Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous: Hidden Adventure is just around the corner – providing an interactive adventure which immerses us within the camper’s time on Isla Nublar after the fall of Jurassic World. Despite my initial cynicism about how an interactive Jurassic story would work, I was surprisingly impressed with the production quality and in-depth decisions which go into making this a compelling story which feels like a return to form for the highs of Season 1, 2 & 3 which I really enjoyed.
Join me as we go a little bit deeper into how the interactive adventure works, and also how it connects to other parts of the show. Don’t worry - we’ll keep it non-spoiler for this article!
Before we dive into another story with the Campers themselves, I think it is really important to acknowledge just how well the interactive components of this story work. As someone who consumes most of my media through my Xbox, I was slightly hesitant about how well optimized the interface would be for this experience – but it was flawless. The episode is explored from the perspective of Darius Bowman – and the direction does a really good job of making it clear when you are about to be prompted to make a decision by zooming into a first-person view from his perspective. I was really impressed by how much thought has gone into making the decision making in Hidden Adventure immersive and engaging – and I can imagine younger fans having a lot of fun going through and making different decisions at different points throughout the story to see what else may unfold.
Moving onto the story itself – it is fair to say that this is more of what we have come to expect from Camp Cretaceous – but in a good way! Set between the events of Season Two and Season Three, this story explores how the campers continue to fight to survive on Isla Nublar as they wait for an opportunity to escape the island. I loved how this episode really grounded itself in the Season One & Two themes of the show – really feeling like this is a return to form for the show before the inclusion of Mantah Corp in later seasons. Don’t get me wrong – there isn’t perhaps as much connection to the other areas of the story here as there could be, but as a standalone adventure it fits well within the pre-established structure of the show and is a welcome return to the remnants of Jurassic World.
There are some interesting connections to the wider Jurassic universe in this short – with some fun nods to the history of Jurassic World and also a couple of cool easter egg moments packed in throughout. I really enjoyed the fact that we got to explore new locations on Nublar which felt a little more grounded with the theme park aesthetic I had been longing for. This is something which I wish we had got more of in the original run of Camp Cretaceous – so getting it in the short was a welcome divergence from the familiar locations we see in the first three seasons of the show. Don’t get me wrong – there are a lot of familiar locations again in the new short, but I think they are well balanced with new areas and a story which keeps itself moving at a decent pace. It would also be remiss for me to not mention the new ‘big bad’ dinosaur – which plays an interesting role in the Hidden Adventure. I enjoyed its inclusion and think that although it adds another new animal to the roster of Nublar, it works pretty well in this instance.
Overall, I think Hidden Adventure is a fun opportunity to revisit the Isla Nublar era of Camp Cretaceous. The story is well-rounded, the set-pieces grounded enough to be believable, and it does a good job of exploring some additional areas of the island with some fun nods to the wider franchise thrown in. Hidden Adventure fundamentally has all the components of what I feel makes a good Camp Cretaceous episode – and that’s why it’s a successful way to round out the series in my opinion!
Camp Cretaceous Hidden Adventure arrives on Netflix on November 15th.
Huge thanks to Dreamworks and Netflix for providing us with early access to the episode to produce this review.
Written by: Tom Jurassic