Scale Models

JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION looks gorgeous but lacks bite. 

- Philippa Warr

My Security advisor in Jurassic World Evolution has offered me a contract. I can improve my standing with the Security team by breeding a velociraptor. This sounds pretty ill-advised. Even more ill-advised is his demand that I breed it to have a genetic modification that makes it even more aggressive. By the way, this is the same Security guy who wanted to test the park’s security system by letting a dinosaur loose in a park full of visitors because the game had decided to teach me about tranquilizer darts.

What’s wrong with learning about tranquillizer darts while the park is closed? If this theme park management sim allowed me to fire employees I would be shoving this guy on the next helicopter out of the Muertes Archipelago.However, it does not. 

Jurassic World Evolution is in a tricky spot. It’s a gorgeous game in terms of how the dinosaurs look, but it’s beholden to the movie franchise in ways which disrupt management sim play. I’m also many hours in, and really starting to chafe against the game’s lack of depth in multiple areas.

You begin your dino park management career on Isla Matanceros. You learn the core patterns of the sim, so placing buildings, making sure they’re powered and connected to pathways, and then start to fulfil contracts that gradually unlock more options.

Completing key missions opens up new islands. Each island has its own challenges, so on Matanceros you get your bearings, Isla Muerta is wracked by storms which can damage buildings and release dinos, Isla Tacaño’s park is bankrupt so you must make the island profitable. By contrast, Isla Nublar—the setting for the original book and movie—is an unlimited sandbox area.