JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION
Pretty dinosaur theme park builder has plenty of Rex appeal
Build yourself a dino theme park – it’ll be a scream for your guests…
To quote John Hammond, “yes, we have a T. Rex.” Actually, Frontier’s park builder has a far greater variety of leathery leviathans than Dicky Attenborough’s doomed take on Disneyland. Ankylosaurus; Ceratosaurus; Huayangosaurus; Suchomimus; Spinosaurus – and yes, you can trust our spelling. Even the Big Bad from Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom appears as DLC. Talk about a sight for (dino)sore eyes. Even without the Indoraptor, Jurassic World Evolution would be an enjoyable, if frustratingly obtuse, strategy title. As you may have guessed, your main goal is to run a dinosaur theme park. Actually, that’s a fib: you have to run several. As you progress through the campaign you unlock all five islands in the cheery-sounding Las Cinco Muertes. The ‘Islands Of Death’ span Jurassic Park’s Isla Nublar, which acts as a freeform sandbox, while the more structured Isla Sorna from The Lost World also appears.
PARKS LIFE
Before you start running dino funfairs on the movies’ famous islands, you must first master the opening Isla Matanceros. This permanently sunkissed floating rock provides a reasonably gentle introduction to Evolution’s somewhat fussy systems, and it’s not until you move over to the rain-lashed Isla Muerta that you have to start worrying about investing in storm protection systems and shelters for your soaking guests.
Speaking of the squishy humans who visit your parks, your priority is to entertain them, and ensure they don’t end up as lunch for a rampaging T. Rex. To prevent the worst-
case scenario of one of your formerly extinct attractions breaking out of an enclosure, you must invest in developing electric fences. Turns out, even herbivores like to smash through the game’s opening barricades. Naughty Triceratops.
Keeping these barriers full of juice brings you face to face with Evolution’s most confusing mechanic: its power system. Every building needs electricity to run. You must ensure there’s a nearby power station, substation, and a crisscrossing network of pylons to keep everything running. Trouble is, connecting them is finicky, and even when you think your pylons are in close enough proximity to a substation, sometimes the lights won’t come on.
FACE FACTIONS
Regardless of which island you’re struggling to power, you must also contend with three vying factions: a science division, entertainment sector, and security team. Juggling your loyalties between these is akin to juggling raptor eggs… while their momma tries to tear out your larynx. Frontier actively punishes you for overly prioritising one team over the other. Example? Concentrate on improving the purity of your dino embryos with the science team, and security may get the hump, leading to instances when your fences ‘mysteriously’ power down. You know what a dinosaur theme park doesn’t need? Acts of ruddy sabotage.
Even when Evolution frustrates with its cluttered menus and poorly thought-out faction system, one feature pulls you back in: the dinos. Each of the game’s 40 species looks unerringly faithful to its movie equivalent. Whether you’re admiring a pack of raptors savaging some poor goat, or feeling like a horribly guilty Dr Frankenstein after breeding Jurassic World’s psychotic Indominus Rex, watching these beasts roam, fight, and graze across your paddocks provides a sense of childlike wonder that never gets old. Simply put, these are the best dinosaurs to ever appear on PlayStation.
Not that you’ll get acquainted with I. Rex any time soon. While it’s clearly a conscious design decision, the fact it takes 15 to 20 hours to unlock Evolution’s most exciting species sucks some of the fun out of the game’s opening hours. No offence, Struthiomimus, but you’re just not T. Rex. If you want the movies’ most famous critters, you must first unlock the relevant dig sites to harvest their fossils, which can only be done after you get your first couple of islands up to a certain star rating. While the long-term goal of unlocking the franchise’s most iconic predators is motivating, it’s still a Brontosaurus bummer when your first park is filled with boring, obscure herbivores.
Regardless of whether you’re dealing with the tyrant lizard king or some plant-eater only dino nerds will recognise,
“THESE ARE THE BEST DINOSAURS TO EVER APPEAR ON PLAYSTATION.”
every animal in Jurassic World Evolution looks gorgeous. Hell, the entire game does. A handsome lighting model, impressive weather effects, and beautiful animation combine to create arguably the prettiest strategy game ever made. From driving around in Jeeps with your security teams and putting dinos to sleep with a Resident Evil 4-style aiming system, or watching in horror as guests stumble trying to flee an escaped carnivore, Evolution’s engine handles every second of action with conviction and grace.
PARK AND HIDE
It’s frustrating, then, that some strange choices and omissions stop this becoming an all-time strategy great. While objectives provide welcome focus – say, developing a certain genome to 70% strength, or snapping a specific dinosaur drinking – the fact the decade-old Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is better at certain aspects of park management is hard to stomach. Where the PS2 sim let you view individual guests’ happiness levels and needs, Evolution falls back on a generic rating system for your park as a whole.
These annoyances don’t ruin the prehistoric party, though. Despite its faults, Evolution is still the finest videogame Spielberg’s franchise has ever birthed. (Though being the best Jurassic Park game is akin to a Mensa member winning a spelling bee for five-year-olds.) If you love prehistoric critters, or simply want a game where you can watch an Allosaurus gobble humans whole, Evolution is a dino delight.
VERDICT
A fussy but enjoyable slice of strategy that serves up the very best dinosaurs in PlayStation history. Mr Hammond, consider your park endorsed. Dave Meikleham