The law of diminishing returns dictates that no Jurassic Park IP can be as good as the one before it (Jurassic World JP3 aside). Even Michael Crichton's Lost World isn't as popular as the book that started it all. But Frontier Development's Jurassic World Evolution 2 breaks that law in half. He's bigger, smarter, and stronger than his predecessor in almost every way.
Evolved and synthesized from the embryonic DNA of Jurassic World Evolution, this next generation of prehistoric park management intelligently recognizes its past, present, and future in equal measure. It takes the franchise to new heights while creating the Dino sandbox that fans have always wanted.
It's not perfect. Frontier Developments has even more to discover in future sequels if they choose to do so. But Jurassic World Evolution 2 is, right now, the real Indominus Rex.
Jurassic World Evolution 2 review: Climbing the evolutionary ladder
At its core, Jurassic World Evolution 2 is still a park management game about breeding dinosaurs and reaping profits, while preventing park visitors from getting eaten by an allosaurus or velociraptor.
You start most scenarios with a few buildings and a bit of infrastructure – a park entrance, a command center, a few enclosures and a few walkways – before being dropped. You'll add more enclosures and more dinosaurs to increase your park's appeal and rating as you build. This loop attracts more tourists to the feeding ground and raises more money for expansion.
Unlike JWE, you can now hire a team of scientists who can be assigned to various tasks such as medical research, fossil excavation, dinosaur synthesis, and treatment of major dinosaur injuries like broken bones.
Adding a wrinkle to all of this, each scientist has specific characteristics that make them more or less effective at these tasks, and many jobs require a combination of scientists to accomplish. You'll need to decide which tasks take priority, hire and fire scientists to get the right mix of stats. Be sure to let them rest, lest they become unhappy and sabotage your park.
Alongside these workers, you'll also have rangers who monitor the dinosaurs' needs, refill feeders, and tranquilize any dinosaurs that escape or need to be transported. Additional medical personnel can diagnose illnesses and injuries in the field and treat them on the spot. It is admittedly a bit strange that medical personnel themselves cannot treat serious injuries, but scientists can. What will be will be.
The main attraction of any dinosaur game is, well, the dinosaurs themselves. There are 84 in total: 79 in the base game and five in the Deluxe Edition. Four more will arrive in the Early Cretaceous Pack DLC on December 9.
Most exciting is the inclusion of flying dinosaurs and aquatic reptiles; Jurassic World Evolution feels flatly empty in comparison once you can build an aviary for Pteranodons or a lagoon (complete with shark feeders) for a Mosasaur here.
As before, dinosaurs have specific needs that must be met. Some require more open space; others need forest or vegetation cover. Yet others need sand instead of grass, live animal feeders, or a specific population density to thrive.
Likes and dislikes of cohabitation are also factored into dinosaur comfort, though the system can be frustrating as some are just plain wrong (carnivores of all types may like Compsognathus but apparently only as a snack). The territory also feels half-baked, which mostly leads to confusion until you figure it out and then ignore it.
Despite this, it is important to meet these needs as angry dinosaurs fight each other or run out of their enclosures, unduly tying up scientists or reducing your park's appeal, rating and income.
Luckily, dinosaur watching isn't your only source of money. As in almost all other park simulations, you can create shops and attractions to sell goods and services to park visitors. The system here isn't as in-depth as elsewhere, but it's an improvement over Jurassic World Evolution, adding a welcome layer of strategy.
Now you can monitor what park visitors want and adjust stores to meet demand. It is also possible to add mini-attractions like aquariums and karaoke bars inside shops and restaurants to attract different types of customers.
Understanding these moving parts is easier than before thanks to more detailed stats screens, giving you better insight into how parts of your fleet are performing in real time, as well as monthly.
This all happens in one of four modes: Campaign, Challenge, Chaos Theory, and Sandbox.
In Campaign mode, which is mostly a glorified tutorial (and backdoor advertisement for the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion), you're faced with five scenarios in the wake of Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom. Most ask you to capture escaped dinosaurs or turn old containment facilities into new sanctuaries alongside the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
As this is government work only, these pseudo-parks are filled with scientists and various bureaucratic employees instead of tourists. Therefore, none of the mechanisms for managing guests, attractions, or rides are found in this mode. Considering the campaign doesn't quite move the needle narratively, it ultimately feels like a second-rate, albeit fun, diversion to JWE 2's other offerings.
The real meat of Jurassic World Evolution 2 is found in its Challenge and Chaos Theory modes. In these modes, you will actually build a working park that can be opened to tourists.
Challenge Mode is exactly what it says on the tin. It asks you to complete various timed challenges on a wide selection of unlockable maps. Most of the challenges are about breeding certain dinosaurs in a certain order or increasing the overall appeal of your park with various additions. To make things more interesting, however, you have the choice of three difficulties (bronze, silver and gold) which further test your park management skills by making scientists less efficient or increasing the intensity of storms.
However, perhaps the most compelling mode in Jurassic World Evolution 2 is the Chaos Theory mode. Here you can relive key moments from the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, putting your own spin on how things really happened. There's nothing quite like helping John Hammond open the first Jurassic Park, and these storylines will delight any fan of the franchise.
Unfortunately, if you were hoping to jump straight into Sandbox mode, which is available from the start, there's a bit of bad news. In what can only be spun as an effort to push players to Jurassic World Evolution 2's other modes first, Frontier hides almost everything in Sandbox mode behind research unlocked elsewhere.
Everything from dinosaurs and infrastructure to attractions and rides must first be researched in Campaign Mode, Challenge Mode, or Chaos Theory Mode. Even additional maps are unlocked elsewhere. The decision may be well-intentioned, but it renders Sandbox initially inert. And by the time you have access to everything in Sandbox, you might be ready to leave the park anyway.
Since its launch in 2018, Jurassic World Evolution has received quite a few updates; jumping in it is completely different now than it was three years ago. Yet despite these improvements, it's still a slow and laborious experience, filled with quirky decisions that break the immersion.
For the most part, Jurassic World Evolution 2 clarified that. You can immediately see how quickly things are progressing. This is mainly thanks to the inclusion in JWE 2 of speed options a la 'Cities Skylines or Two Point Hospital. It cannot be overemphasized how this unique system completely changes the feel of Jurassic World Evolution 2 for the better. Waiting for construction, research or synthesis is no longer an act of patience in the face of boredom.
Another small but significant change is that herbivores no longer need feeders to eat. Painting enclosures with trees, shredded fiber, and fruit as food sources is much more natural and immersive than placing a trapdoor feeder that spawns a chewable tree.
Contracts are making a comeback, but they're thankfully less of a soldier of fortune and more of a business science for profit. Instead of putting different members of InGen at odds with each other and forcing you to weirdly pick sides for points, Contracts in Jurassic World Evolution 2 are less aggressive, less gamified, and more in line with the overall tone of the game. franchise.
Jurassic World Evolution 2 review – The result
Benefits
- Flying Dinosaurs
- aquatic dinosaurs
- New enclosures
- Herbivores don't need feeders
- Improved management statistics
- Improved user interface
- Chaos Theory Mode
- Speed ​​options
- Scientists
The inconvenients
- Dull campaign mode
- A few shaky voiceovers in places
- Too microeat-y sometimes
- Some collision detection issues with buildings
- Lock everything for sandbox mode in other modes
In Chrichton's novel and Steven Spielberg's film, John Hammond wanted to create a marvel of the modern world where past and present converge to inspire awe and childlike wonder. After years of work, the product was the eponymous park, which for a time achieved this goal. Until chaos descends on the doors.
In Jurassic World Evolution 2, Frontier Developments, like Hammond, spent the years between Jurassic World Evolution and JWE 2 refining their formula. They took the community feedback to heart and instilled the DNA that should have been there all along in this sequel.
There are still things to tweak and lessons to learn. Just like life, chaos, too, finds a way. But perhaps as well as anyone, Frontier fulfills Hammond's dream and that of anyone who grew up bewildered by dinosaurs. Jurassic World Evolution 2 gets my approval.
[Note: Frontier Developments provided the copy of Jurassic World Evolution 2 used for this review.]
