Why You Can Trust CNET Jurassic World Revealed lets you dodge dinosaurs with Amazon Alexa
Hey Alexa -- run!
- She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
A new Alexa skill lets you visit Jurassic World.
A giant stegosaurus starts ambling toward you. Do you run, freeze or try to scare it away?
With Jurassic World Revealed, an interactive audio story from Earplay and Universal you can enable for Amazon's Alexa, you can make those types of decisions from safety of your living room, which is presumably both free of dinosaurs and a threatening volcano.
Jurassic World Revealed, out Friday, takes place during the events of the movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the sequel to 2015's Jurassic World. It's the latest game to use voice assistants, underscoring their versatility as they play a larger role in our lives. For instance, Mattel's Escape Room In a Box: The Werewolf Experiment is a puzzle game for adults using Alexa. You can play Mad Libs using Google Home, or even play a variety of trivia and quiz games.
In the Revealed game, you play the producer of a podcast who has snuck onto Isla Nublar (the island where the dinosaurs live) with fictional podcast friend Janet Best. You're on an investigative mission to bring the story of the dinos to the world. Or, your six listeners, at least.
What kind of monster would leave this guy to die in the jungle?
Along the way, Janet talks to you, giving you choices about what you both should do next as you wander through the deserted theme park, all the while keeping an eye on the volcano that's about to blow and possibly wipe out the prehistoric creatures on Isla Nublar.
Sometimes the choice is as simple as deciding if you want to hold onto the chocolate or the binoculars. Sometimes, it's deciding how exactly to dodge the teeth of a hungry dinosaur. (Dinos can't climb trees, right? Right?) You can even pick which parts of the park you want to check out.
"With Jurassic World Revealed, we put interactive storytelling into the hands of fans who want the opportunity to choose where to take their Jurassic World adventure," said Chris Heatherly, executive vice president of games and digital platforms for Universal Brand Development, in a statement.
The story has six chapters and when you reach the end, you can find out how your choices stack up with those of others who've played the game. So, you might find out that you and 40 percent of players got the scoop, or met a specific character.
There's a lot of roaring (dinosaurs aren't known for subtly, after all), rustling and a good bit of ruminating on the pursuit of the truth.
After playing for about an hour, I managed to get off the island before all hell broke loose. I may or may not have left someone to die. It wasn't Chris Pratt, though, because you can't leave Andy Dwyer unconscious in the middle of a jungle. That's just wrong. Plus, I got the story I needed for the podcast.
The first chapter of Jurassic World Revealed is available for free, with the option to buy the rest for $3.99. The price will go up to $4.99 on June 29.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens Friday.
Did you know that spy movies inspired Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom? Read our interview with writer-director Colin Trevorrow
Don't like dinosaurs? How about robots? Alexa can also send you to Westworld