Zoo Tycoon Review!
If you’re unfamiliar with Zoo Tycoon, it’s a PC game series that began in 2001 and challenged you with developing and running a zoo, similar to Theme Park and the older Tycoon game, Rollercoaster Tycoon. This new game, which is an improved version of Zoo Tycoon from 2013, tries to give you a little more diversity and challenge by giving you tasks and time constraints to keep you on your toes. Those of you who appreciated the slower pace of the previous PC games need not worry; you may still play the same way you did before, focusing on the zoo’s construction and management.
It’s difficult not to smile while feeding or playing with the game’s animals. In fact, allowing you to run around your zoo as you constructed keepers was possibly the best decision creator Blue Fang Games could have made when creating a game like this. Too often, park-building games focus on the administrative perspective, ignoring the fact that players may wish to see their works from the ground level. What type of cold-blooded monster doesn’t enjoy zoos?
Instructions/Techniques For Beginners:
New players should start with the tutorials to learn the basics of the game and acquire a broad idea of how to manage their zoos. They cover everything from establishing exhibitions and adopting animals to more complex approaches like encouraging breeding and eventually releasing animals into the wild. It even shows you how to go around your zoo on foot or by dialing in and driving a small buggy; the game explains, “don’t worry about the guests, they’ll move out of the way!” True, but I’d say it’s more like being shoved aside as you drive.
The obstacles are waiting for you once you’re ready. These are available on three levels of difficulty: easy, normal, and hard; and they are spread throughout three campaigns that encompass the original game’s content as well as two new locations in South America and Australia. These challenges are timed, so you have a specific amount of time to achieve a series of goals while running your zoo. More difficult challenges may ask you to foster breeding within a specific species or simply throw more and more objectives at you as the timer counts down to zero; more difficult challenges may ask you to foster breeding within a specific species or simply throw more and more objectives at you, increasing the pressure as the timer counts down to zero. Fortunately, the difficulty curve is forgiving, since this game is definitely designed to provide a more enjoyable experience for all players.
Features:
The Sandbox mode, which offers you limitless funds and starts you out at the best level you’ve reached in the challenges, is designed to set players loose without limitations or objectives. Even if you start at the most basic level, you can still progress as you learn about new species and larger exhibitions. This more relaxed approach allows players to go at their own pace, but don’t think that means you won’t be cleaning up the excrement (no, you’ll have to clean up after the animals) or micromanaging the cages. That degree of management detail reminded me of the original games in The Sims franchise.
In any of the three modes, you and up to three friends can play together in multiplayer, but coordination is difficult unless you use headsets. Because everyone may contribute to the execution of tasks, completing targets is now easier than ever. Riding about in buggies with buddies in third-person view is also entertaining. However, you can only research one thing at a time, which feels restrictive when you have extra staff waiting for various tasks to be completed.
When you create new venues, the most accessible paths for your guests to get there are automatically added, which, although convenient, limits your creative freedom.
In your zoo, you can create three Kinect-compatible interactions, but they only function with certain animals. Feeding and cleaning animals with Kinect can be a pain because the camera doesn’t always pick up my actions, but when it does, the facial recognition is amazing. It can only be used with chimps and big cats, but they can tell when you blink or open your lips and mimic your actions.
It’s so much fun to play the sensory minigame with a baby monkey, as the little guy/gal tries to imitate your imagined moves (via various analogue stick combinations). This aspect of the game will be a hit with the kids. However, while it looks nice and is entertaining to play.
Verdict:
Zoo Tycoon succeeds in its goal of being instructive and enjoyable for children of all ages. While the creatures themselves are beautifully depicted, learning about them and building an enriching habitat for the cuddly critters isn’t always given in a fun way. Furthermore, the never-ending menus are highly complex, and young gamers may become disoriented when attempting to traverse them for everything. Its beautiful and cuddly animals will melt your heart, but you’ll spend the majority of your time navigating through terrible options.