Jurassic Park Officially Switches Genres In Upcoming Sequel

The original Jurassic Park became a cultural phenomenon when it first released back in 1993, bringing Michael Crichton’s bestselling novel to life with groundbreaking visual effects and one of Steven Spielberg’s most memorable blockbusters. Its success quickly transformed the story into a much larger franchise, beginning with The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III before the series was revived more than a decade later with Jurassic World in 2015.

That second era introduced a new generation of characters and dinosaurs across its own trilogy, culminating with Jurassic World Dominion in 2022. The franchise has since continued expanding beyond the main films as well, with animated spin-offs such as Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and its follow-up, Chaos Theory, helping flesh out the universe for younger audiences.

More than 30 years after the first film, Jurassic Park remains one of Hollywood’s most iconic blockbuster franchises, but the franchise’s upcoming sequel is about to take the series in a completely new direction.

Jurassic Park’s Next Sequel Officially Switches Genre

The T-Rex in Jurassic Park attacks the car while Alan Grant holds up a flare

Jurassic Park: Survival officially takes the franchise back to its thriller-survival roots and marks a dramatic change of pace after Jurassic World Evolution 3. Frontier Developments’ management sim puts players in control of their own prehistoric attraction, emphasizing park construction, dinosaur breeding, and keeping visitors happy, functioning more as a “Jurassic Park Tycoon” of sorts. Survival, on the other hand, is heading in almost the exact opposite direction, this time trapping players inside the park to fend for themselves.

Saber Interactive’s upcoming game is officially described as a single-player first-person action-adventure, although its emphasis on stealth and escaping dinosaurs pushes it firmly into survival-horror territory. Players control InGen scientist Dr. Maya Joshi, who failed to evacuate Isla Nublar and must find a way to survive while exploring locations left behind after the park’s collapse.

That setup also effecitvely makes Jurassic Park: Survival the original film’s long-awaited sequel, taking place the day after the events of Steven Spielberg’s original 1993 movie. It will explore what happened on Isla Nublar after Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm, and the surviving members of the Hammond family escaped before the franchise moves on to the events in The Lost World.

It’s also a fitting return to the franchise’s roots, as the original Jurassic Park wasn’t simply about the spectacle of seeing dinosaurs brought back to life. Survival is easily a much more fitting genre for the franchise than the park-sim genre, and has been a long time coming.

Jurassic Park: Survival Features A “Fully Realized Isla Nublar”

One of the most exciting promises surrounding Jurassic Park: Survival is the opportunity to properly explore Isla Nublar from the ground level. Saber Interactive describes the setting as a “fully realized Isla Nublar,” complete with reactive wildlife, dinosaurs, and other threats, while specifically confirming recognizable locations including the original park gates and Visitor Center. Although Saber has not officially labeled Survival an open-world game, everything shown so far suggests exploration will be a major part of the experience.

That could make Survival an especially important new chapter for Jurassic Park, as the movies have only ever provided glimpses of John Hammond’s unfinished attraction, leaving enormous portions of the island unexplored. Setting the game immediately after the original film gives Saber an opportunity to expand those locations without abandoning the atmosphere that made the 1993 movie so memorable.

Saber also has the pedigree to deliver on that promise, as the developer’s recent catalog includes Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, World War Z, and SnowRunner, alongside development work on projects such as Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Crysis Remastered.

The studio’s games have historically dealt with large environments, licensed properties, and technically demanding encounters. If Survival can combine that experience with the stealth, exploration, and adaptive dinosaur behavior Saber has promised, Isla Nublar could finally become the explorable Jurassic Park setting fans have been waiting on for decades.