We settle in as control and operator of our very own Jurassic World park. What magnificent dangers and challenges lie within?
Hot off the heels of the newly rebooted film franchise--Jurassic World Evolution drops you into the role of park manager, creator and all around caretaker of a Jurassic World facility.
It's a well polished and crafted experience right from the word go--to which you hear the spoken word of Dr. Ian Malcolm. As John Hammond would so boldly put it, "We spared no expense", with Jeff Goldblum voicing the in game narrative as Ian himself. It's a beautiful touch, and a glittering precedent to the game itself. As the opening cut scene plays, you're whisked away to your great and terrifying task: the legendary islands of the Muetes archipelago. Keeping in Jurassic franchise spirit, the sheer beauty of it all doesn't come without a warning, and the stage is set as your adventure begins.
The look and feel of Jurassic World Evolution is so closely met with what one would actually think the innards of a Jurassic World park runs: the HUD is incredibly slick and optimized. With the game being a building and park management title, often you can feel sucked out of the immersion whilst seeing numbers ran across your screen and constant text all over the place. Jurassic World Evolution has all these things, but it feels more like as a player you're witnessing everything from a control panel.
Genetic modification proves to be strangely satisfying, no matter how naughty it might feel. You're able to tweak your dinosaurs in the hatching laboratories to get the most out of them as a specie. Fiddle with their colours, introduce new genomes to optimize their survival, or experiment for interesting results. You can do loads with this feature, putting you in the shoes of Dr. Henry Wu.
As you build and expand your park, there's instances of nature and man that try to give you proper set backs. These come in the form of weather and sabotages. The weather is reminiscent of the films--great tropical storms blow through causing problems and strife. It's a wonderful part of the game, and I honestly couldn't imagine a Jurassic World/Park setting without the addition of a nasty storm here and there. Sabotages are a direct result of neglect. In the overall game, you're meant to take on contracts with the different divisions of labour. In focusing on one, you're undoubtedly leaving out another--causing a scorned employee (cough, Dennis Nedry, cough) to take it out on the park and you. As they work on the inside of the park, they can trigger all sorts of nasty events--my favourite in being the main plot from the very first Jurassic Park film: a catastrophic power grid failure. Just like the film, if you have electric fences holding some of the more...toothy dinosaurs back. Your imagination can fill in the rest as you scramble to bring them back online.
The downloadable content is something that should be noted too. In the Deluxe Dinosaur Pack, you're given a new set of dinosaurs to take on: Styracosaurus, Crichtonsaurus (I especially appreciate the nod here), Majungasaurus, Archaeornithomimus, and Suchomimus. To some, the £9.99 price tag isn't quite worth it, but to others this is a nice opportunity to extend the game with new possibilities to play with. As you enjoy the base game, it seems to be a natural progression to want the DLC added in. It's fun!
Unfortunately in a game this grand, it's bound to have a few set backs. As I ran into my own problems with customizations (of the park itself), poor AI, and lack of animations, the community has been very vocal about how they feel. Most compare to Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, which was released fifteen years ago. It might be one thing to see JPOG with rose tinted glasses, especially because it was some time ago, but the points players are making are well founded and it's hard to wrap one's mind around a newer Jurassic game lacking what an older one did as a basic mechanic. A good example of this is how to the dinosaurs hunt and eat. The AI for the dinosaurs in Jurassic World Evolution pits them to instantly hunt and kill, no matter if they're hungry or not. This is a problem as you find your dinosaurs attacking things to simply attack, rather than out of any sensible necessity. Not having played JPOG myself, but understanding that there were hunting packs that worked together, and also an alpha implemented, which seems to be a much better choice then having your 'pack' attack one by one instead of working together.
Another common complaint is the lack of personality in the visitors. As any Rollercoaster Tycoon fan can testify: it's much more fun being able to see the needs of your park guests--be it that they're happy, sad, hungry or tired--it just adds more to the overall experience. Even a simple feature of being able to name them without it having any course to the actual game, might make it feel more personal. Instead, you have a park full of robotic-like humans that roam around without any real option to interact with them.
It's a fantastic game that makes you really feel like you're part of the Jurassic World team. As it is such a giant title, it doesn't come without it's share of setbacks. Still, if you are a fan of the franchise, or even just building and park management games--it's certainly one you should take a look at. Gorgeous, dangerous and clever (girl), Jurassic World Evolution is a wonderful addition to the long library of Jurassic games.