We all love dinosaurs since childhood. Perhaps it's the fact that we enjoy imagining giant lizards rampaging through the landscape. We were all fascinated by the picture of a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex trying to sneak past a Triceratops guard. I know there was a time when I was a kid that I wanted to be a paleontologist. It didn't work out, but that was okay because Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg made my childhood dream come true with the Jurassic Park movies.
Although the quality of the games that followed these movies varied widely, especially on the Game Boy, which didn't save data, some were quite fun. One of his titles that fascinated me was Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis for Xbox, released in 2003. It was essentially Zoo Tycoon with dinosaurs. You have built an enclosure and created a park with dinosaurs. It was fulfilling and fun, and there was also a sandbox mode where you could free range.
A few weeks ago, I downloaded Jurassic World Evolution 2 from Steam because it looked like a successor to Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. And then I got burnt out because of my college assignments. I waited several hours for the download to complete (while I was waiting, I played Gears: Tactics for the first time. It didn't have dinosaurs, but it wasn't a bad game).
Once I finally booted up Jurassic World Evolution 2 and got past the opening fanfare, I was taken to a tutorial island. I know I'm old, but do I need a detailed hands-on tutorial to do everything? This park building concept hasn't changed much since his 1990s. However, I felt that this tutorial was too long.
After I started working my way through the very slow tutorial, I had to choose to help out in one of the company's three branches rather than the other branches. Yeah, garbage office politics is exactly what I want in a video game. I just want to build a park and raise dinosaurs. Heather, who is in research, is still mad that I didn't just pick her project for her contract of the month, so she doesn't have to worry about not getting the dinosaur.
I understand that they want the reality of working for a big company, but I play video games to not deal with it. Let them build a theme park where the occasional carnivore escapes and eats a small family from the Netherlands. I think that's what divided me regarding this title.
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was essentially Zoo Tycoon. You created a park, filled it with your favorite dinosaurs, and all your guests had a great time. Unless the dinosaurs broke out and ate the equivalent of the population of Gibraltar, you were fine. It was just a simple and fun gameplay loop.
It's not quite the same as newer titles like Jurassic World Evolution or Jurassic World Evolution 2. In other words, the standard is really to let people enjoy dinosaurs. Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was released in his 2003 year, and given my GiN salary, I don't think most people even know it exists. Indeed, sometimes simple concepts work very well. Elden Ring wasn't as complex a title as many other open-world games, but it was phenomenal in terms of sales. Some people want to build a simple dinosaur-based theme park that defies science and common sense.
Or let a bird of prey chase an Australian family through a food court. We all have simple pleasures. It's really hard to spoil a game that features dinosaurs, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed in Jurassic World Evolution 2. However, I may be in the minority on that point, as Marie Flannigan gives Jurassic World Evolution 2 a respectable 3.5 GiN of her own. Her 2018 review rated it Gems (out of 5).
Maybe the complexity didn't suit me. I deleted Jurassic World Evolution 2 from my computer, so I guess I'll have to get my dinosaur fix elsewhere. That means you should go to the last remaining video store in your neighborhood and buy a DVD.
I have never completed Final Fantasy XIII. I'm starting to think that shame doesn't work as a motivator.
