My son and I headed over to the neighborhood park to have some fun playing with dinosaurs using the JURASSIC WORLD ALIVE app. Taking a cue from the popular Pokémon GO game for mobile devices, this app lets you search your surroundings by tying into Google Maps' digital platform and GPS technology to discover and collect virtual dinosaurs. There are more than 100 types of dinosaurs in all you can discover ranging from relatively easy to come across common ones to elusive hard to find rare breeds.
Hunt dinosaurs looking for them on a map that represents your real-time surroundings. The maps are fairly accurate regarding providing an outline of buildings and streets but don't provide a realistic photographic view of the areas you are searching. Still they get the job done and are detailed enough to make searching around for dinosaurs entertaining. You may occasionally find a dinosaur walking down the street or in someone's backyard but the best places to hunt them are in parks and other public spaces where JURASSIC WORLD ALIVE tends to have them congregate. You also want to look for supply boxes that allow you to stay stocked with darts for hunting dinosaurs and credits for upgrading the creatures you've found.
JURASSIC WORLD ALIVE is FREE to play with in-app purchases available to enhance game play. We've found the game enjoyable to play without spending any money. Our trick is to keep an eye out for supply boxes whenever taking the dog out for a walk in the neighborhood and tend to regularly find enough of them to give us plenty of resources to progress utilizing the app's features unhindered. Note you need to be within a few yards of the geo-tagged supply boxes to open them so hoping to just sit around your house to play the game isn't very practical or as enjoyable as being out and about immersing yourself in this Jurassic World themed experience.
There is a bit more leeway when it comes to hunting dinos. You can get within the distance of the equivalent of few blocks to be able to go after a target. Launch a drone in a video game style segment which has you shoot darts at a dinosaur as it attempts to elude you. Some have thick armor and have to be hit in spots with pinpoint accuracy while others are really fast runners and the drone needs to be guided into just the right spot to get a good shot. Score enough points and a dinosaur is added to your collection.
Once you've hunted down four dinosaurs, the battle arena opens. Challenge other JURASSIC WORLD ALIVE users from around the world in gladiatorial matches pitting your dinosaurs against their collection. A nice aspect of these bouts is that you don't have to go to a specific location to activate this feature. The Battle Arena game is accessible wherever you have an Internet connection. So it is as easy to fight a match from a nature trail while you are searching for dinos as it is from the comfort of your living room couch...that is if you have a strong cell signal for your mobile device.
By gaining resources from supply boxes and winning Battle Arena matches, dinosaurs abilities and attributes can be increased to make them more competitive in bouts. Also as you gain more dinosaurs, their dna can be mixed and matched to create hybrid beasts that can be battled versus online opponents. Rare dinosaurs also have better Battle Arena fighting skills then the common variety so that provides some incentive to go out looking for them.
Another great feature of JURASSIC WORLD ALIVE is its augmented reality capability. Once you've added a dinosaur to your collection it can be included in pictures and videos. The app connects with your camera so you can see dinosaurs in the world around you through it. We've been having a lot of fun using the augmented reality to take a close up look at dinosaur around us. You can circle a dinosaur you've brought to life to see it from different perspectives. Touch it on the screen and the dinosaur will interact with you with special sound and visual effects.
My son has really gotten into this game! It is nice that he's been wanting to go on father-son walks together to hunt dinosaurs. I've appreciated him wanting to spend some time with his good ole dad enjoying an activity together and getting some exercise as we walk around looking for dinosaurs. It is also nice that the app's developers steer you towards parks and open areas versus businesses and residential areas to search for dinos. You have to admit Pokémon GO players crowding in front of a house or storefront can be annoying and this isn't as much of a factor when it comes to JURASSIC WORLD ALIVE.
This app also provides educational information about the dinosaurs you collect. My son gets so excited when we discover a brand new dinosaur and enjoys scrolling through the ones we've collected reading facts and trivia about them. So it is nice to see him learning while being entertained at the same time with this app.
Add in the Battle Arena game aspect of this app and you can see we've had a whole lot of fun playing with it. As I mentioned earlier, we've been able to enjoy the app for FREE without feeling the need to make in-app purchases which is another plus. Based upon my family's experience, JURASSIC WORLD ALIVE has earned A Geek Daddy nod of approval.
JURASSIC WORLD ALIVE is available for Android and Apple phones and tablets. For more information, head over to www.ludia.com/en/games/jurassic-world-alive
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