Since I’m going to need to take notes on this game, I’ve decided to do a playthrough topic. I’ve never been a fan of point and click adventures, but I did like Myst, so hopefully I can add this game to that short list. So, let’s get started. Unfortunately, there’s no intro to the game, just the title screen with music not from the movie (I don’t believe there is any music from the movie in the game, going by what you can listen to by popping it in a CD player). Starting up the game, it gives the objective of needing to find eggs of seven dinosaur species and return them to the incubator in the visitor center before they get so cold that the dinosaur inside dies. So if you don’t have the manual, at least you know what you have to do. I have 12 hours to accomplish this and as soon as it shows the crashed helicopter, the time starts counting down in real time.
Seeing what can be searched in this map sector, the door of the helicopter can be moved slightly and behind it is the Stunner. In the SW part, I pick up a Big Rock. To the East is the path to the Visitor Center. Taking that path used up 5 minutes, while the manual states it should take 10 minutes. At the other side of the tunnel, with the first bit of animation, a couple Brachiosauruses can be seen feeding on the trees. Checking out the Guide kiosk, it turns out that I need to find the appropriate CD to operate it. Opposite the Brachiosaurus kiosk is the Procompsognathus “Compy” kiosk, which I don’t need a CD to operate. Some video of Dr. Robert T. Bakker gives a little extra info, which was probably a selling point of the game. With the video clips being only about 5 to 15 seconds long, there really isn’t any load time. A little to the right of the Compy kiosk is what looks like a nest no longer being used that holds the White Cardkey (just White Key in the inventory), which grants the lowest level of access. Continuing east, we arrive at the Visitor Center, with the familiar front gate. On either side of the path north are the working Dilophosaurus “Dilo” and Gallimimus “Gally” kiosks, so I check them out. Oh, hey, ABC+Start quits and returns to the title screen, which is not mentioned in the manual.
Now inside the Visitor Center, a couple dinosaur skeletons are in the middle of the ground floor. Also in the center of the room is a toolbox with a pair of Pliers in it. Other than a computer and some boxes that are just there, I head up the spiral staircase by the skeletons. This movement doesn’t take any time, whereas the manual states that it would take 1 minute. At the top of the stairs, I use the White Key on the door to access the Control Room. It’s in here that I can save and view the Message Log. Checking out the Log, a video message from Emily Shimura reiterates what is in the manual that I’ll need to get one egg from each species to the incubator. Nothing else is found in this room, so I check out what else is on this level. Being two rooms, one of which is the Game Warden, that the White Key can’t grant access to, I head back out of the Visitor Center.
Wait a second, the manual says the Motion Detector is in the Visitor Center. Turning around and searching around the Center again, one of the sets of boxes on the ground floor actually can be accessed, but it has a padlock, so I’m guessing I’ll need to find the bolt cutters. One of the sets of boxes upstairs can also be accessed, but nothing I have seems to do anything -- I thought maybe I could smash it open with the big rock. Hmm… Back outside, the mailbox now has a green X on it, meaning I can do something. Using the pliers, I get the Blue Key. Yay! Heading back into the Visitor Center, I can now access the center room on the 2nd floor, which is where the incubator is. It also has a computer with a map of the island as well as a locker with a tranquilizer and its darts. There’s also a first aid station on the wall, which I’m hoping works when I get injured. Now that I have access to the incubator, there’s a new message regarding it in the Command Room.
Back outside, I head to the Gallies. Arriving in their area, which did take 10 min to get to, a couple of them are hanging out on the road. And it looks like there’s an egg right in front of them. Picking up the egg makes them both charge at me. Oh, crap! Well, the big rock doesn’t work on them and I’m down to half health. Time to see if that first aid kit does anything. If not, I guess I’ll reload and try the stunner and tranquilizer on them. The first aid kit works, replenishing me to full health. Now to the incubator. Aaaaand, how exactly does this work??? There’s green X over what looks like a card slot. Sooooooo, you have you use the Blue Key on the slot in order to make the big “LOAD EGGS” button be active. Um… What? Why in the world can’t you just hit the big “LOAD EGGS” button?!? That’s stupid! I’m reloading anyway because I want to try to tranq the Gallies. Oh, neat, using the Stunner on one of them made both of them scamper away. Hm, the log floating in the river here is accessible. Using the big rock on it, it’s now stationary and I can cross it. Which makes it convenient that there just happens to be a big rock in front of the eggs to replace the one I just used. Not following the Gallies, but rather taking the last path here, I end up at a couple more Gallies guarding a couple eggs. Pushing down the rotted tree spooks them and they run away, allowing me access to the path behind where they were. Picking up the eggs, I follow them since there isn’t anything else to do here, at least, not yet. There is a sewer grate and something hanging from something, which both look to be things I’ll need to come back to.
Arriving in the next area, there’s a Gally drinking from the river, but it’s on the other side, so I can safely snag the 2 eggs from the nest here. This is a dead end, so I start heading back to the Visitor Center. I’m instantly pelted by a Gally kicking stones at me by that hanging thing. Subduing it with a couple tranquilizer darts, I pick up the 4 eggs that are suddenly here. The rest of the trip back to the Center is safe and I deposit my eggs in the incubator, along with healing and reloading. Or at least I was planning on reloading, since the manual says you can here. Maybe I need to be down to a certain amount of rounds, or be out of them to be able to reload? Or maybe they get more supplies at certain points in the countdown? At least I don't need to use the Cardkey anymore. So, I guess that was needed to simply give me the approval to use the machine. Checking out the Message Log, now there’s an unidentified aircraft heading to the island. That explains the 12 hr time limit.
Heading back out and across the log in the first Gally spot, I reach the poison spitting Dilos. Getting hit a few times before putting them down with my tranquilizer, I can safely look around this area. There’s an inflatable raft with an outboard motor I can’t access and a Jeep that I can. Just to the right of it is a nest with a couple Compy eggs and the Tyrannosaurus CD. I haven’t come across that kiosk yet. Opening the door of the Jeep causes a Gas Can to fall out, as well as a baby dino to jump out and run away. The motor of the raft now is accessible. It took a bunch of tries before it accepted that I had the gas can in the correct spot, and now I can take the raft to play with some more Dilos. Fortunately, there’s a first aid station here, so I’m able to heal up after taking down a couple more of the buggers. Right next to the first aid station is a nest with a couple Dilo eggs. Heading back to the Center, I drop off the eggs in the incubator. Three species down, four to go with 8.5 hrs left.
There’s a new message telling me about crossing the river by way of the log to get to the Dilos, which I already did. Well, it’s nice the game has a hint system. Another message tells me that the Brachy kiosk CD is locked away in Wu’s (I think she’s saying Wu) office and that playing it draws the Brachies out due to there being a baby call at the end of it. Heading back to the downed chopper to see if there’s anything new to access, it seems I missed a couple Compy eggs in the nest that had the White Key. Nothing new is accessible so I head back and down the path towards the T Rex, Raptors, and Triceratops.
As soon as I stop moving, there’s the overturned tour vehicle that runs on the track (dang it, I can’t remember what they are), and opening the back door, I get some wire cutters. The Triceratops kiosk is here. The T-Rex kiosk is also here, and I’m able to use it thanks to picking up the CD earlier. It seems Dr. Bakker gives a hint about how to stop one when I encounter it: by hitting it near the temple. Ignoring the path to the Velociraptors, I pass by the overturned vehicle and find myself by a couple Triceratopses. One of them is guarding a box I can’t access, and the other is by a tree where I pick up some branches. Ok. Well, the one by the box now has a green X on it, so I guess I’ll use the branches on it. It’s now busy feeding on the branches, so I can get to the box, and I can’t do anything with it. I think I need the crowbar. At least now the two Triceratopses are now together away from the box, and hopefully they stay that way for when I come back. Continuing along the path east, I arrive in an area with what looks like a dead Triceratops in front of some kind of structure. A little to its right is a Jeep on its side. Examining it causes me to honk its horn, which summons another Triceratops that, after ramming the Jeep, turns to me and charges me, instantly killing me. Ha! Well, I guess I’ll see if those wire cutters do anything in the Visitor Center this time.
Getting the cutters and heading back, the straps on the crate upstairs can be snipped by them, allowing me to get the motion detector. And the manual makes it out to be a snap to get this. I’m going to try the Raptors first this time. Arriving, I check out the Velociraptor kiosk. I’ve hit all the kiosks, with the Brachy being the only one I still can’t operate. There’s a couple very small, what I’m guessing, Raptors milling about, but they aren’t hostile. Regardless, I shoot a Stunner shot at one of them and they both leave the area. Examining the nest they were surrounding, I find a couple Compy eggs. Continuing along the path, I find myself at the entrance to a mine. Since I already have a big rock in my inventory, I leave the one here lying on the ground. Just to the right of the mine, I can throw the big rock at a couple boulders, slightly dislodging them, after which I pick up the big rock here. I can again throw it at the boulders, this time knocking them down, after which a few raptors run out of the mine. After taking down the one that runs at me with the Stunner, I enter the mine.
Being nearly pitch black in here, I’ll be relying on the motion sensor to take down some more raptors. Ok, this is tough. About the only thing I have to go by is the glint of their eyes. Ok, two hits and I’m dead. I think I need to get the night goggles before tackling this, so back to the Triceratopses. Back at the dead or sick Triceratops, I’m trying to figure out what to do. I can get the one to keep ramming the Jeep until the hood falls off, but nothing is inside the engine compartment. Ok, so I noticed a glint along the roof of the Jeep, and out popped a crowbar, the Triceratops CD (maybe the kiosk will give more info with this?) and an injector. Working quickly, I use the injector on the sick Triceratops and it gets up and walks off. Plus, I don’t get charged by the other one anymore. There’s nothing accessible in the little structure or the mailbox-like thing in front of it. This place was a dead end trap until that as the one that charged was blocking the path back. Now I can go back and hopefully open that box with the crowbar. Indeed, I can, and I get the Triceratops Key (I wonder if this is one of the one-time use keys the manual mentions). Well, the CD didn’t change anything at the kiosk.
Back in the Visitor Center, I still can’t open the crate on the ground floor. A new message is available and Emily tells me that the aircraft has been identified as being a helicopter from Biosyn Corp., after which the message gets hijacked and I get threatened by a fellow telling me to stay out of their way as his men will be on the island in 3 hrs (I have about 6.5 hrs left, so I wonder if that’ll actually be 3 hrs or when the counter reaches 00:00:00). Well. Seeing if I can reload my weapons, I can’t. But, the Triceratops Key does access the bottom part of the locker where I find the Brachiosaurus CD. Woohoo! The Key also gives me access to the Game Warden’s room. Again, woohoo! I can recharge my Stunner in here. The Gas Gun (Gas Grenade Launcher in the manual) is also in here, with a couple rounds of ammo, which I’m guessing are the only rounds in the game, and also guessing I’ll need to use this against the T Rex. The night-vision goggles are also found in here. I can access the park’s paddock security cameras on the computer in here. As the computer told me, I use the Triceratops CD in the external CD-ROM drive to get the code sequence (Compy, Galli, JP, Dilo) to the Pump Building that the sick Triceratops was lying in front of. Back to the Triceratops’ area.
Back at the Pump Building where the sick Triceratops was, I use the Triceratops Key on the card reader in front of it and enter. Entering, all kinds of electrical issues are happening, plus there are a few Dilos spitting poison at me. The door with the Travel Arrow also damages me, so I think I need to deactivate something first. The right panel next to the door has a switch that turns off the electricity. The next one lets out a baby Raptor that just runs back and forth. The center panel has something on the top shelf, but I don’t know what since nothing went into my inventory. The door turns out to be the exit. I don’t know what that did and I didn’t see anywhere to enter the code.
Heading back to the Center to heal and reload, I get another message about something I already did, this time about honking the Jeep’s horn and a hint about the injector. Going back to the pump building to see if I missed the code entry panel, yep, I did. I thought I couldn’t open the 2nd to left panel, but I can now, and I enter the code, which gives me access to the room behind the busted radiator, but the steam damages me. Hmmmm… Since I have the Brachiosaurus CD, I head back there and use the kiosk. The baby call at the end causes both of them to clear out of the area. I can now access a nest beyond the kiosk to get 3 of their eggs. After dropping the eggs off at the Center, I get a message saying Biosyn’s helicopter is nearing the island, and when I leave the Center, it can be seen in the distance. Now that I have the night-vision goggles, it’s off to tackle the Raptors.
Ok, this is being a real pain. As soon as I enter the mine, I have to switch to the Stunner, then charge it up to the max 4 power. Each of these commands have to be started when you’re stationary since you can’t access the inventory or start charging the Stunner while moving the crosshairs. The first raptor is to my right, so I have to instantly start turning that way and hope I can get off a true shot once I see it. If not, the odds are that it’ll charge, take out half my health, then within a second, maybe two, it’ll charge again from behind, meaning Game Over. You can’t rotate fast enough to survive that. Aargh!!! And it only stays down until you turn enough to where it’s off screen. There’s no way to keep it down to where you can really survey the area. After knocking it out, there’s a second level to this mine with another raptor. In this deeper section is something that looks like a large drain labeled Filter 27, but there’s nothing accessible in it. Ah, so there’s an exit in this section that leads to three Raptors on some ledges. The good thing is they stay on them, so they can’t hurt me. There’s a door out here, but I can’t do anything with it. I’m really at a loss right now.
Retrying, I head back to that grate and hanging thing, and realize that I can access the rope holding up the hanging thing that I completely missed. Using the wire cutters on the rope, what I guess is a bag falls and out pops a wrench. The grate is now accessible and I use the wrench on it to get nothing but the ability to see the next screen. Continuing along the path, I run into Biosyn’s goons and am in a firefight with them. After several attempts, I’m finally able to take out all four of them. Clicking on the helicopter gets me the bad ending (since I didn’t collect all the required eggs) where Biosyn’s goons were apparently able to get all the eggs, even though they don’t have a means to get off the island now. Since I do have to get all the eggs, and I’m pretty low on time, I don’t think I can win the game, so I guess I’ll have to restart. Since I now know where most everything is, I don’t think it will take all that much time.
All right. Restarting.
In crash site, pick up Stunner and Big Rock.
Take the path to Visitor Center and pick up White Key from nest (and there aren’t any eggs in it at this point).
Continue and enter Visitor Center, pick up Pliers from toolbox, head to Control Room and save.
Exit, go towards Triceratops, grab Wire Cutters and return to Visitor Center gate.
Use pliers on card reader to get Blue Key and go to Galli territory.
Shoot Galli, use rock on log and pick up Galli eggs.
Continue south, cut rope with wire cutters, get wrench. Use wrench on grate. Push down tree to scare off Gallis and grab Galli eggs.
Continue south and grab Galli eggs. Oh, hey, if you shoot the frog here, it hops across the stream, gets eaten by the Galli over there, and then the Galli bounds off allowing me access to what’s beyond. In this area, there’s what looks like a roll of cyclone fence lying on the ground. Rolling it aside reveals the Bolt Cutters. Aha! I can also open up the other end of the grate making a shortcut back.
Go back and take more Galli eggs.
Now that I have the bolt cutters, I can cut off that lock from the crate on the ground floor, which holds what looks like clips for the tranquilizer gun. Since I don’t have that yet, it won’t let me take them.
In the Visitor Center, pick up motion sensor from upstairs crate, activate incubator with Blue Key, drop off eggs, get Tranquilizer, and save.
Picking up the tranquilizer ammo from the crate on my way out doubles my ammo to 80 rounds.
Go to Dilos’ territory, take Gas Can from Jeep, take T Rex CD and Compy eggs from nest. Use gas can on raft to get to the Dilo nest. Ah, you have to hold down the button to fill up the tank. Pick up Dilo eggs and return to Visitor Center.
Head to Triceratops’ territory, grab Branches from tree, feed them to Tri to access box.
Continue to sick Tri, honk three times, grab Crowbar, Tri CD, and Injector, use Injector on sick Tri.
Go back, get Tri Key from box, return to Visitor Center.
Get Brachi CD, Gas Gun, Night-vision Goggles, and Pump Building code sequence.
Time to go back to the Pump Building to see if I can get past that busted radiator. Oh, hey, I can access the T. Rex pen. I’ll leave that for later. Back in the Pump Building, the pipe to the right of the panels is accessible with the wrench. I guess that turned off the hot water flow to the radiator. I think that thing in the middle panel is supposed to be the Red Key, but the Tri Key has a higher level of access, so it never actually appears in the inventory. With the radiator fixed and the code entered, I can enter that door. Heading through the door, I’m sent downstairs, through a room, and up through a manhole to a new outdoor area with a couple Triceratopses and Gallis. While looking around, one of the Tris charged me for another Game Over. Heading back, stunning the Galli enough to make it run off doesn’t work. Aha! You have to tranq one of the Gallis to get it to spit up a Tri egg. Quickly snatching the egg, as well as the big rock here, I’m able to get back down the manhole as I hear one of the Tris charging. I head back to the Visitor Center, drop off the Tri egg, heal up, use the Tri key to get the Brachy CD, and save.
Back at the hub for the Tri, T Rex, and Raptor, I can now access the T Rex pen, thanks to having the bolt cutters. Using them on the chain (since I apparently can’t bend down to go under it), I’m now inside. The only thing in here is a door that I need to use the Tri Key to open. It has a 30 second delay, and a T Rex appears in front of the door at about 15 sec left in the countdown. So, now I gotta figure out how to subdue it. Figuring out that you need to wait until the door opens, then shoot it in the temple with a fully charged stun shot and quickly “run” between its legs through the door. Or, just shoot the gas gun a couple times (using up all the in-game supply) and not worry about aiming. Inside a storage area, there’s a message from Muldoon stating he dropped a bear horn when he was charged by the T Rex. There’s also a Dilo spitting at me. Subduing that Dilo causes the T Rex to instantly attack and kill me. Hmm. A two-button panel causes the grates in the waterway to open with the left one unleashing another Dilo. Taking down that one, I can go through the grates and follow the water to another new area.
The first thing I spot is a nest with a couple eggs. Thinking these are T Rex eggs, I leave them for now since a T Rex will probably attack me when I take them. Looking around, I find the Bear Horn. The manual says it’s a one-time use item. Ok, so as soon as I pick up the horn, the Rex charges at me. The horn does stun it, but only for about 5 seconds, after which it continues charging and kills me. Making it back here, I spot a button by a closed grate. Pushing the button causes the grate to open slightly. Getting the T Rex to charge again, the sound of the grate opening discombobulates the T Rex for a second. After fully opening the grate with a couple more button pushes, blowing the horn causes the T Rex to take a couple steps back before resuming its charge. This is enough of a window to enter the grate and get back to the storage area. There’s now a handful of Dilos in here, but I ignore them and leave the area and make my way back to the Visitor Center. That leaves just the Raptor and Brachy eggs.
With the Brachy eggs being a simple task, I head to the Raptors’ area. Back in Raptor territory, now that I have all inventory items except the final Gold Key, the Filter 27 is now accessible. I’ve also picked up a couple more rocks and it’s these that I use here. With two rocks, the water level rises and I’m able to pick up the Velociraptor Key. That must be the other special “one-time use” key. So, I’m still missing the Gold Key. I quickly exit before the Raptor here attacks and make my way back outside to the Raptors on the ledges. The card reader is now accessible, so I use the Raptor Key to open it, again with a 30 second countdown. As soon as that starts, the Raptors that were just hanging out on the ledges start attacking. After yet another Game Over, I make it back here, start the door open sequence, then immediately turn to the Raptors, since they only attack if you aren’t facing them. With the 30 seconds elapsed, I quickly get through the door to find myself back inside the cave with a couple more Raptors. While trying to look around I get another Game Over. Making it back… Well, that was cheap. As soon as I used the Raptor Key, a Raptor magically appeared in front of me and hit me before I was able to do anything. Since that spaced them out to where I couldn’t get all three on-screen at the same time, I got another Game Over. That was definitely the cheapest death so far. Back again, and this time no funny business as I’m able to stare them all down for the 30 seconds. Nothing happens to be in the next area but the two Raptors, so I continue on to where the Raptors’ nest is. Finally. A couple more Raptors are in here to deal with. I quickly find and take 8 of their eggs. Now to find the way out of here. Using the crowbar to open the large pipe on the ground, it sends me all the way back to where the Raptor kiosk is. Scaring off the two baby Raptors with a Stunner shot, I pick up the couple Compy eggs, even though I don’t need them, and head to the Brachy kiosk.
I play the kiosk to get the Brachies to clear off, I pick up the eggs, head back to the Visitor Center to drop them off and save. With all species’ eggs recovered, it’s back to fight BioSyn’s goons. After a couple attempts, I defeat them and am able to take off in their helicopter. This time I get the good ending, which is basically Emily thanking me. The credits roll and it ends with the same GAME OVER screen I’d seen dozens of times before. Well, that was a letdown. I finished with 00:46:28 on the game clock, so the game doesn’t give you much wiggle room. You basically have to know exactly what to do, otherwise you’ll easily run out of time, like I would have before restarting. I’d really like to know where the manual gets off showing that amount of eggs collected. There’s nowhere near that many to be found. There also turns out to be either no Gold Key or Red Key (depending on which one is found in the Pump Building).
If it weren’t for the battle system, it would be a pretty good game. But with how slow you rotate, the battles become a lot harder than they should be and really drag the game down.
