DINOTOPIA: THE SUNSTONE ODYSSEY Review

Dinotopia: The Sunstone Odyssey is that new breed of console game that has been appearing on store shelves lately to counteract the cookie-cutter $50 titles (many of which are not worth the cost of admission) – the $20 budget title.

These budget titles, for the most part, don’t have all of the bells and whistles that console gamers have come to expect for their half a grand per title. While many publications find it necessary to judge these budget titles according to the standards set by AAA titles such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City it must be kept in mind that not all games are created equal and sometimes the deciding factor should just be whether or not the game is fun.

For those of you who are wondering why we have appended a date of 2003 after the Dinotopia title, it is because there was an earlier, now very rare Dinotopia adventure game released in 1995. You can also read more about this game in JA’s Top 10 lists.

The newest incarnation – as is common to today’s marketplace – is an action/adventure game, but the source material for the game has remained the same, James Gurney’s Dinotopia series of books. Dinotopia is an uncharted island where a society of dinosaurs and humans have learned to co-exist. Outside the city of Dinotopia’s main walls, however, a group of humans known as the Outsiders plot the violent overthrow of the dinosaur run government.

Ten years before the game begins, a shipwreck abandons a father and his twin sons, Drake and Jacob, on the shores of Dinotopia were they are befriended by a downtrodden, blind dinosaur. A bond is formed that encourages both boys to forge respect for Dinotopia’s cold-blooded residents. But now, as our story opens, the father has been attacked and killed by a renegade Tyrannosaurus Rex and the grown boys’ loyalty is split with Jacob leading the Outsiders against Dinotopia and Drake attempting to solve the problems within Dinotopia society that led to his father’s murder. It’s a story as old as the bible, pitting brother against brother.

Now let’s be upfront and admit that Dinotopia has its share of problems. The graphics at times are less than stellar and on a few occasions my character became stuck requiring a reload. The A.I. – well there mostly isn’t any, you can sometimes beat on one enemy while two others patiently watch the mayhem, waiting their turn to be conked in the head. Almost every npc in the game repeats the same stock phrases ad nauseam. Even worse though is that many hoary standards of adventure gaming are present – seemingly endless mazes and a stream of fetch and return tasks.

But there are also moments when the graphics border on brilliance – catching a glimpse of a lowering brontosaurus head out a window and a beautiful (but too difficult) flying sequence on the back of a pterodactyl.

There is also a nice balance of adventuring and fighting in the game. The battle sequences are more attuned to someone like myself who doesn’t want to learn multiple attack and defend commands. Drake’s weapon is limited to a staff that can be equipped with different mallet heads each providing a different power and different colored sunstones that will increase the damage levels of the individual mallet heads. Drake also has at his disposal a seemingly unlimited supply of Hobi Peppers and swamp rocks to throw at enemies but they become less useful as the game progresses and grows in difficulty.

For those who might think this world and it’s inhabitants too simplistic well, yes it is, but it’s also a simplicity that is missing from too many of today’s complicated games that are a jack of all genres and master of none.

The characters are etched in black and white, the plot is unfolded before you in a linear pattern and the puzzles are the standard ‘bring me some apples to bake a pie and I will reward you.’ While I would be hesitant to recommend Dinotopia to an experienced gamer, it is exactly the type of game that would serve as a nice stepping-stone to a newcomer. So it appears that the deciding factor here is yes, Dinotopia is fun in an old-fashioned sort of way. It’s nice to be able to occasionally lose yourself in a game world without worrying about multiple endings, complicated controls or which weapon to choose among dozens to defeat an enemy. It’s a $20 investment well spent.

Final Grade: C+