Jurassic World Evolution 3 Review An Amazing Sandbox Caged by Shallow Simulation
Frontier Developments has been consistently ruling over the construction and management genre for a while now through games such as Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster, attaining industry standards. The Jurassic World Evolution series has become much more synonymous about that reputation especially for combining the nostalgia of exciting movies into its game aspects while having features that allow park design. After this long four years, the next installment in the series is out Jurassic World Evolution 3 still promising to evolve the formula all over again. The result is an incredibly beautiful and addictive experience but at the same time presents a serious dilemma is this a true sequel or merely JWE 2.5.
Paradise for Builders The New Creative Tools
Perhaps the most important and beyond argument improvement in Jurassic World Evolution 3 is this collection of creative tools which, for sandbox mode-playing posses, is game-changing.
- Modular Construction: The series finally spares the tools with enabling building really customized structures. You can rotate, set height and piece together unique enclosures, amenities, and decorations. With this system, this is very modular and powerful, nearing the freedom of a Planet Coaster.
- Revolutionary Terrain Editing: The terrain tools have been revamped very extensively. Gone are all those irritating "terrain is inconsistent" errors. Now, you can form steep cliffs, create great canyons, and paint detailed blended ground textures in the easiest way possible.
- Dynamic Water & Falls: It's the simplest, yet most beautiful feature—autonomically created waterfalls. Simply place water sources at different altitudes and you have primary, beautiful ravines and cascades, which suddenly make your parks so much more real and beautiful.
- Community Workshop: An integrated workshop brings together players who can share their constructed buildings and assets. This lets the community just run wild in terms of creativity, which would pretty much guarantee an endless supply of new designs you can use in your parks.
Life Finds a Way Baby Dinosaurs and Breeding
The biggest headline feature for most people is the fact that there will now be baby dinosaurs. For the very first time, baby dinosaurs are going to hatch out of nests and grow into adulthood. This adds even a little more realism and emotional effect on your creatures. It is a very good system which makes the need for specific environmental conditions and nesting sites before the dinosaurs can breed naturally.
Indeed this breeding process means that the population of your park isn't always directly managed by you but adds a dynamic element to park management. Population numbers watch become a key part of the core loop, preventing overpopulation, which makes the park feel more like a living, breathing ecosystem.
The Campaign A Long Tutorial
The campaign mode then has you in other countries, across many different maps, enjoying the game's many systems. The writing is not bad, and Jeff Goldblum returns as Dr. Ian Malcolm-so those two might make it worth playing for some. But overall, the campaign feels like an extended tutorial. It prepares the player for the real star of the show, Sandbox Mode, and is very well done in terms of introduction; it may not be what some gamers are looking for in terms of deep, stand-alone story.
The Achilles Heel Superficial Park Management
It's a very open-ended game, and yet here it stumbles in what matters most for a tycoon game the actual park management. Compared with Frontier's own Planet Zoo, the guest and management systems feel almost alarmingly empty.
- Dead Guests: They are hardly describable as human. Wandering around. No contact with the park. They give little in-depth feedback about what they want or need. They lack the illusion of a living crowd reacting to your park's design.
- Shallow Mechanisms of Tycoon: There is almost a lack of depth in the economic simulation. The lack of features included by other management sims like vandalism, elaborate guest happiness, donation bins, and staff management - ensures that the dinosaurs take center stage, with almost certainly the "park" aspect feeling like an afterthought.
- Ancient Warfare: A dinosaur-fighting system recycled from the very first game. Dinosaurs circle each other and take turns biting in a dum-dum animation loop that was old and uninspiring a decade ago.
Pros
- Outstanding creative tools for modular construction and terraforming.
- Sublime graphics and architecture for the dinosaurs, arguably best in the industry.
- Adding juvenile dinosaurs and the breeding of dinosaurs injects a whole new layer of life into the parks.
- Sandbox mode gives immense replayability and freedom.
- An integrated workshop to share and download community creations.
Cons
- Park management and guest simulation are very shallow.
- The tycoon aspects feel shallow compared to other modern sims.
- Dinosaur fighting has a very tired and repetitive system.
- The campaign feels like a tutorial instead of a bona fide mode.
- For all the non-builders, this feels more like an iterative upgrade (JWE 2.5) than a sequel.
Must-have for creative builders and dinosaur lovers while disappointing the tycoon and management simulation purists.
Final Verdict
Finally, Jurassic World Evolution 3 is a game that's made in two halves. One for the creative park builder who wants a beautiful dinosaur sandbox and here is where it should be diametrically opposed. The new tools open up a level of freedom that the series has been craving wherein you can build the park of your dreams. The visual fidelity is breathtaking; the existence of baby dinosaurs is an added joy.
Yet, ultimately let down for the player craving a rich tycoon challenge. Inheriting the shallow management systems for its predecessors, it learned none of the lessons from Frontier's superior management sims. The guests are lifeless, the economy is rudimentary, and the core management loop is severely underdeveloped. It's a brilliant dinosaur enclosure maker but a subpar theme park simulator.
