Review copy was provided by the developer.
Mama’s HOME!!!!!!!!!
A long time ago, a movie came out that was both scary and fascinating at the same time. That movie was Jurassic Park and the success of that movie brought about, as everyone is use to by now, countless games based on that movie. Now I haven’t played every single Jurassic Park game ever made but going by what I’ve read about them a lot of them…sucked. Like really sucked, “obvious cash grabs with minimal amount of effort put into it” type sucked.
I’ve only ever played two Jurassic Park games before now, Trespasser which was…I’ll be honest, good concept, really REALLY BAD execution. I am not recommending that game but if you have to, get any and all mods that make the game better. Play the first 5 minutes and you’ll understand me.
The other game, which was a very underrated and underappreciated game was called Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. It was released on PC, Xbox, and PS2 (yes that old) in 2003 and it was great. I didn’t play it until a year or so after it came out but I fell in love with it completely. A park sim where you make not only the guests happy but the dinosaurs as well. It was quite a simply game, make money, get 5 stars, don’t let the guests die. Story missions, endless and sandbox modes with some challenges, and good music. For the time it looked beautiful, the animals looked great and felt fully realized (headbutting Pachycephalosaurus, T-Rex’s and Spino’s fighting to the death) and I personally count that as one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. I don’t know how many hours I have on the game but it is defiantly somewhere in my personal Top 5.
Many many years have passed since that game came out and it seemed like we’d never get a sequel or something similar to it. But now, a whole 15 years later, we got a spiritual sequel to Operation Genesis and suffice to say, they did it right.
Control the jeeps and helicopters, or just take pictures.
If you’ve played JPOG, you’ll be right at home here. The same building still applies, (just costs a LOT more money, no more “build this for $1K” and instead “build this for $5Mil”) and getting dinosaurs are the same as well. Send out expeditions (need a building to do that) to collect fossils, amber, and sometimes some rare metals and fossils that are just for money. Once you get a dinosaur above 50% viability you’ll be able to breed them. The first of few annoyances is here, your dinosaur is not guaranteed to make it to adulthood. Depending on how much modifications you put into it (more on that in a bit) theirs a chance they won’t make it and you’ll just be out a lot of money. Upgrades to the breading center increased your chances it’ll make it but extreme amount of modifications can make its chance of living in the negative chance range.
As mentioned above, you can genetically modify the dinosaurs. The very first one you can change is always its skin. Minor (and realistic, don’t worry no pink dinosaurs) changes to there appearances are to give it the looks such as mountain skin or desert skin, etc. Other changes include making them more resilient to getting sick or living longer than normal, all of these changes increase there rating with the park quests, the higher the rating the more people come and the more stars your park get which of course translates to more money.
Dinosaurs have needs, some of them very specific and others not so much. This Parasaurolophus wanted more of it’s kind (Social) and soon got mad and broke out of the enclosure.
You have head of park sections to deal with. One of Science, one of Entertainment, and one of Security. They will give you contracts (which you can turn down with no consequences) which will give you a quick influx of cash when you need it and increase the rating with that leader but the other leaders will go down. Another (quite major) annoyance is to do with these heads of the park. As mentioned, you complete a mission for one, the reputation goes up for that one but down for the others. If the others go down enough, for some reason your employees…the people that work for you to make this park safe, secure, intriguing, and profitable…SABOTAGE you. I mean that literally. Example: you work only for the science head (usually meaning you look for fossils, breed a certain type, modify them, etc.) the security and entertainment guys will “encourage you” to work for them on contracts they want “or else.” But if you ignore them, they’ll want to sabotage you, releasing a disease on your dinosaurs (which hurts your rating) or having the dangerous ones released to eat guests.
Okay really? I would throw them out the door and have them eaten by the dinos they released. Granted it’s not that hard to balance out working for all of them, especially if they offer a contract you don’t want to do (ex: make 5 really expensive dinos then sell them) you can just request another until they give you something you like/easy. I’ve personally not had my employees rebel against me as I’ve kept them in balance but being threaten with “I’m so made you’re ignoring me I’m gonna release that T.Rex you spent $6 million on to eat all your guests” I really don’t like that. I would like it if I could turn that off completely but again, it’s not exactly hard to keep it all in balance.
Transporting dinos makes me feel a bit bad…
…but it’s necessary.
On to the park and dinos.
Guests want to see the dinos (duh) but also want to be entertained beyond that. They want to buy things like souvenirs, eat and drink, and even go to the arcade or bowling alley and emergency facilities that make them feel safe. And they will be…if they make it there in time. Lots of different buildings to accomplish this but when it comes to the dinos, only three building are available to use. Viewing platform for a wide angle but close range look, viewing tower for close angle but long range look, and (from the movie) the Gyrosphere where you get to ride into the enclosures and see the animals up close.
Be warned though, you have to worry about power and power plants (that like break at times) and since space is sometimes a problem be sure to keep everything powered before a raptor decides to it doesn’t like someone on the other side of the fense.
Struthiomimus’s socializing. One squawked really loud and the other two ran up and they started chatting. You can also see a different skin for one of them (on the right.)
The animals themselves are amazing. Just like JPOG, all the animals are realized and have “personalities,” needs and wants. My personal favorites from Genesis was the Corythosaurus (seemed like a giant dog to me, it barked) and the Parasaurolophus (look and sounded so cool with its hallow crest skull) are back and they’re far more picky than they were in Genesis, which I like. It seemed too easy to make herbivores happy in the past. Now they’re picky. Some are more than happy to be surrounded by a bunch of other animals, regardless if they’re the same species while others (like my favorites mentioned above) REQUIRE you to have a minimum of the SAME species or they’re not happy and will rampage after time. And yes, herbivores will trample guests. I have seen it and it is not pretty.
Depending on the carnivore, they’re either happy to be with any friends or want to be COMPLETELY alone (I’m looking at you T.Rex.) Now it seems somewhat easier to make carnivores happy in this game than Genesis. But of course, the caveat is guests will be far happier if animals “don’t get along” with each other. Dilophosaurus (AKA: “…spitting lizards from Jurassic Park.” – Peter Griffin) and Velociraptors fighting or carnivores hunting herbivores make the guests very happy. But of course that means you’ll be making them constantly.
But all that is up to you and how you run your park, you’ll find your strategy easily enough.
Sometimes you gotta shoot ’em yourself.
The maps look wonderful but sometimes they feel a bit small. “This dinosaur needs wide open space” and you feel like you should make a big open enclosure but only have enough room for barely half that and hopefully that’s enough for them
Overall, this game is fantastic. It’s the (spiritual) successor that Operation Genesis needed. It runs great, looks and sounds wonderful and if you’re just a fan of dinosaurs you can unlock the “Isla Nublar” on the very first mission you play if you reach four stars (which honestly isn’t that hard) which is a sandbox mode and brings over any and all things unlocked in career mode and give you unlimited funds and give you control over the weather as well. You can then just build a park and not have to worry or you can just make dinosaurs and watch them run around. It’s all up to you.
I have to say it, you know I do. “Clever girl…”
