Jurassic Park: Trespasser

Trespasser is a fascinating game. Set to be the most revolutionary FPS of 1997, the end result was less than desirable. The game was going to pioneer many features that have become standard in FPS games in recent years. Physics, complex AI, real-time shadowing, water shader technology, an animation system based entirely on inverse kinematics, bump mapping and specular highlighting, and an amazing sound system. Trespasser was going to change the face of the FPS in 1997 forever.

Unfortunately, much like the real Jurassic Park portrayed in the films, everything that could go wrong, did. Poor communication with the development team, going over-budget, being delayed... in the end, Trespasser, a game intended to be more of a puzzle-based survival horror game, was shifted to become an action-based FPS, and shipped with tons of bugs, broken features, cumbersome controls and missing content. Every revolutionary feature contained within the game was completely ignored in favor of how horribly awful every other aspect of it was. For years and even today, the game was the butt of many jokes for how legendarily terrible it truly was.

That's not to say the game isn't without its charm, or without its fans, though. Even Gabe Newell, President of Valve Software, has said Trespasser inspired him to include physics in the Half-Life 2 engine, and both Far Cry and Crysis seem to try things Trespasser attempted - early test versions of Far Cry even featured Dinosaurs. The fansite Trescom provides Trespasser related content even today. Still more projects have been born to remake the game in newer, more modern game engines, like the aforementioned Far Cry Engine.

The game puts you in the shoes of Anne, a woman who is tired of city life and decides to take an unannounced vacation to Costa Rica and ends up having crash-landed on Isla Sorna; Jurassic Park's "Site B". The experience ends up changing her life and makes her appreciate her old life more than ever before.

As you play, clips of John Hammond's memoirs play, voiced by Richard Attenborough himself. Minnie Driver plays Anne. Truly, Hammond's Memoir's are one of the few redeeming factors you get out of playing Trespasser.

It's worth noting that the man behind Trespasser's concept was Seamus Blackley - better known as the brainchild behind Microsoft's Xbox. Seamus is so ashamed of Trespasser nowadays that he refuses to even speak of it to anyone.

To learn more about Trespasser, see it's Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park:_Trespasser