History VideoGame / JurassicParkTrespasser

-->-- '''John Hammond''', ''VideoGame/JurassicParkTrespasser''

''Jurassic Park: Trespasser'' is an infamous FirstPersonShooter game released in 1998 for [=PCs=] by Creator/DreamworksInteractive, developed as a tie-in to the film ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''. The game stars Anne, a plane crash survivor who finds herself on the shores of Isla Sorna, also known as Site B, two years after the events of ''The Lost World'', and desperately needs to find a way off the island, armed with nothing but her wits and one lone (surprisingly strong) noodly arm for her to pull boxes and throw rocks around with.

''Trespasser'' was an extremely ambitious project, flaunting a skilled development team (with the occasional contribution from Creator/StevenSpielberg himself), a fully three-dimensional game engine with incredible draw distances, massive, sprawling outdoor environments, a full physics engine to simulate objects realistically, and artificially intelligent dinosaurs that would react accordingly to the player's actions...or that was the plan anyway. In practice, ''Trespasser'' was much less impressive: [[TroubledProduction The developers were strapped for time and had to delay the game again and again, until they were forced to cut back on features and quality assurance just to get the game to ship on time,]] and the game that was released in 1998 was a glitchy, broken mess that was nearly impossible to play on most computers at the time.

Initially considered a massive disappointment, most consumers eventually forgot about the game when, within a few years, their attention was drawn to the spectacular ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' and the even-more-awful ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}''. The game's legacy lives on, though, because ''Trespasser'' still has an active mod community, dedicated to ironing out the game's problems, and the game essentially laid the groundwork for later developers in terms of game engines and interactive physics: Creator/ValveSoftware in particular considered ''Trespasser'' a major source of inspiration for ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' and its [[WreakingHavok physics engine]]. If you'd like to try it out for yourself, good luck: The game sold only 50,000 copies at its time of release, and even if you find a copy, don't even bother running it on an "old games" box. What it did in 1998 made it unplayable, far moreso than what ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' did to late 2007 computers.

->''"Let's make this clear: ''Trespasser'' is not a good game. It could have been a good game. It had the potential to be a good game, but what was released in late 1998 and sold to the public was simply not a good game...You can liken it to babysitting a big, lovable and slightly retarded child. You know he means well, but that doesn't stop him from dropping trou and shitting in the middle of the aisle in Costco from time to time."''
--> '''LetsPlay/ResearchIndicates''', [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Trespasser/ Let's Play Jurassic Park: Trespasser]]''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trespasser__jurassic_park_cover.png]] ->''"Let's make this clear: ''Trespasser'' is not a good game. It could have been a good game. It had the potential to be a good game, but what was released in late 1998 and sold to the public was simply not a good game...You can liken it to babysitting a big, lovable and slightly retarded child. You know he means well, but that doesn't stop him from dropping trou and shitting in the middle of the aisle in Costco from time to time."''
-->-- '''LetsPlay/ResearchIndicates''', [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Trespasser/ Let's Play Jurassic Park: Trespasser]]''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jurassic_park_trespasser.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A pretty accurate summary of the game.]]
->''"Let's make this clear: ''Trespasser'' is not a good game. It could have been a good game. It had the potential to be a good game, but what was released in late 1998 and sold to the public was simply not a good game...You can liken it to babysitting a big, lovable and slightly retarded child. You know he means well, but that doesn't stop him from dropping trou and shitting in the middle of the aisle in Costco from time to time."''

* RaptorAttack: Raptors are the primary enemy you’ll be fighting for most of the game. There are three Tribes of them, which were supposed be locked in an EnemyCivilWar, but that plot thread was DummiedOut.

* DummiedOut: The discovery of an internal beta (which was subsequently dumped and uploaded the internet) shows what kind of a game ''Trespasser'' could have been if it hadn't been subject to a bunch of quick fixes to get it out the door - before its release, most of the cut content could only be accessed through the game's internal code. The beta runs twice as fast as the retail version and includes additional parts of levels, the fabled "Pine Valley" level (that was inaccessible in the final version), longer voiceovers, more dinosaurs, etc. There's also various cut weapons, both left in the game but never spawned anywhere the player can reach (an M1911, a longer cattle prod) and actually removed (a version of the MAC-10 with a suppressor and extended stock, an M16).

[[http://trespassingpetrolia.com/ A fan remake is currently in development]].

* GoodBadBugs: It's possible for items using in "Melee" (empty guns, sticks and rocks.) to "Jam" inside a Raptor, dealing massive amounts of damage, while not reliable, it IS possible to kill Raptors with a humble stick with this.

* DieChairDie: Certain objects, notably chairs and some statues, are "breakable" in the sense that they're composed of little piles of their constituent parts. The engine doesn't have any coding for friction, so the parts are all frozen in place[[note]]often visibly levitating close to a foot off the ground, at that, apparently since the developers didn't have any proper tools to test where the items would actually appear in relation to the scenery[[/note]] on spawning, but a little nudge will cause them to fall apart.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Barrett .50 deals ridiculous damage, but...
** It cannot be carried,
** You cannot move while using it,
** You cannot use the scope and/or sights, and
** It carries 10 shots. Tops.

* GunsAreWorthless: {{Inverted|Trope}}, as while some deal less damage than others, guns are still the only ''consistent'' tools for damaging dinos - save for Nedry's mace, all melee weapons either do nothing to what you hit with them, or deal respectable damage but continually damage you until you die when stowed.

* HighPressureBlood: Shooting a dino will more often than not result in a several-foot long arc of blood spraying out of the body. Taken UpToEleven if you use the neurotoxin dart rifle on the T-rex, with a single shot resulting in [[BloodyHilarious comically huge]] [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank torrents of blood]] shooting out like a giant punctured beer can (and, as per usual, slowing the game to a crawl).

* BagOfSpilling: New level? All your guns are gone. Most levels do give you access to some new guns before it throws dinos at you, typically in a container near the start of the level, but it's all but guaranteed all the game will grant you at this point are a pair of Desert Eagles.

* CarryABigStick: One of the special weapons you can find is a huge replica mace formerly owned by Dennis Nedry. It's pretty much the only melee weapon in the game that actually works properly, which would make it a huge GameBreaker if not for the fact that it's located at the ''end'' of a level, when there's probably only one dinosaur left to deal with before the BagOfSpilling results in you losing it.

* DumbDinos: Not intentional mind you. The [[ArtificialStupidity shoddy AI]] means that the dinosaurs mostly just stumble around like concussed babies before you kill them. Raptors and ''Albertosaurus'' will try to kill you, but have no attacks beyond flailing their heads in your general direction, while herbivores just ignore you. The ''Tyrannosaurus'' will likewise ignore you in favor of killing every ''other'' dinosaur around it, then try to go after you if you’re still there.

->''"Let's make this clear: ''Trespasser'' is not a good game. It could have been a good game. It had the potential to be a good game, but what was released in late 1998 and sold to the public was simply not a good game...You can liken it to babysitting a big, lovable and slightly stupid child. You know he means well, but that doesn't stop him from dropping trou and shitting in the middle of the aisle in Costco from time to time."''

* BroadStrokes: Done unintentionally, presumably because of the game’s TroubledProduction. The game seems to use the movies as it’s backstory, but has elements from the book canon as well, making it feel as if the creators weren’t entirely sure which continuity the game was supposed to be part of. See ContinuitySnarl for more.
* CarryABigStick: One of the special weapons you can find is a huge replica mace formerly owned by Dennis Nedry. It’s pretty much the only melee weapon in the game that actually works properly, which would make it a huge GameBreaker if not for the fact that it’s located at the ''end'' of a level, when there’s probably only one dinosaur left to deal with before the BagOfSpilling results in you losing it.

* StoryBreadcrumbs: The backstory of the island and information about the park’s creation is mostly conveyed through short narrations from Hammond’s autobiography and environmental hints.

->''"Let's make this clear: ''Trespasser'' is not a good game. It could have been a good game. It had the potential to be a good game, but what was released in late 1998 and sold to the public was simply not a good game...You can liken it to babysitting a big, lovable and slightly retarded child. You know he means well, but that doesn't stop him from dropping trou and shitting in the middle of the aisle in Costco from time to time."''

* ContinuityNod: Loads. Various locations and objects from the films can be found at various points in the game, such as the remains of some of the hunters from the second film.

* FirstPersonGhost: Zig-zagged. Anne has an arm and visible cleavage, the latter of which bear the LifeMeter in tattoo form, though a hidden third-person mode reveals that she has nothing ''but'' that arm and cleavage. Also, any weapon you happen to be carrying will be floating over Anne's shoulder or vaguely in the area where a holster would be, if she had a waist.

* ThirdPersonShooter: They planned to implement this, but it was scrapped early on, though a limited third-person mode is still available in the game. When you use it, the only thing you see when you enter third person is a pair of floating breasts and your noodle arm.

* ExplodingBarrels: {{Subverted|Trope}} - there are barrels of fuel scattered about the island, and while their rather convenient placement (including a huge amount of them near an Albertosaurus you're expected to fight rather than just avoid) suggests they were ''supposed'' to explode, they don't.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Albertosmall_7471.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:He's bad news, [[GoodBadBugs until he trips over his own feet]], or [[ArtificialStupidity you hide behind a rock]].]]

* AKA47: Some weapons go by different names, such as the "AG-47" (a Norinco Type 56) and "Bell shotgun" (a SPAS-12); some others don't bother, like the M14 and [=HK91=] (a semi-auto version of the G3). The "Calico [=MP50=]" is an odd example, as its name still attributes it to its real-life manufacturer, which this trope is generally dedicated to avoiding. The "M2", similarly, is [[MisidentifiedWeapons actually]] its smaller .30-06 cousin, the M1919.

* BagOfSpilling: New level? All your guns are gone. Most levels do have a container with guns in them near the start, but the only gun the game will ever offer you in this manner is a Desert Eagle or two.

* DeadpanSnarker: Anne faces being trapped on an island chock-full of hostile dinosaurs with a remarkable amount of dry wit.
* DieChairDie: Certain objects, notably chairs and some statues, are "breakable" in the sense that they're composed of little piles of their constituent parts. The engine doesn't have any coding for friction, so the parts are all frozen in place[[note]]often visibly levitating close to a foot off the ground, at that, apparently since the developers didn't have any proper tools to test where they actually placed the items in relation to the scenery[[/note]] on spawning, but a little nudge will cause them to fall apart.

* DummiedOut: The discovery of an internal beta (which was subsequently dumped and uploaded the internet) shows what kind of a game ''Trespasser'' could have been if it hadn't been subject to a bunch of quick fixes to get it out the door - before its release, most of the cut content could only be accessed through the game's internal code. The beta runs twice as fast as the retail version and includes additional parts of levels, the fabled "Pine Valley" level (that was inaccessible in the final version), longer voiceovers, more dinosaurs, etc. There's also various cut weapons, both left in the game but never spawned (an M1911, a longer cattle prod) and actually removed (a silenced version of the MAC-10, an M16).

* AKA47: Some weapons go by different names, such as the "AG-47" (a Norinco Type 56) and "Bell shotgun" (a SPAS-12); some others don't bother, like the M14 and [=HK91=] (a semi-auto version of the G3). The "Calico [=MP50=]" is an odd example, as its name still attributes it to its real-life manufacturer. The "M2", similarly, is actually its smaller .30-06 cousin, the M1919.

* BagOfSpilling: New level? All your guns are gone. Some levels have weapons in a container right next to the start, but they're typically just a pair of .44 Desert Eagles.

* DieChairDie: Certain objects, notable chairs and some statues, are "breakable" in the sense that they're composed of little piles of their constituent parts. The engine doesn't have any coding for friction, so the parts are all frozen in place (often visibly levitating close to a foot off the ground) on spawning, but a little nudge will cause them to fall apart.

* DummiedOut: The discovery of an internal beta (which was subsequently dumped and uploaded the internet) shows what kind of a game ''Trespasser'' could have been if it hadn't been subject to a bunch of quick fixes to get it out the door - before its release, most of the cut content could only be accessed through the game's internal code. The beta runs twice as fast as the retail version, additional parts of levels, the fabled "Pine Valley" level (that was inaccessible in the final version), longer voiceovers, more dinosaurs, etc. There's also various cut weapons, both left in the game but never spawned (an M1911, a longer cattle prod) and actually removed (a silenced version of the MAC-10, an M16).
* ExplodingBarrels: There are barrels of fuel scattered about the island. Go ahead, shoot them. [[SubvertedTrope They don't do anything.]] One can guess they were meant to explode, considering most of them show up near an Albertosaurus you're supposed to fight.

* FanRemake: [[http://trespassingpetrolia.com/ One fan]] has been working on a complete remake of the game since 2011, in the style of VideoGame/FarCry3'', with an added open-world emphasis. The results so far [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/trespassingpetrolia/8384037587/lightbox/ look]] [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/trespassingpetrolia/8284923505/in/photostream/lightbox/ absolutely]] [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/trespassingpetrolia/8309111093/in/photostream/lightbox/ amazing]].
* FirstPersonGhost: Anne has an arm and visible cleavage, the latter of which bear the LifeMeter in tattoo form. A fan-made third person mode make this even more absurd, revealing that she has nothing ''but'' an arm and boobs. Also, any weapon you happen to be carrying will be floating vaguely in the area where a holster would be, if you had a waist.

* GameMod: A surprising amount for a game that only sold 50,000 copies. [[CultClassic The fan-base is devoted.]] They've actually made the game playable, and still release graphics updates ''12 years'' after the game was released.

** Someone had made a custom level called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luDSiP_otqA "East Dock"]], taking place in [[Film/JurassicPark the first movie]]. Where you play as Dennis and you have to make your way to the boat on foot with the Barbasol can [[TimedMission before it leaves.]] Of course there are the Dilophosaurus and other dinos to look out for.

* GunsAreWorthless: [[InvertedTrope Inverted.]] Save for Nedry's mace, melee weapons all either simply do nothing to dinos, or continually damage you until you die when stowed.
* HandCannon: Parodied with the ridiculously overpowered .38 snub nose stashed in Hammond's room. Otherwise played straight; the ''most common weapon'' is a .44 Desert Eagle. Possibly justified, given that the majority of the weapons in the game were originally carried by ''hunters'', and the Desert Eagle, despite its media reputation, is primarily meant as a hunting weapon.

* ImmuneToBullets: T-rex and Brachiosaurus. The only easy way to kill a T-rex is three headshots from a unique weapon that only appears in one level. The T-rex is near the end of the level, the gun at the beginning. The gun carries 3 shots and there are no reloads in this game. Still, it is satisfying to kill one of the bastards. They have such ridiculously high health that you'd otherwise have to find half of the guns on the level and unload them all into one in order to kill it.[[note]]According to the shoddy documentation, with very good accuracy the mounted M2, Barrett, Calico, and drum-fed AK can kill the T-rex in one magazine, eventually; all other weapons will require backups. This is only feasible in the town, as there are far more guns than raptors within.[[/note]] Also, the very first T-Rex you meet can be killed by dropping a jeep on its head.

* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Anne cannot go up most slopes. Possibly unintentional, as her mode of locomotion is a rolling hitbox.

* RagdollPhysics: The original. In some cases, it was actually more advanced than modern games; for instance, every dinosaur is actually a ragdoll constantly animated via inverse kinematics, instead of using fixed keyframe animations.

* SetAMookToKillAMook: The Raptor tribes were supposed to be hostile to each other, but this was not implemented. Dinos of different species will attack one another before going after you, however.

* StockDinosaurs: Played straight at first, then all of a sudden, Albertosaurus! Hammond's narration over the game notes this, stating that only a few species managed to adapt to the new world. It also pokes a little fun at this when you first see a Brachiosaurus, noting that they were the only dinos in the park from [[NonindicativeName the actual Jurassic period]].

* CueTheFlyingPigs: The [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/jurassic-park-dark-secrets Jurassic Park Dark Secrets mod]] has been in development since 2004, with the creator telling people it would likely be available to test and/or release within the year multiple times. Now, in March 2011, beta testers are finally getting copies of the levels, and the whole package is expected to be distributed sometime within the next few months.
** ...And as of 2012, the team abandoned the project and have no intention of returning to it. Seems like the flying pigs were shot down.

''Jurassic Park: Trespasser'' is an infamous FirstPersonShooter game released in 1998 for [=PCs=] by Dreamworks Interactive, developed as a tie-in to the film ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''. The game stars Anne, a plane crash survivor who finds herself on the shores of Isla Sorna, also known as Site B, two years after the events of ''The Lost World'', and desperately needs to find a way off the island, armed with nothing but her wits and one lone (surprisingly strong) noodly arm for her to pull boxes and throw rocks around with.