I'd like to start off with that I don't want to give the game a negative review, I really dont. It's a good game, but not $55 good. (or $60 in my case since I pre-order the dlx edition) I've been hooked on it since the moment it's released and playing every moment I can (it's not actually the full 35 hours i've played since release I just have a habit of leaving games open when im AFK). But the game has issues you just cant ignore.
The dinosaurs are gorgeous but not much beyond that. They're well animated but have an extremely limited selection of animations. Dinosaurs lack a proper AI. They mindlessly roam around, and thats it. There is no hearding or pack-hunting. Carnivores just simply go on killing sprees, and dont stop when they're full, leaving a trail of death that would make the Indominus jealous, they literally will not stop killing things until they are dead or have nothing left to kill, making it impossible to make a balanced ecosystem. Dinosaurs require a minimum amount of grassland and forest depending on the dinosaur, this sounds good in concept but utterly terrible in design, you think you have what it takes to keep the dinos happy, but they move to the left 3 feet and the grassland/forest rating is totally different, leading for them to become unhappy and break out (which is why my trex broke out)
While the game is beautiful it lacks content and things to do. Visitors are just generated on pathways, no needs, not clickable, just math generated. Another thing that bothers me is the lack of cosmetics, the only thing you can really make your park better with is with the tree and grass tools which dont even allow you place trees seperately, its just a brush, leaving gaps in spaces where you could fit them on your own. I want benches, flower-beds, trashcans, picnic tables, parks, signs, etc but none of it is there. The game honestly doesnt have much to do, what you do in the first 20 minutes of your first game is the pretty much the only thing you'll be doing. Half the game is really just telling rangers to fill up feeders, because you can't do much else. There are no upgraded buildings or building variations, leaving your park looking bland. No different style or larger hotels, paddocks, shops, or anything, it feels unimpressive when you have tiny buildings dotted everywhere. The park honestly feels dead.
The game's maps are small, which causes an issue because most dinosaurs require large enclosures meaning you can only fit a very limited selection of dinos on an island, or they'll break out. Isla Nublar, what was told be a large spacious sandbox map is very small as well, only being able to fit a few decent sized enclosures. The sandbox mode in Isla Nublar was terribly thought out. I'm a sandbox player, I don't enjoy playing through all these island campaigns to slowly unlock stuff, and that's an issue. You can only use what you've unlocked on Isla Nublar, meaning if you really want the open-endedness that the game can give you, you have to play through all the island campaigns and complete all the objectives. It's been over a day of obsessive playing and I still have yet to unlock everything when I just wanted to play the open-ended sandbox it should have provided. I'm already starting to get bored of the game, still chugging through on Isla Sorna and I haven't even been able to experience and enjoy a true sandbox experience. I honestly feel burnt out, and by the time I unlock everything I won't even have the interest to keep playing and enjoying like I should have.
The game honestly feels like a stripped down Planet Coaster (don't even get me started), and Planet Coaster was already bad enough for me. Like PC and most other Frontier games, they're absolutely gorgeous, but extremely shallow in gameplay and what other content they offer, blow-up kiddy pool shallow. And it's a shame because I love the dinosaurs, I love how beautiful the game is. But it's not wortha $55/60 price tag. The games biggest saving grace would've been a modding community, but Frontier has this big thing against modding that I don't quite understand so the game comes with 0 modding support so you're stuck with what you got.
This game has so much promise and potential, but it feels absolutely wasted. I remain optimistic that Frontier will hopefully address these complaints and more and look forward to what they may have in store.
First of all, this game has A LOT of potential. I’m a die hard fan of tycoons and park simulators and knowing the creators I set my mind on finally being given some kind of successor to zoo tycoon etc.
Jurassic World looks absolutely stunning. The world, the islands, the weather and the dinosaurs are top notch. It’s a joy to look at. However the awe of the graphics and the fun in creating your own Jurassic park fades very quickly as you enter a quiet and solitary loop of gameplay that is greatly lacking in depth.
The game is severely lacking in all things “park”. There are very few options to make your park feel like a real entertainment park, bristling with visitors and colorful attractions. Most of the buildings look pretty much the same way. Every now and then I get a pop up that visitors are loving my drinking options - which hey that’s cool but there’s literally only one fast food restaurant here. If I paid to go to a dino park - maybe i'd expect at least a couple of variations on the food - the stores and the entertainment, no?
Visitors that come to your park are simply mindless zombies walking around in poor formation, every now and then being run over by your park rangers with questionable driving skills. The buildings that exist now are not customized for the visitors, meaning If you zoom into buildings tex viewing stands you can see the same 5 or something people standing there looking at your dinos - then 40-60 people exit the building and a new batch enters. I'll take this one time more - 40-60 people ENTER the building but only 4-6 show up and it’s the same people (shook I know) each time, doing the same animations.
The amount of stars my park has doesn't seem to affect the park in any way but income and increased zombie hoards.
The Islands you visit and build on are limited for reasons I don't understand, there's a border that just keeps you from fleshing out and building freely. It’s made it hard for me to create the park I want and often limits the way a subway route can take which makes it simply tedious to plan out since I have to go back and forth deleting and starting over.
As for the dinosaurs… well once the initial coolness of releasing your first dino and following it around in the park, you realise there’s not much more to it. Their behavior has no depth and seeing the same cutscene over and over again when releasing a dinosaur turns from “wow” to “please no, not again”
Hopefully this game will be patched and fleshed out with DLCS but right now it's not even close to being worth the current price tag. I’m disappointed in how shallow this game is, I truly was expecting more
Please read this review and if you enjoy/agree give it a thumbs up because i REALLY want Frontier, the development team to see this or for people to possibly pass it on. This review will be rather detailed and in-depth and having unlocked all the island and put a good near 50 hours into the game as well as being a fan of the original Operation Genesis Park Building game there is alot to go through.
Before i get into the review do i recommend it? Yes, i do. If you're a fan of Dinosaurs, Jurassic Park and the PS2 park game you will likely have an enjoyable experience here too. If you're sitting on the fence however, i honestly believe you should wait and save your money and see what changes take place in the coming months, then go from there. Alot needs adjusting, trust me.
So, let's talk about the positives:
+ Dinosaur variation.
I have no complaints here and while there are many famous dinosaurs that are heavily requested such as the Quetzalcoatlus and the Dimetrodon i have hopes they will appear later in the game (though their appearance and mechanics will obviously have to be unique). As far as i'm aware the Developers have already confirmed marine life and flying reptiles in future content. There are over 40 dinosaurs with more coming next week and i won't even be able to have all these dinosaurs in the 5 islands i've completed, there's that many!
+ Dinosaur Design
By this i mean the depth to dinosaur gene splicing. Variation in colour and stat designs is a nice, engaging and refreshing way to make dinosaurs stand out and add some layer of depth to personalising. For the most part dinosaurs also look great, with the expection being the Giganotasaurus and Spinosaurus being way too small in comparison to the T-Rex
+ Music/Sound Design
The game takes music from the films and adds some of its own. All in all i have no complaints here in the slightest. The dinosaur sound effects and animations while walking and running is spot on. My only complaint here is that the Spinosaurus is missing its signature roar from the 3rd film, though perhaps they've simply made it more subtle.
+Factions/Quests
While the factions are interesting and fun to play around with especially when you get sabotaged, i also enjoy the continious contracts and the progression itself. It might seem grindy to people new to the genre but i think they've done a good job here. Nothing stays gated for too long and alot of the more popular dinosaurs are open quite early. The faction quests themselves also introduce some new gameplay mechanics or encourage you to test things out.
+Services
The inclusion of the jeep and rework on the Helicopters in contrast to the original game is great. I love getting hands on and driving around the park even if i can't run over customers (this kills the immersion when you're trying to rush through the park avoiding customers to repair something ASAP during a storm). The upgrades that you can put on park facilities is also a nice inclusion.
+Research and Dig Panels
I like how much more deep the research panel is and what it has to offer! Great work here! There are alot more dig panels and it works pretty much the same as Genesis with abit more variation which i appreciate.
+Difficulty/World Design
The difficulty of the game could have an extra 'hardcore' option but for a first playthrough i'm finding it fun and entertaining. One exploit which ruins the immersion;
(SPOILER) is that you can farm fossils on one island, and then once they're uncovered you can move to another island and sell them, effectively meaning if you're patient you simply can't lose due to money loss if you've already got one successful island
(SPOILER END).
The world design is appreciated. Now don't get me wrong, i really want to have an island that is completely open to me for me to ♥♥♥♥ around in, and while i feel the campaign islands SHOULD be restricted in size to force you to adapt and change your playstyle to keep things refreshing, i do also think the Sandbox Unlimited Resource zone is still just too small. I'd like the restrictions to end at the ocean, not confined within an area of the island.
NEGATIVES:
- Customers and Visitors
If you've played Operation Genesis i'm sure you'll know where i'm coming from when i say how annoyed i felt when i realised there was literally no customer interaction at all. Having customers have unique personalities based upon their group (thrillseekers, passivists, dino nerds) added a nice layer to that game, and is something that is surely missing here. You also can't click on customers, know where they're from, what they think of the park or anything (Outside of the menu telling you). Another issues i have regarding customers that was in OG (operation genesis) is that they don't showcase items they've bought, or pull out umbrellas when it rains. THESE CHANGES will not be that difficult to implement i'm confident, and it would VASTLY add to the games fun and replayability as well as immersion. Please fix this ASAP!
- A.I (Customers and Dinosaurs)
In a nutshell, the dinosaurs need alot of fine tuning and adjustments if not new features implemented. Dinosaurs don't sleep yet they have animations for being tranqualised? Why not add their ability to sleep or watch them take a ♥♥♥♥ and things that they would definetly do? Again, this isn't a big thing but would add depth to the game. Furthermore there is no pack hunting, no "they do move in herds" regarding herbivours outside of brief, repeated communications that all species do the same. 1v1 fights are fun but can they not be tweaked to have 2v1 or pack hunting encounters? Why do Herbivores end up killing more civilians when they run loose than Carnivores? Why do Carnivores constantly want to kill everything even when they arne't hungry, meaning i can't put multiple herbivoures and carnivores into the same enclosure because they're all suddenly the Indominus Rex in personality? Why do Raptors headbutt and break out of heavy steel fences instead of climbing over it like in JPOG? Why can't i run customers over in my vehicle? Why can't dinosaurs attack and destroy my vehicle? Why do customers keep making the same continious pointing gesture continiously every 4seconds? Why don't customers and dinosaurs get caught up in the Tornado or sent flying and killed? I swear they literally did NOTHING with the customers and ignored some very simple slice of life changes when it came to dinosaurs.
- Park Features
They basically need to add more. The monorail...i mean i know what it does now but i can't click on it or i can't see customers sat inside the monorail as they tour the park, instead it's a black window.... Felt really lazy tbh. I can't see customers sitting inside the bar, customers just walk through walls and doors when enterting buildings? The customers looking through the viewing domes have no animation and just stand there (about 20 at a time which is also lazy and shows a lack of care in how it is presented). Like this stuff isn't even that big to implement! Please just put some time and care into the details! I assume the balloon ride and safarai park from OG will be implemented as DLC which is fine, but at least let us see a stat base window of how our strucutres are fairing, how our customers feel and let us attribute certain park attractions to attune to certain customer appeal! In the livestreams Frontier boasted about micro managment yet it's not that important outside of stocking up food supplies and managing storms and bad weather.
CONCLUSION:
In conclusion the game is a solid 7/10 but with some fine tuning, added features and more sim building mechanics and some minor graphic tweaks and some good A.I. tweaks and easier of life and immersion features i could definetly stick it up to an 8.
P.sP Also a proper SITE B would be appreciated because that isn't the same as a Sanbox!
Let me start by saying that i played JPOG for probably around 2k hours.
Lets start off with the bad (since i feel like it has more bad than good)
AI- The dinosaurs are beautiful and there are many more than there were in jpog but the ai is nearly abbysmal. Yes some dinos will stay in a herd but most of them don't. They are extremely moody and i have had multiple cases where they walk towards the fence and there isnt enough forest so they get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and break it. If it rains the trex decides to break the fence and if i dont have at least 5 stegosauruses they break down the fence. There is no pack hunting there is no pack fighting there is no real herd. The dinosaurs just feel stale. You don't see them sleep, poop, or eat from anything that isn't a feeder. The people ai is the worst. in JPOG every person was real, every action they did was real. In this game they seem to just be fake. You can't see their thoughts, interests, money, or places they've been and when i place a viewing gallery down people come out of it as if they were in there. In JPOG you could follow someone who came into the park excited and ready to spend their money you could watch them enter a viewing vent, enter the hot air balloon, enter the viewing dome, go get some food, go get a ballon from the gift shop, use the bathroom, sit on a bench and then leave the park. In this game you dont have the option to place trash cans or benches, you dont get to see people actually visit and you dont get to see what their thoughts on how you are managing the park are. Another thing that i hate is i had a tornado rip through the park and break the velociraptor and dinonychus pens. The ai decided to run into the hole to get away from the velociraptors and about 20 of them then died because i couldn't do anything about it. When i activate the shelter i see people walking near it casually and not running into it. In JPOG if you had them all activated you could see them all panick and run in and after a while your park would be completely empty because they would be in the shelters but not in this game, in this game no matter what you do there will always be people walking around the park.
Buildings- I know that there are peopbably more buildings in this game than there were in JPOG but come on frontier. I want to build bathrooms, benches, trash cans, hangout spots, and i want the paths to get dirty and see people cleaning it. I want to see people dressed like dinosaurs walking around for the children. I want to see children (i know they don't want to see children die but just make them immune to it then). I think in JPOG you could place speakers just for asthetics but still. You could also place turrets and cameras for added protection. In this game the building just seems bland. I don't understand the need for 3 buildings to get fossils, extract dna and research things. make it one building or maybe none. I can see the genetics lab being on the island but you dont need the expedition team there or the research team. I'd like to see hot air ballons return, the safari expedition thing return as an early game version of the gyrospheres until you unlock them and many other small and big buildings from JPOG return. I would also like to see marine dino and avian dino exibits eventually.
The islands- I know there are multiple islands but each island has such a small build area. I'm pretty sure the building area in JPOG was bigger than the largest island here. It would be fine if only the progressive islands were small but if the last island was the whole island or even 2-3x what it is now would be amazing. There were times in JPOG when i didnt use up the whole island there even though most of the time i did but that was because of the lack of dinosaurs. With the selection there is now and the selection that will be coming in dlc i will never be able to fit them all into my park. Before you go saying " But you aren't supposed to be able to fit them in your park thats why there are 5" to that i say how am i supposed to make the best park if jurassic park and jurassic world were 10x or more bigger and had all of the dinosaurs? I hope that they release an update that makes isla sorna bigger or make isla nublar bigger and don't make it a sandbox because if they keep it like it is now we won't be able to make the park of our dreams
Modifying terrain- The terrain modifyer tool is horrible because you can't make rivers or mountains, the flattening is awkward, adding water raises the ground around it instead of making a dent in the ground, you can't add different types of trees or plants and there is no tool that helps you understand if it's higher or lower like there was in JPOG.
Icons- There are many dinosaurs who share the same icon which is understandable but why does the spinosaurus have a raptor icon and why do all of the hadrosaurs have the parasaurolophus icon? I feel like that was just lazy and it can be fixed easily.
Research- I am not a big fan of how they did research in this game. I don't want to do missions to unlock research i just want to research it. why put half of the research options in there if you just unlock them without research anyway? I don't know i feel like this is more of a love it or hate it kind of thing but i don't like it.
There are many more negatives but its more of bugs and small features that i feel will be addressed and fixed in the future.
On to the good.
Graphics- The game is beautiful. the reflection on water, the way the water flows off of buildings in the rain, the way the dinosaurs look, the way the trees blow in the wind and the island itself looks beautiful. The graphics and repetition of JPOG is probably the only reason why i stopped playing it.
Animations- They are great. From fighting animations to hunting animations to eating animations and just living in general. When a carnivore goes to attack a civilian and they fall to their backs trying to crawl away only to still be eaten is just as beautiful as it is greusome. Although a fair amount of dinosaurs have overlapping fighting animations its still cool to see them.
Dig sites- Finally there are digsites in the uk, austrailia, and africa. If im not mistaken there were only dig sites in the North america, south america and asia and maybe europe in JPOG. The attention to detail in where each dinosaur was actually found is great aswell. I hated finding spinosaurus fossils in asian although they were supposed to be in africa in JPOG.
DLC- With the promise of fallen kingdom dlc coming out it will keep the game fresh and fun. If they release dlc consistently and with big updates the game can go extremely far. If they add water dinos and aviary dinos then the game will be amazing. Hopefullt the DLC will be free but if it isnt dont make each dinosaur cost money make them in packs of $5 or less.
There are more good things about this game but the only reason why i recommend it is because of the promise of DLC and future uptades.
I would give this game a 5.5/10. It's what i wanted but it's not at the same time. I would have gladly waited another year or two for all of what was mentioned to be added. I hope that frontier continues to update the game and add dlc and i hope that they take some of these ideas (preferrably all but i know that won't happen) into consideration.
zero problemi di crash forse l'ultimo gioco a crasharmi è stato proprio Ark qualche mese fa ma è una feature credo