Jurassic World Aftermath: Collection Reviews
Jurassic World Aftermath Collection brings the tense experience to Switch mostly intact, but the Quest version - and the upcoming PSVR2 port - remains the best way to play.
While Jurassic World Aftermath Collection has some strong points, it doesn't quite do the game justice like it did in VR.
We love the first Jurassic Park film, and the other five to varying degrees. Luckily for us, then, that despite its name, Jurassic World Aftermath generally takes after the original rather than any of the sequels, although the Switch version simply isn't the best way to play it. If you have an Oculus headset, do yourself a favour and play the way it was meant to be – fully immersed in the soundscape of a ruined Jurassic World theme park while velociraptors stalk you. If you don't have one, Aftermath on Switch certainly does enough for fans of the series to take a look, but the short experience grows a little too tedious by the time the credits roll without the immersion of VR to keep you on your toes.
Jurassic World Aftermath's VR heritage looms large in this Switch port. Sections that no doubt feel thrilling in the confined space of a VR headset feel repetitive and dull on a flat screen. As a result, Jurassic World Aftermath feels like a walking-sim with some survival horror sections. The lack of enemy variety, the overly simplistic puzzles, and some frustrating stealth sections prevent Aftermath from staking its claim as the apex predator of its genre.
While younger folks might still get a kick from its occasional scares and familiar locations, Jurassic World Aftermath Collection is a desperately linear adventure that struggles to break free of its humble technical origins and fails to both do proper justice to the setting of its source material and the PSVR2 hardware itself.
Despite having to adapt to Switch, as it comes from VR devices, Aftermath Collection is a short but interesting experience and we wish that the developers may have the chance to work further on this idea in a new episode, in the coming future.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Jurassic World: Aftermath Collection is a decent experience for those looking for a horror-like game of cat and mouse set in the Jurassic Park universe. It does a decent job building tension with its gameplay, its surprisingly competent raptor AI, and its unique ability to switch up the puzzles. That said, deaths can feel quite cheap, especially when the game has you die for reasons you can't understand (I'm telling you, I was completely under that desk before that raptor came in!). It also drags on a bit too long and doesn't change things up nearly enough, making the experience become quite predictable. Jurassic World: Aftermath Collection provides you with some fun but ultimately a mixed time.
VR really makes the Jurassic World: Aftermath Collection experience enjoyable, and while the move to the Switch isn't terrible, it still loses something in the process. The slow walk and run speeds make for a sluggish-feeling experience, while the controls feel awkward when compared to other first-person games on the system. The stealth experience shines at first, but the repetition makes it dull by the halfway mark. The story is fine but doesn't have the chops to keep you glued from beginning to end. The effort is admirable, but unless you're a big "Jurassic World" fan, you're better off waiting for a VR headset before experiencing this one.
The latest Jurassic World game has been ported from virtual reality to the Nintendo Switch, and there it shows that if something works on one platform, it may not work on another.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Jurassic World Aftermath Collection is a solid VR game that's tense without being scary and somewhat enjoyable without offering anything particularly unique in its gameplay formula. In short, it'll provide thrills for anyone who's too scared to play a VR horror game.
The key attraction here is that if you've ever wanted an entire game that combines some of the more intense parts of the first Jurassic Park movie -- specifically, the kitchen scene, and the one where Ellie is trying to turn power back on in the bunker -- this delivers on that.
Aftermath honestly feels like a proof of concept, not a full-fledged game, and that is definitely a disappointment for something I was pretty excited about at first.
Captures the suspense of trying to escape from lethal dinosaurs using your wits and technology rather than guns
Overall, Jurassic World Aftermath Collection is a decent VR game that offers a fun experience for fans of the franchise. While it has some flaws, such as repetitive gameplay and limited environments, it provides a budget-friendly option for PSVR 2 users.
Despite having well-adapted controls, well-modeled scenarios, an interesting plot and incredibly accurate sound effects, Jurassic World Aftermath Collection repeats its structure of hiding and solving repeated puzzles a lot, becoming, after a while, unfortunately, a very more tiring than fun.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Having been a VR port to Nintendo Switch, I found Jurassic World Aftermath Collection to play ok. The were times whereby I could see how the VR experience would have made the gameplay probably feel a lot smoother and less clunky. That said the puzzles were achievable. For me, it was more the quick pressing of buttons as you try and hide inside a locker and shut the door again where it sometimes went wrong! Probably my age. I have played some VR ports to console before and you can tell that something is off with the way it feels. Aftermath did not leave me with that feeling thankfully. If you want to play a challenging game that combines puzzles, stealth and the lore of Jurassic World then this is for you. I award Jurassic World Aftermath Collection the Thumb Culture Gold Award!
A rough start that continues for hours may put some off, but if you love the Jurassic franchise then this could be for you. The stealth isn’t translated well from VR but it’s serviceable albeit one-note. However, the presentation and music compliment the franchises ethos exceptionally, making it a competent Jurassic experience.