Velociraptor (Trespasser)

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The Velociraptors are the primary foe which Anne must contend with. Raptors are the most frequently encountered dinosaur throughout the game's eight levels and demo, making them the main antagonists of the game (Jurassic Park: Trespasser).

This is what John Hammond wrote about the raptors in Jurassic Time:

"Velociraptor. A small theropod native to China and Mongolia. Pack-hunter. Quite vicious and quite intelligent".

The fossil record shows raptors living like wolves or lions, hunting in groups. Ours did the same, perhaps a genetically coded social trait."

"The raptor took shape inside its egg and I watched it on the ultrasound monitor. It looked like a ghost, or a puff of smoke."

"We released the first raptor on April 22nd, 1985. It wandered back and forth near the wall for four minutes and twenty-two seconds before hearing a noise, which drew it further off into the brush."

"The raptor preened itself, utterly confident of its right to be there. Absolutely no consciousness, that it was not the sovereign ruler of this earth."

"In the jungle, the forest and the mountain, three raptor tribes staked out territory. Albertosaurs and the seven T. rex chose their dominions. Uneasy borders drawn around forests, ridges and ponds."

Velociraptor Models

Several different Velociraptor models are known to exist.

Pre-release

Two distinctive models were shown in press released screenshots. These models never made it into the final game, and their functionality is often questioned.

Light Orange

The orange raptor.

This is the most common raptor featured in prerelease screenshots. Careful observation reveals that the raptor's pose is the same in each picture. This has led to the conclusion that the screenshots containing this raptor are not from the actual game, but renders taken in MAX.

Dark Brown

The brown raptor.

This raptor made its appearance after the previous one. This raptor was discovered to be a functional in-game animal in the PCGamer prototype of the game.

Retail

The original Velociraptors come in four varieties: tribe A, tribe B, tribe C, and the tribe C Alpha/Boss. It is possible that each tribe represents a Velociraptor subspecies, or a different genetic version of a single DNA source. This could explain why the tribes encountered earlier in the game are easier to defeat than the later tribes, which may have fewer genetic defects. According to Hammond, the animals grew vicious in captivity; not eating, pacing their cages, growing quick-tempered forcing them to release them into the wild.

Tribe A

The tribe A raptor.

The first tribe of raptors that are encountered. They can be found in levels 1-3 and are last seen in The Town (level 4). These have a light orange skin tone, similar to the one that was portrayed in the prerelease screenshots. They attack the player by simply charging straight towards them, so they are the easiest raptors to defeat since they remain at the same angle when they attack. They are based on the male Velociraptors seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Tribe B

The tribe B raptor.

This raptor seems to have staked its terrain around the center of the island and can be found halfway through level 3, throughout levels 4 and 5, and the beginning of 6. Red spots dominate this species' skin. These raptors attack by running at the player from an angle and then circling from the side until they finally try to kill the player. Excluding the Alpha, they are the largest of the 3 tribes and are light brown with large, red patches.

Tribe C

The tribe C raptor.

"A third tribe of Raptors took the mountain for their territory. A leaner, tougher breed. Quick, living on birds and tiny lizards."

This raptor tribe looks similar to tribe A, but yellow instead of orange. This tribe has chosen the mountainous region on and around Mt. Watson as its dominion. It is found halfway through level 6, 7, and in The Summit (level 8). They are the hardest to kill being notorious bullet sponges.

Tribe C Alpha

The Alpha raptor.

"For four months we monitored it, while it preyed on herds in the southern forest...We never knew why it grew so large..."

This is the Alpha Velociraptor of the third raptor tribe. The player fights this raptor only once throughout at the game at the summit. Far larger than the usual velociraptor and almost as big as an Albertosaurus, this is the boss of the game. (Surprisingly, it is weaker than the former; making it an anti-climactic boss.) Its large size has lead some people to believe it might be a Utahraptor, but based on Hammond's comment of not knowing why it grew so large, it seems that it's just a regular raptor with gigantism or a similar genetic defect/mutation.

This raptor may be based off of the cut 'Super-raptor.' However, it may not, as the game developers were going for a grander ending. It was cut though because of time restraints.

Behind the scenes

The Tribe B raptors coloration seems to be based on Steve Kirk's Utahraptor design seen in the books Dinosaur Worlds by Don Lessem and Dinosaurs by Nicholas Harris.

Utahraptor design by Steve Kirk that inspired the Raptor Tribe B coloration from Trespasser.

Unlike what's illustrated on back of the game box, raptors cannot enter buildings in the game. Despite their intelligence, they can't open doors. This is a great way to avoid them, especially/mostly useful in The Town. The player can allow raptors to enter buildings through the ATX patch.

The ability for raptors to jump was disabled prior to release, but it can be re-enabled with the CE patch or the ATX patch.

The raptors in the game appear to be cannibalistic; they will eat members of opposing tribes, but will not eat members of their own tribe.

It should also be noted that in the films, Velociraptor is found in the US, whereas in this it lives in Mongolia, which is more accurate than the former.