Saber Interactive and Universal Studios have shared new insight on what they’re doing with Jurassic Park: Survival.
The game places us in the role of Maya Joshi, an InGen researcher who had allegedly been left behind after Jurassic Park founder John Hammond successfully escapes the island with his grandchildren and the scientists he invited. Of course, we are referring here to the events of the 1993 film, as what was an ambiguously happy ending for that cast turned out to not be a happy one for Maya.
Universal Products & Experiences executive producer John Melchior set expectations on how this game picks up after the film in an interview with IGN. Melchior said:
“We have been working with all our stakeholders on what the island would have looked like after the events of the film. This includes areas we all love like the Visitor’s Center and the T-Rex paddock.
But also, what we didn’t see, things that were not part of the tour or got cut off by the storm. Those on the island were supposed to be there overnight, so what does that mean? What would they have seen and where would they have stayed if everything went according to plan?
That is where we are starting. One thing is certain – the island is as much a part of the story as the characters and dinosaurs.”
Now, if you are a hardcore fan of the Spielberg original, you would know that the director pursued a vision mostly separated from the Michael Crichton novel, as Spielberg had his own ideas for what the movie should be. That continued in the succeeding three films.
These are all relevant to Jurassic Park: Survival, as Maya may make her way not only across Isla Somar, but Isla Nublar, the setting for the two Jurassic Park sequels. For those who don’t know, Isla Somar was the setting for the park, but Isla Nublar was where the dinosaurs were actually cloned.
When Melchior refers to ‘things that were not part of the tour,’ they could be referring to things like Isla Nublar. As an InGen researcher, it isn’t just possible, but highly likely, that Maya was actually working in the cloning facility, instead of the theme park. Your journey as Maya will likely have something to do with going to the cloning facility, even if it were just to stop the cloning.
All of this is, of course, contingent on how much Saber Interactive will be faithful to not just the aesthetic, but the canon of these movies. It certainly looks like Jurassic Park: Survival is expressly made for fans of those movies, so we’ll see if this is going where we imagine it could be.
