I have semi-regular reviewer Dave Corn back again with another guest review. Which is just as well as I have a bit of a backlog. This time, Dave travels to Isla Nublar and goes toe-to-claw against some dinosaurs. From developer and publisher Coatsink comes Jurassic World Aftermath Collection. Originally released back in 2020 for Oculus Quest as a two-part title and now on the Nintendo Switch as a double pack… minus the VR angle. Dave explores the dino-infested island and lets us know what he thought.
“Crash-landing on Isla Nublar after the fall of the Jurassic World theme park, players find themselves trapped in an abandoned research facility when their mission to recover valuable information goes disastrously wrong. To survive, they’ll need to explore and solve puzzles while evading a menagerie of ferocious dinosaurs, including ravenous Pteranodons, cunning Velociraptors and the terrifying T. rex. Will you escape Isla Nublar?”
When offered the chance to review the new Jurassic World Aftermath Collection game, I jumped at the chance. The name may have changed from Park to World but the series still calls to the kid watching Sam Neil’s shock at living breathing dinosaurs on the big screen those many decades earlier in my life. The first Jurassic Park game that I played was The Lost World: Jurassic Park on the Sega Saturn, a far cry from this Switch title but the excitement level was still the same.
Now, it is worth noting that Jurassic World Aftermath Collection started out life as an episodic VR title and my god, does it show Most VR titles are great short-burst experiences, to be accessible to a larger audience. A lot of the time these ‘games’ are just on rail, simple tick the box to progress puzzles and more sights to take in than actual gameplay mechanics. Aftermath Collection falls into that VR staple hook line and sinker.
Starting on a plane and set 10 years after the events of Jurassic World, you crash on the famed Isla Nublar where you are then guided by a faceless voice over a radio (a common VR experience tactic to spew out exposition and narrative without cutscenes) to circumnavigate the facilities and avoid a manor of vicious and hungry dinosaurs. They’re all here too, yes Velociraptors, T-rexs and so on. The thrust of Aftermath Collection has you solving irritatingly easy and basic puzzles, with the aim of recovering dino DNA.
This isn’t really much of a game, in terms of engaging gameplay. Jurassic World Aftermath Collection is more of a very nice-looking, cell-shaded (imagine XIII with dinosaurs) walking experience. It feels as miss-sold as No Man’s Sky was at launch, to call it anything other than a flat 2D VR experience. Any of the magic of seeing life-size scary lizards being lost in port to Switch as the game loses its VR angle. If you are looking to play a more engaging Jurassic Park title, there are much better out there. Such as the Jurassic World Evolution park management sims for example. If you really want to experience this one, it’s probably best to check out the VR version, the way it was originally intended.
Gameplay 1/5 – Overly simple and boring.
Graphics 3/5 – Cell shaded graphics are gorgeous, but the cartoon style may not be to everyone’s taste.
Value 1/5 – For the £25 that Nintendo is charging for this at launch and the fact you can play through it in just over an hour. My suggestion is to stay clear and maybe pick it up in a sale if you really want to play it.
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