themselves with furniture, doors, windows and what not. Once I had a raptor spawned in to the main building of the lab complex. This raptor ended up running outside as soon as I opened the door and never stopped. It just ran into the distance and didn't even notice me. I think that this has something to do with the trike on the road, but I don't know, what truely happened is anyone's guess. Intense chase scenes are also more about luck than the actual setting. Sometimes the raptors manage to chase you, sometimes they just run into trees and can't figure how to get around it. Or end up jumping to their not-so-inevitable doom on the final levels. Sure, a raptor can fall from the top of a mountain and survive. But now I'm just nitpicking.
The AI, ragdoll system and the physic engine are a deadly combination to everyone, the dinosaurs themselves, you and your computer. Some of the hilarious scenes, where a raptor manages to crush himself with a box that's just lying around, or you jab a raptor to it's death with an empty rifle and get it stuck into your hand may just as well crash the whole game (or the whole computer) and it's normal. Very random, but very normal. Sure, the game has it's moments when the dinosaurs manage to act like the dinos in the movies, which is amazing when it happens, but most of the time they are just brainless buffoons running about with no clear direction or goal. Entertaining, perhaps, but not in a way I truely wished them to be.

5/10

Puzzles:

I'm all for freedom of speech and believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but if someone came to me claiming that they enjoy the puzzles in Trespasser, I'd tell them that they are sick in the head and they disgust me. Nah, just kidding, but the puzzles are terrible. I mean, most of them are no-brainer box puzzles with zero imagination and you'll be sick of them after about three of them. By the time you see the final box puzzle you probably want to kill yourself and are strongly convinced, that the final puzzle is merely a cruel joke from the developers. And the jokes on you. Solve it or you won't be able to finish the game. The crippled physics don't help at all, the boxes don't always stay where you intend them to stay, they might just as well go all over the place or catapult themselves to a destination unknown. The Town and the Lab are once again the only levels, where the puzzles are enjoyable. Sure, they aren't challenging at all, but after all those boxes getting to hunt down key cards is just such a relief and truely fun the first time you do it. I mean it! I had so much fun playing these two levels for the first time. But these few moments don't change the fact that the puzzles are worthless and add nothing but unnecessary frustration to the game.

3/10


Gameplay:

I don't really know where to begin and I'll try to keep this brief. I don't think anyone wants to hear me rant about every single fault in the gameplay system. Well, anyway. First of all, the controls are broken. The infamous hand rarely works like expected and most of the time it's just there, getting stuck and doing impossible things. Hell, if I'd see a hand like that in real life, I wouldn't call an ambulance, I'd call an exorcist. And I'm an atheist! Aiming guns is almost impossible and most of the time I find myself just waiting for a raptor to get close enough for me to get somewhat certain headshots. Sadly, the raptors often come in groups and I am totally screwed if I want this tactic to work at all. And this is one my biggest complaints, the game isn't challenging because it was intended to be, it's challenging because nothing in this game functions too well. It isn't a good sign when you have to develop a certain strategy and have to time your jumps in a certain way just to get up stairs. And the physics engine, no matter how revolutionary it was, is too unfinished to function at all. Once again, this does add a lot of humour into the game, when you are able to send yourself flying using just a board and your hand, but c'mon. No one who wants to play a game wants to deal with stuff like that. Occasional bugs and glitches are acceptable, but in this game the whole engine is like a huge bug which works when it feels like it.

4/10

Final Rating: 5/10

Now that I've played Half-Life, I know how much better this kind of a game can be done. Sure Trespasser had huge problems during the development, like we all know, and in a sense it's unfair to compare these two games with each other. Valve had more modern technology on their side and they didn't have to make the physics engine all by themselves etc. Everyone who has played Trespasser is familiar with the obvious faults and sometimes outright terrible solutions the developers had to make in order for the game to be somewhat playable, but Trespasser was a pioneer and has to be considered as one. It was like the first group soldier sent to build the bridge to the otherside of the river. They managed to build the foundation, but were bombed down soon after. Afterwards Valve and numerous other companies learned from the mistakes Dreamworks Interactive made and have ever since been developing the system further and further. Trespasser might not be a great game, but it sure has it's moments and has a lot of potential. And even though my re-review most likely makes me look like I hate the game, but I don't. It's a fun game, but I still can't consider it a great game. I like it with all it's faults and mistakes and what not. Trespasser wouldn't be Trespasser without it's peculiar problems.

Still, I am one for seeing a future remake of Trespasser. I know that it is hard with all the copyrights and licenses and what not, but I still dream, that Valve would remake this game with the Source engine. That'd be amazing.

[awesome24712]

Quite an interesting (re-)review. Much of what you say is sadly true. Very honest. Trespasser, even with the buggy version it is, had such great potental. Not paticularily the developers' fault, though.

At least we can say that it helped the production of other games (and also custom levels/mods).