I finished the game now (after 3 days) ... I think I am able to give feedback now based on my own experience of JWE. Before I´ll start: Is it a bad game, that deserves all of the hate? No! But is it a good game that deserves all of the love from the other side? No! It is JPOG, but with better looks, more animals and much less space, which makes it a worse game than JPOG, because in JPOG you can build better (more space. less limitations). Dear Frontier. Please take a look on what I´ve got to say here even through it is a very long list. I´ve got still hope for JWE, but let´s be honest it still needs a lot of work.
Let´s start with what I liked:
01:
The atmosphere. This is the most enjoyable part of the game. The sounds, the graphics and of course the dinosaurs are wonderful to look at.
02:
Some of the details. If you look close enough you´ll found some nice easter eggs. My favorite is the use of the spanish song from JP1. I enjoy that very much!
03:
Genmodifikation (even viability), skins and dinosaurs stats. This is an interessting idea and gives the game something new and fresh.
04:
Build on 6 Islands and change island everytime.
05:
Unlock Things. There´re many things to unlock! That´s exactly where´s the fun in the challenge mode.
06:
Sorna. Best Island of them all and it had free dinosaurs to catch.
07:
Dinosaur hide in Forest because of the helicopter.
08:
Jeff Goldblum, There´s nothing to say more about it. Everyone loves Jeff Goldblum.
What I did not enjoyed:
01:
It´s too easy. Progress through the game is too easy and the missions are no challenge at all.
02:
The island rating system. pleasing the visitors is frustrating. Not because it is difficult, but because of the limitations of the game. You have to build the same and the same and the same and again the same building next to every Viewplattform, Hotel etc. It is annoying and forced me to steal my animals a lot of place just because I wanted to unlock everything ...
03:
The Island Size. They´re to small. There´s no island you can build on a real park. The only "usefull" island of the 5 Islands were sorna, but there´s a big fat mountain in the middle. This mountain is bigger than the space you can build on. It was really disappointing. And the game had performance issues, because all of the animals and visitors are coop up on the same area, because of the low size. It took a lot of joy from me, honestly.
Then I finally tested Nublar this morning. In fact the space was that limited I wasn´t able to build at all. The visitor area on the start point, The powerstations and of course the dinosaur need to much space. The game forces you to build small enclosers and that´s what is the worst thing to me. I don´t want to feel like a someone who torture animals with tiny cages ... It is horrific that T-Rex do need only a tiny quadrat to feel 100% happy. On my Nublar I was only be able for about 8 enclosers ... Nublar was no fun
04:
Sorna wildlife: There were only two different species ...
05:
Sandbox. The sandbox needs challenge in case you can not build.
06:
The animals. I talked about it before, but yes it is that way. The varity of species is a huge disappointment. We´ve got too many Clons! It is extreme if you unlocked every dinosaur and look on the list. It is like you´ve got 5 different Tigers ... but Why only tigers? Why are there no Leopards? Ankylo = Nodo = Sauropelta = Polacanthus = Crichton ... they feel like they are all the same species. The same AI, the same animations the same kind of animaltyp with barely a difference in their look and gameplay! To be honest I would have prefered less animal species, but more Life and character to the few we´ve got
07:
Illnesses and Tornado. If one dinosaur has got an Illnes than every other in the same encloser has it like in JPOG. It is no challenge. it is annoying especially because all the different illnesses work the same way. The hurricans on pena was annoying as well. It is not realistic or a challenge if there´s one every 5 minute. And no fun at all, but alot of work. A game shouldn´t feel like funless work.
08:
The 3 divisions and sabotage. Why do they want to free the dinosaurs? I don´t get it. Perhaps Science or Security makes sense ... otherwise they do everytime the same things. Poise the animals or shut down the power. Also annyoing work.
09:
Death. The animals live not long enough. I had to bury tons of dead animals over 3 Days of gameplay. The workers and jeeps are not threatend by the animals. I understand you have to manage a lot of things in game (feeders, dead animals, angry dinosaurs) but all of these are no fun and no challenge. They feel like work! I would prefer attack on personal, gyrospheres and jeeps more than all of the annoying work. The last thing to say is if a visitor dies it does not effect the game. okay you lost some stars and perhaps a bit of your money, but that´s it. after five minutes everything is fine again. No Sue no massiv problem on your visitor rate or anything. On the other hand the AI is really bad in the game. If my Raptor is on the run all she does is attack people. No eat. No hide. Nothing. She only hunts down people after people. It feels like she´s a robot or something, but no animal
oh one last thing I need to kill my animals, if they´re too dangerous for my visitors. I don´t understand why I can not kill them if needed like in jpog. that feature need to be in the game. Btw Hurricans do not kill the visitors ...
10:
AI and Behavior. The animals are, as everything in the game at this point, limited. They do not do anything interessting or unique. The swarm of visitors feels like no real human beeing with needs and wishes, but the most depressing thing for me was, that the herbivores eat grass, but their need of food doesn´t increase. I had to build one of the ugly metal plattform in every encloser, because they would starve. No dinosaur feels really special in the game, which is a shame after all ...
11:
Details and Images. If you take a look on the map you´ll see an image for every of your dinosaur. The problem is there´re only a handful of images that are used for every dinosaur. The spinosaurus has got a image of a raptor. It makes everything confusing on the map. The images of the fossils have got the same problem. One picture for every species would be much better and would show much more love to the game ...
12:
Population and the no sleep thing. This is the only need of the dinosaurs which are frustration. The no sleep idea does not match with a game that is a simulation of live. And the population need of some dinosaurs are totally strange. I wanted to build up an huge area for my hadrosaur, but my parasaurolophus has got a very low population need. That meants I wasn´t able to build my huge area. That´s the one thing. The other is the population need stays the same even through the encloser is bigger. I tried to offer more space to my animals, but they feel the same no matter what I do.
13:
No customization and again limitations. You´ve got a handfull of buildings and that´s it. I had to build the same building next to another of the same kind and every part of my park looks like the rest of it. Sandbox is no fun if you haven´t got any options to build. The enclosers look all the same. Same plants, same ground no higher hills. It feels like the game loses everything it has to offer after one hour
14:
Dinosaur food. There´re only 4 food options. Everything on a metal plattform and the only mammal for the carnivores is a goat. I want to feed my dinosaurs as diversified as possible without spending 30.000$ for a Struthio as a snack ... The worst thing is the need of a feeder for the herbivores and no fish option for Suchumimus and Spinosaurus, which are fish eaters and no dinosaur-hunters in real life.
15:
Realism. There´s not much of it IMO. The thing with the food, no growing animals, carnivores are stupid hunting drones, the terrain and plants are similar on every corner, no killing of dangerous animals (people would be scared in real life and would not visit the park when there´re lives a human-killing monster) etc.
16.
Every Island feels like the same. The only difference is the light, but that´s not enough to give you a different feeling.
17:
Genmodifikation are only for stats, but not for behavior. All I wanted was to make a Triceratops, that is as aggressive as a rhino. It should be that kind of dangerous it attacks gyrospheres etc ... But in JWE it not an option.
In fact the Genmodifikation seems to be unrelevant for the gameplay. It is only because of the dinosaur-fight-contracts. Which I don´t enjoyed as well.
18: No story only contracts which have got all the same content and are Work ... again
I have to admit it is a disappointing game at the moment. would it be a better looking JPOG2018 I would say it is okay and at least worth its money, but it is worse than JPOG 15 years ago, because Replay value = 0
Please do not give up on JWE. Please make the game worth it´s money. At this point it´s not I am afraid and it is a shame.
We really need more ZooTycoon2 and less Limitation to enjoy the game more than one day.
