Login
I love the first Jurassic World Evolution, so I was curious to see what the sequel would do differently.
For the record, I've installed every DLC except the Camp Cretaceous Pack, because I haven't seen the show yet.
Whereas the first game takes place across Las Cinco Muertes (the island chain that includes Isla Sorna from films two and three), this time the main campaign spans the continental United States following the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Said campaign is surprisingly short: you can complete it in a couple of hours. But, as if to compensate, the game adds another story mode called Chaos Theory, which revisits events from the movies with the question in mind: "What if the park had succeeded?"
As you'd expect, it expands on the first game by coming up with several new gameplay mechanics and features to add to your park. We'd be here all day if I tried to list them all, but one of my favourites is the ability to release dinosaurs via airlift, so you can save space and build just one hatchery for the whole park. I also love the ability to speed up or pause time, so you can shorten the frequent waiting or give yourself a moment to think.
But not all of its creative decisions are welcome. I'm not a fan of the changes to the dinosaur incubation process, for example. One of my favourite methods in the first game was giving each individual a different skin pattern to easily tell them apart and perhaps name them accordingly. But here, because the dinosaurs are incubated in batches, they all look the same, but some might have a higher chance of having a particular personality trait. Also, in the first game, modifying a dinosaur's genome affects its rating, which in turn contributes to your overall park rating. But here, your park rating is judged strictly by how much money you make. So, ultimately, I ignored the genetic modification system altogether, and felt so detached from the dinosaurs that I never felt inclined to name them.
But I think the worst aspect of the gameplay is having the same small team of scientists in charge of everything: research, incubation, medical treatment, even expeditions. It just slows things down, especially whenever they need to rest.
Naturally, the selection of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals is also greatly expanded. It even introduced me to some I'd never heard of before, like the pterosaur Maaradactylus, the plesiosaur Styxosaurus and the little tyrannosaur Moros intrepidus.
In conclusion, it's a good follow-up, but I still prefer the first game by far. I'll take either game over the Jurassic World movies any day, though.
My rating: 70%
