Warpath: Jurassic Park
Score: 95% ESRB: Publisher: EA Games Developer: EA Games Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Fighting
Graphics & Sound: Warpath has some of the best creature graphics that I have ever seen. Smooth lines and no blockiness to the dinosaurs. The backgrounds are very well designed based on many of the sets from the two Jurassic Park movies. They can get a little blocky on close inspection, but this little bit of blockiness allows the rendering of the dinosaurs to be superb. The sound effects are straight out of the movies, with the T-Rex roar having a familiar sound. If you are playing in a 3D surround sound environment, the sound engulfs you, but if you are not, don't fret. The FX and the music remain full and alive in the 2-channel stereo mix and add excitement to your battles.
Gameplay: For a fan of the hand to hand combat games, Warpath: Jurassic Park gives Them a new spin with this Rocky meets Jurassic Park game. Face to face combat between dinosaurs. No pesky humans to bother with. Actually, they do show up during some battles, but the T-Rex (or whichever dino is quick enough) promptly eats them. The best part is this little snack adds a bit of life back to your life bar. The dinosaurs are armed with razor sharp claws, foot long teeth, and tails that pack a wallup. Each dinosaur has their own abilities. The T-Rex can grab the other dinosaur by the jugular and flip them across the ring. There are various ways to play Warpath. Team: build a team of dinosaurs for a two player war. Practice: a very good idea for the young dino-fighter like me. Versus: take on a friend in a head to head match-up (good for releasing tensions between buds). Arcade: battle CPU-controlled dinosaurs and win to unlock more dinos and hidden game modes (no fair asking, not going to tell you).
Difficulty: If you are a person that has been playing the PlayStation for a long time and who is familiar with the buttons, the only difficulty you might have is a memory one. Each of the 14 different dinosaurs have their own abilities and moves they can do, and each has a multi button combo attack you can perform. I am still trying to get the seven button combo down for the T-Rex.
Game Mechanics: A great new addition to the hand to hand combat games or shall we say the claw to claw combat games. The game is rated T for Teen due to the amount of blood, so parents need to be aware of that. All they need to do now is to release this game on the PC platform, so that a multi-player mode is possible over the Internet. I have a friend in California that could use a good clawing.
-Wickserv, GameVortex Communications AKA Eric Wickwire
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