Codex Gamicus
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Jurassic: The Hunted (previously known as Jurassic Hunter and Jurassic: The Hunter) is a first-person shooter video game developed by Cauldron HQ and published by Activision. The game was known of for some time as a mystery title before finally being announced on October 16, 2009.[1] The game was released on November 3, 2009 for the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 consoles.

Plot[]

Armando "Rock" Depedra, Sabrina Sayrus and Craig Dylan are in the Bermuda Triangle searching for Sabrina's father, James Sayrus. They are sucked up into a mysterious island by a temporal vortex.

From then on the game revolves around fourteen levels, listed below:

  • Codename: Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot

This level centres around Dylan finding his first gun and killing three Deinonychus, along with several Velociraptors. Midway through it, Rock contacts him and says to make his way towards a cargo ship. The level ends with Dylan finding a herd of Brachiosaurus.

  • Far from Shore, Far from Home

After finding the cargo ship, Dylan fights several Velociraptors. Aboard the cargo ship, Rock contacts him and tells Dylan to make his way towards a volcano. Dylan is attacked by several Dilophosaurus and Deinonychus, as well as one Utahraptor, continuing on into the night.

  • Sinking Feeling

At night, Dylan kills several green and red Deinonychus, making his way through a passage, where he is attacked by more Deinonychus and a pack of Velociraptor. He then defends a fort from more Deinonychus before going on into a passage.

  • Vortex Zero

Presumably the next morning, Dylan uses his shotgun to kill more Deinonychus, finding the carcass of another animal and killing Velociraptor. he then finds a downed helicopter and shoots more Deinonychus, defending a fort and reaching a passage to the volcano.

  • Out of the Frying Pan

This level takes place in the volcano. Several Deinonychus attack Dylan, who makes his way towards a maze of stone bridges across lava rivers. He is attacked by two Utahraptor and several Dilophosaurus', and a portal takes him to a volcanic ridge.

  • The Lost Castaways

In this level, Dylan walks through a passage and into a clearing, battling Deinonychus and reaching the fort where Rock and James Sayrus are. Sayrus tells Dylan that a German time machine is locked up in a cave, two and a half miles north of their fort. Dylan sets out to find it.

  • Rise Above

Roughly two days later, Dylan finds a machine gun and kills several Cearadactylus. He then fights Dilophosaurus on a ridge and defends a fort from Deinonychus. Eventually, he places C-4 onto a rock wall, and he is nearly crushed by falling rocks.

  • The Tyrant King

Taking place immediately after the events of Rise Above, Dylan fights several Cearadactylus and two Tyrannosaurus defending a cave from him, ending with him killing them and descending into the caves.

  • U-1226

Taking place immediately after the events of The Tyrant King, Dylan finds the caves are inhabited with giant scorpions, poisonous gasses and exploding mushrooms. Eventually, he finds the German time machine on U-1226 and returns to the surface.

  • Special Delivery

After the caves, Dylan wonders through a series of tunnels, fighting Deinonychus and finding dead (and living) Pachycephalosaurus. This is also the level where he meets a Spinosaurus dubbed "Spike".

  • Enter: Spike

This level mainly focuses around Dylan finding Sabrina Sayrus and distracting Spike, ending with Spike killing a Tyrannosaurus and Dylan escaping.

  • Escaping Extinction

Dylan makes it back to the fort, killing four Utahraptor, and then learns the battery of the time machine is dead. he sets out to find a futuristic drone, holding a battery.

  • The Final Piece

This level has varied events, beginning with Dylan finding the battery, killing Deinonychus and scorpions, find old Civil War relics, and making his way back to camp.

  • No Time Like the Present

Dylan makes it back to camp and finds out Spike has returned to the barricade. Dylan kills Spike and he and Sabrina go to a desert island via the time machine. Rock and James reunite with them shortly afterwards, and Spike is thought to be still alive after he opens his eyes.

Gameplay[]

Combat encounters include arena style fights, fortification sieges, survival modes and boss battles. Adrenaline bursts give you an edge – this gameplay feature allows the player to visualize and then target an opponent’s weak points in slow motion.[2] Otherwise, the gameplay is fundamentally similar to Call of Duty, which was also published by Activision.

Animals featured[]

There is a menagerie of prehistoric creatures that appear in-game. It is stated by the characters that the temporal vortex sent them back to the Cretaceous period, presumably North America based on the local fauna, but a number of animals from before the Cretaceous and from different parts of the world appear as well.

  • Velociraptor: These small creatures appear early in the game as the first enemies, but are later replaced by Deinonychus. In later levels, Cave Raptors or an albino variation appear in caves but are otherwise exactly the same. In "Survival" mode, the albino versions give you grenades when killed.
  • Deinonychus: Featured throughout the game as the basic enemy, they closely resemble the Velociraptors in the Jurassic Park series and fill similar roles. There are two variants of them: a common red one and a rarer green one that is harder to kill.
  • Utahraptor: A rare enemy appearing only a few times in the game as "mini-boss" enemies. They are very difficult to kill because of their fast movements and large amounts of health. The first time a Utahraptor is encountered, it is alone and hurts but cannot kill Dylan, but all subsequent appearances double in number and in killing potential, with two appearing simultaneously at the end of "Out of the Frying Pan" and four in "Escaping Extinction". In "Escaping Extinction," they are the only enemies in the level.
  • Pachycephalosaurus: One of the game's few herbivorous dinosaurs, Pachycephalosaurus makes two appearances as the already dead prey of the Raptors, but appears alive in "Special Delivery" when a herd runs by Dylan, presumably escaping from Spike.
  • Brachiosaurus: A large gentle sauropod appearing twice in the game, once in a cinematic in the level Code Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, another in by the cliffs in the level Far From Shore Far From Home, And is one of the games few herbivorous animals
  • Dilophosaurus: One of the few non-Cretaceous animals in the game, when dilophosaurids are encountered, they always appear from temporal vortexes. Like the dilophosaurid in Jurassic Park, they bear frills and spit poison at Dylan.
  • Pterosaurs: Two types of pterosaurs appear in the game: one that resembles an Ornithocheirus, and one that resembles a Cearadactylus. The latter swoop down and attack Dylan, and also appear as a "minion" enemy of the Tyrannosaurus boss. Interestingly, the game manual lists the aggressive pterosaurs as Pteranodon, though they bear no similarity to Pteranodon.
  • Tyrannosaurus: Appears twice as a boss enemy, and appears again in a later level in a cinematic, in which it was killed by Spike.
  • Scorpions: A presumably fictional type of giant scorpion appears as the basic enemy in caves, but it seems to resemble Brontoscorpio.
  • Spinosaurus: One Spinosaurus appears in the game, named "Spike" by the characters, and serves as a boss in two separate levels.
  • Triceratops: One Triceratops appears dead in the game.
  • In-game artwork depicts trilobites, presumably as a cave-dwelling animal, but they never actually appear.

Development[]

The project was kept largely under wraps until Activision issued a press release advertising the game. It is a budget title, judging from the announcement's proximity to the release date and the below average price tag of $39.99 for every version except the PS2 version, which is priced at $29.99.[3] It is currently unknown if the game will lend itself to a wider release or whether the title will stay local to the US.

Trailer[]

The announcement trailer for the game can be viewed here:

References[]

  1. Prehistoric Survival Unleashed in Activision's upcoming Jurassic: The Hunted [1]
  2. Jurassic: The Hunted Gameplay Summary [2]
  3. Jurassic: The Hunted price [3]

External Links[]

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