Back in 2017, I was entering my senior year of university and was settling into the first class of the semester. With 15 minutes to spare, I was flipping through my iPhone and checked to see what was on youtube at the time. I still remember that day so well because of my shock seeing this thumbnail on the PlayStation Europe channel.
I was very unprepared to have heard such an announcement, as the very thought of a new dinosaur park management sim that uses the Jurassic Park IP since JPOG was something I did not expect to occur. In hindsight it makes sense, but back then we had Jurassic Park Builder and Jurassic World game to satisfy the desire to rebuild Jurassic Park.
Needless to say, Jurassic World Evolution was announced and I was very very excited to dive right in. It had amazing graphics, was worked by the folks who made Planet Coaster, the game would use movie-accurate models, and brought the sim management experience to consoles. For me, it was a chance to revisit the past, just as how I played JPOG on the PS2, I could soon play JWE on the PS4.
Jurassic World Evolution was such a journey to have experienced, and being in the build-up to launch was a time to remember. We got to speculating what dinosaurs are to be included in the game, while also trying to get as much information as possible from the species profiles that were uploaded weekly. We slowly learn of how the cast from the Jurassic Park franchise would reprise their roles and characters would be fully voiced in the new game. We get to see presentations and demos leading up to the launch of the game and got exposed to a giant community of Jurassic Park and World fans over on the forums, Reddit, youtube, and social media.
The game came out and it was so much fun. While it did have its shortcomings at first, the constant updates that were to follow made the game an enriching experience. It was really awesome to go through the islands of the Muertes Archipelago and unlock the various building items and dinosaurs the game has to offer. We get to go to secret maps and initiate experiments and incubate Hybrids with Dr. Wu, travel and save dinosaurs from a doomed Isla Nublar with Claire Dearing, and travel back in time to work alongside John Hammond and the Jurassic Park Cast of characters to build and successfully open Jurassic Park.
The game was such a loving experience for fans of Jurassic Park, and it was fun to have built enclosures, travel around the park in the Ranger Vehicles and Helicopter, and take so many pictures of the park to share here on the forums and over on social media, all the while discussing new ideas to be implemented, discussing new park layouts, tips, and tricks, and really take in all the game has to offer. It was an amazing 1500 hours of gaming that I cherished, and needless to say, the excitement to revisit and build prehistoric parks continue with Jurassic World Evolution 2.
Hard to imagine 5 years have passed, but here we are now. The game I loved in 2018 has paved the path for a sequel that I genuinely still have a hard time imagining exists. A Jurassic Park sim game that would have players build around the world and echo the legacy of the Jurassic Park franchise from 1993 to 2023. With many buildable items, biomes, and over 100 species of extinct animals to incubate, Jurassic World Evolution 2 has been my favorite game to come back to, and lose many hours planning the next attraction.
The Jurassic World Trilogy is a revival of the Jurassic Park franchise that has gotten people excited about dinosaurs in the popular media once more. To me, Jurassic World Evolution 1 and 2 are the best things to have come from his revival. A game that not only captures the essence of Jurassic Park and World film and media, but celebrates it in a fun sim management game I see myself revisiting for years to come.
Thank you Frontier Developments for collaborating with Universal to bring such a wonderful game to fruition!
Happy 30th Anniversary to Jurassic Park, and Happy 5th Anniversary to Jurassic World Evolution!
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