In Jurassic World Evolution and its expansion, Jurassic World Evolution: Secret’s of Dr. Wu by Frontier Developments, you are taken to a series of islands where you get a chance to design and manage your very own park full of dinosaurs. Left to manage the health and welfare of dinosaurs, patrons, and the park itself you are pressed by three different factions to complete tasks to further either science, entertainment, or security services. With the ability for scientists attempting to engineer dinosaurs to be stronger, tougher, and more aggressive, weather conditions that are anything but favorable, and dinosaurs who seem to be consistently testing the limits of their enclosures, it seems that anything that can go wrong certainly will.
This game is a very simple park simulator that adds dinosaurs as the main attraction. Unlocking new breeds of dinosaurs is straightforward but very repetitive, building enclosures and roads is intuitive but not as easy to control as it would be with a mouse and keyboard; curing sick dinos and capturing escaped ones is a simple task that feels like it should be more difficult. These things could all be way far more interactive and rewarding but man, are the dinosaurs pretty! The main game has several islands on which the player must place parks. However, the user must bring park ratings high enough to unlock the next island, additional buildings, and other essentials, such as the DLC.
The Secret’s of Dr. Wu DLC requires four stars on Isla Muerta to access, which can take quite a bit of time and effort to unlock as it is the second island the player reaches and the money from the first island does not carry over to the second island for some reason. The DLC adds a couple new dinosaurs and the ability to create a few hybrid dinosaurs, but the real entertainment from this DLC is when Dr. Wu starts coming up with missions. Each mission seems more ridiculous and outlandish than the last. They have each of the division heads gasping in exasperation each time one is completed. Dr Wu is truly a mad scientist as placing a hungry carnivorous dinosaur in a pen with a bunch of herbivores that are only worth a few million dollars strikes him like a good way to do things, you know, for science.
I stepped into this game hoping for a tycoon type game with dinosaurs and that is exactly what I got. If you are looking for an in depth game with a ton of interaction and layers that interact with each other in unexpected ways the further you go into the title, stay away from this game because it will disappoint you. If you are looking for a fun game that will let you make a park full of dinosaurs that look really cool and that will escape every so often leaving a trail of chaos behind them, this is it. Just don’t look too closely at the mechanics and you will be OK. Overall, I think Jurassic World Evolution is exactly what I thought it would be, a fun game that I am glad I got to play but not one that is going to win a ton of, if any, awards. But then again that’s exactly what I expect from any Jurassic Park movie as well.
I rate this title 7/10.
Check Out the Jurassic World Evolution Secrets of Dr. Wu DLC Trailer:
Jurassic World Evolution: Secrets of Dr. Wu is available on PC (Steam), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One digital stores. Downloadable content requires Jurassic World Evolution to play.
Related: JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION Releases Cretaceous Dinosaur Pack
Xbox One Review
I graduated from Full Sail University with a BS in Game Design. I am a veteran and an avid gamer for the last 25+ years. I have been working in the game industry since 2014 on major titles such as WWE 2K16, Civilization 6 and XCOM 2.
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