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With the third Jurassic World movie coming in just a few months, I was lucky enough to try out the tie-in video game, Jurassic World Evolution 2, the sequel to the 2018 video game.
Much like its predecessor, Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a theme park construction and management simulator developed and published by Frontier Developments, the same minds behind Planet Coaster. The sequel is like the first game in many respects; you are tasked to build your own version of Jurassic World, and while the sequel is similar to the first game in more ways than one, Frontier has managed to build upon the foundations of the predecessor to create an even better experience.
The issue with Jurassic World Evolution 2 is that it’s too similar to the first game, right down to the graphics and art style. It looks and feels so much like it that I questioned the purpose of it being an entirely separate game rather than a massive DLC extension. However, Frontier has curbed this by adding a lot more for players to do.
Jurassic World Evolution 2‘s Campaign
The game’s campaign is set after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and it gives us a good insight into what to expect in Jurassic World: Dominion, which will be released on June 10th, 2022. Evolution 2 is set on the United States mainland and players are tasked to gather problematic dinosaurs causing chaos in the wild and place them in specially built containment facilities.
In the campaign, you are encouraged to have a greater hands-on approach than in the first game. In order to track down and contain the dinosaurs, players must manually drive or fly vehicles across massive maps. It’s the same general elements that were in the previous game, but the controls have been fine-tuned and the maps make it far more fun to play.
Speaking of maps — they are massive in comparison to the first Jurassic World Evolution game. In one of the first campaign levels, you are led to believe that you have been given a small parcel of land, but once you are tasked with tracking down a carnivorous dinosaur you are soon driving across the map through forests and mountains.
Chaos Theory
The most obvious addition was my favourite part of Evolution 2: the “Chaos Theory” mode. It has players revisit the locations and narrative moments from each of the five movies, such as developing the first Jurassic Park or visiting the Jurassic Park facility in San Diego, as seen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
So far, I’ve only had a hand in 1993’s Jurassic Park and 2015’s Jurassic World, to see how different the experiences are. While similar, each has its own respective dinosaurs and facilities for players to fiddle with, but if you want to make 93’s Jurassic Park look like Jurassic World, you certainly can do that.
Customisation is something that the first game sorely lacked, with parks containing shops and attractions that all looked alike. In Evolution 2, players are granted full customisation on most of the guest buildings including shops and attractions, with the ability to change the colours, decorations, what the building contains, and even a choice between the architectural styles of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World — no matter which movie era you’re playing in.
A Lot of New Additions
It wouldn’t be a sequel without additions, and there are many. The first game had many elements from the Jurassic World movie absent, notably aquatic and winged dinosaurs, both of which are now available for players to include in their parks.
Admittingly, I did have a lot of trouble taking care of the dinosaurs, each of whom has their own needs and wants that need to be met (unless you want them breaking out and devouring your guests). But maintaining the park and its inhabitants seemed a little more difficult than the first game, especially now that the dinosaurs feature a more complex AI system.
Thirty (30) new species of dinosaurs have been added and can be found throughout the game, the most exciting being the marine dinosaurs which can be placed in a lagoon enclosure, which will help you create an even better park than the ones in the first game.
Voicing the Stars
Bryce Dallas Howard and Jeff Goldblum return to voice Claire Dearing and Ian Malcolm from the first game and previous movies. With Dallas’ calm tone and Goldblum’s classic speech mannerisms making even the most tedious moments of the game enjoyable, it’s safe to say that they both did a fantastic job.
They are joined by Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady, who is voiced by A.J. LoCascio, who does a pretty decent Pratt impression. However, it is obvious that it’s an impersonation and not the man himself. It’s distracting and occasionally funny, but LoCascio does a good job because you know exactly who he is meant to be and he does a far better Pratt impression than I could.
Money Money Money
The game is not without its flaws. The biggest is that it is necessarily difficult to create a profitable park, it’s not impossible, it’s just difficult. For instance, the game lacks any sort of bank loan system and once you go into the red you’re on your own, and if you can’t recover then it’s essentially game over.
The controls can also be quite finicky, an issue I had with the first game, but I put this down to the fact that management simulation games tend to have this issue on console due to the nature of the controller. Still, Frontier has made it as easy as possible for players to get used to these controls.
3.5/5: Jurassic World Evolution 2 won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but fans of park management games will want to at least give it a try. If you loved the first game then there is no doubt that you’ll fall in love with this one, even more, thanks to Frontier’s additions and improvements. The inclusion of a bank system to help players out would easily round this review up to 4 stars, but until then I have to settle on 3.5 because it felt like an obvious thing to include.
RELATED: Read my review of Frontier Developments’ Planet Coaster Studios and Ghostbusters DLC!
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