Long before open-world dinosaurs and hybrid creatures defined the modern era, Jurassic Park (1993) built its reputation on something much simpler: tension. Power outages, dark facilities, storm-battered settings, and unpredictable prehistoric predators on the loose.
That exact formula is now being repurposed—but not in the way you might expect.
Jurassic Park: Survival
Jurassic Park: Survival, an upcoming first-person action-adventure video game from Saber Interactive, is officially set in the aftermath of the original 1993 film. The premise is straightforward: one survivor, one island, and no evacuation. But a behind-the-scenes featurette released last year points to a deeper objective than just continuing the timeline.
Speaking in the featurette among many other key figures, creative director Oliver-Hollis Leick explains how the team approached one of the film’s most recognisable sequences:
“When we were deciding how to introduce the raptors, one thing that jumped out to us was, ‘What if we could make the player experience what Lex and Tim did in the kitchen?’ That and other sequences like it are meant to put you in the shoes of those movie characters to experience the terror for yourself.”
Rather than telling a completely separate story, Jurassic Park: Survival appears to weave new events around reconstructed versions of the film’s most iconic situations. The kitchen isn’t just inspiration—it’s a blueprint. And if that applies across the board, it means multiple sequences from the original film are being translated into interactive set pieces.
The trailer that premiered at The Game Awards in December 2023 already hinted at this direction. Shots of the park gates, the Visitor Center, the kitchen, and rain-soaked jungle environments weren’t random—they mirrored the visual language of the 1993 film almost exactly.
The Game Is Dual-Purpose
What makes this approach stand out is how it blurs the line between sequel and reinterpretation. Chronologically, Survival moves forward, but structurally, it circles back—rebuilding tension through familiarity while changing the outcome through player control. That balance is what positions the game as a kind of “soft reboot,” even without altering established canon.
Instead of replacing the original story, it runs alongside it, letting players step into scenarios that were previously locked to the screen. And with Isla Nublar rendered as a continuous, explorable space—including both recognisable landmarks and new locations—the overlap between old and new becomes the central hook.
Jurassic Park: Survival is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. A release date has yet to be confirmed.
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