While Jurassic Park games have historically focused on building parks or shooting dinosaurs, a better experience could be found by drawing inspiration from Alien: Isolation. The 1993 movie spawned a 30-year franchise that ranges from sci-fi thrillers to disaster action movies, and tie-in games based on the IP vary just as much. Despite this range, few games come close to the themes and tone of the original film.
The earliest Jurassic Park games for home consoles were traditional action-adventure titles based lightly on the events of the film. Unsurprisingly, dinosaurs are the most common enemies encountered, and the player is often provided with guns (sometimes, tranquilizer guns) to fight them with. This is dramatically at odds with the thriller tone of Jurassic Park, which showcased how scary t-rex and other dinosaurs could be in a survival horror game. The protagonists have little chance to fight - trying to shoot dinosaurs doesn't go well.
As the franchise moved on, it saw a key change. The dinosaurs were always the stars, but in Jurassic Park, they were used sparingly for maximum thrills. By changing dinosaurs from a threat to something to be protected and introducing a traditional villain, The Lost World created a status quo more suitable for action games. Later films followed suit, and the thriller tone was left behind for both games and film. A Jurassic Park game that fits the spirit of the 1993 movie might never exist, but another movie that expertly builds tension and rations its monster might hold answers - Alien.
Alien: Isolation Shows How A Jurassic Park Game Should Be Made
The movie Alien and its sequels followed a remarkably similar trajectory as Jurassic Park. For both, sequels dramatically changed the tone and even the genre for the franchise. James Cameron's Aliens is a sci-fi action flick whereas the original is pure horror. Plenty of Alien video games exist, but they're wrong for the original movie, with most drawing upon the marines from the second film and pitting hordes of Xenomorphs against them. Against all of these 2014's Alien: Isolation stands out. The stealth survival horror experience is the ultimate Alien game, including only one alien that is near-impervious to damage. Rather than blasting it with bullets, the player is often forced to get creative, and failing that spends a lot of time running and hiding - much like Sigourney Weaver's Ripley, and the whole cast of Jurassic Park.
Most video games are exercises in empowerment, where the player explores a fantasy where they have agency beyond their day-to-day norm, but Alien: Isolation and other great survival horror games disempower the player. Atmosphere, pacing, and dramatic timing are key, and if handled well they can provide building suspense and bursts of excitement that even sur those from typical action games. The moments where the Xenomorph isn't on screen in Alien: Isolation can be more tense than when it is. It doesn't even show up until almost two hours into the game; environments are crafted such that it can appear from almost anywhere, and the player spends a fair amount of time hiding behind furniture or in darkness. In short, merely knowing there could be an alien somewhere is plenty scary.
While Alien: Isolation sequel would be fantastic, but it's also possible that a developer could approach a Jurassic Park game with its concept.
