Hello Everyone! 
In this review I will be going over each aspect of the game, what elements were great, and give my thoughts if improvements are possible. I will place an overall summary of my thoughts of the DLC and update at the very bottom if you wish for a more summarized review. I will try to keep the campaign section spoiler free.
With that in mind, grab a nice cup of tea or any drink of choice, and letâs get started!
For this review I:
⢠Played the Reurn to Jurassic Park Campaign (04:03)
⢠5 starred Isla Nublar - 1993 in campaign mode
⢠5 starred Isla Nublar - 1993 in JW era challenge mode: Jurassic Difficulty (07:17)
⢠5 starred Isla Sorna - 1993 in JP era challenge mode: Jurassic Difficulty (07:19)
⢠Played in Isla Nublar sandbox mode with 42 species and 254 dinosaurs (15:04)
CAMPAIGN MODE
This is currently the best campaign in Jurassic World Evolution, and that is no exaggeration. As a soft canon continuation of the original Jurassic Park film, there has been a lot of implementations and elements that cater to those whom have enjoyed the first movie. From the unique title sequence, the roster of characters, and the writing, this campaign has been a lot of fun. I especially like the tease of fan theories and attempt to answer some unclear questions.
This campaign launches alongside update 1.12, and this makes use of the implementation of vehicular destruction by limiting players to manage a park with just a ranger vehicle at hand. There are more missions that revolve around the ranger vehicle and I felt I was more involved in the Jurassic Park setting as a triceratops I would once see as a passive A.I. into a creature that notices me and gets agitated by my presence.
Likewise, it does a good job introducing the player to managing a park in the Jurassic Park era. With the split between JP and JW, there is a bit more than an aesthetic change, and this era wants to have players to think differently in park layout. No longer is the construction of paths and fences made for galleries and platforms in mind, but this time around focuses on having tours as the only means to have this park up and running. Players who like to have a more open park with an expanded enclosure size and a structure akin to a wildlife park would like this mode of play.
Campaign mode was never really the priority I look forward to in a new expansion pack, but it is a nice passage this time around. I may see myself playing this campaign again to see how I could handle things more differently.
COMPSOGNATHUS
This has been a major surprise. When she was first announced, we were misled by a game site informing us that she would be in her own peaceable paddock, which was a believable statement due to her size. This was later debunked by Frontier as they informed us that the dinosaur is a free roaming dinosaur like every other dinosaur in the game so far! With this in mind, how does she function in game, and what makes her unique from the other dinosaurs?
For starters, she is truly a small creature! The blades of grass are already tall enough to hide her small body. When she eats from the meat feeder, she would pluck a small cut and eat on the ground, so as to not be swallowed by the feeder when it will restock. Large carnivores ignore them and wonât even bother chasing them like the other small carnivores, where small carnivores themselves would seize the opportunity and chase down the compyâs and swallow them whole. This small size is truly unique for this dinosaur, but there is a bit more that I learned about that makes her just as lovable.
When looking at her stats, she has an unmodified social max of 25 and an unmodified population max of 30. If I am not mistaken, this makes her the most sociable dinosaur in the game, that even the population max of 30 is unique to her. She could either be by herself or be part of the largest pack in the game.
Her comfort is also interesting, she has the lowest comfort threshold at 5%, the lowest I have seen in the game. This means that it will take longer to aggravate her than the usual struthiomimus.
As players have also noted, she is not really that dangerous. She would not attack any dinosaur in the game, has no way to defend herself, and would trample guests without a kill animation. She could only ever attack her kind if the social max has been bypassed. This makes the compsognathus as harmless as the standard small herbivore.
There is a flip side to this, what I find really interesting is that it is not the compsognathus herself that is dangerous, but her large social pool alongside her small size. If her enclosure breaks and is connected to another enclosure, her population will trigger every dinosaur in the other paddock if the compsognathus count is of a high enough population. Her danger is that she has a domino effect in making every other dinosaur uncomfortable. And unless the other dinosaurs are small carnivores, there is very little they could do and will break out of their enclosures. This in turn makes them really difficult to recapture as their small size is their best defense against the playerâs trying to contain them again after a breakout. So there is a consequence in investing in a lot of small compys, despite their cheap incubation cost and upkeep.
What could be improved?
Honestly, nothing. I think the compsognathus is a great addition in the game, the game has their large sauropods and carnivores, so having a dinosaur so small is a refreshing change of pace and compliments the already large dinosaurs even more. Hopefully this could lead to a few more small critters to expand the variety of the tiny roster.
If additions are to be made, I think we could benefit with a net/trap option for the compsognathus. That way, players could have a automated option to capture escaped companies and similarly small dinosaurs in the later part of the game when the breakout gets too much to handle. Some new animations would also be nice to let the compies stick out more. I doubt there could be new animations to let them attack guests (where the guests position themselves and the carnivore gets ready to attack). I do think it will be humorous and visually appealing to see the compy switch to a jumping animation when chasing guests at a close range. This could signify to the players that the compsognathus is attempting to scare the larger humans and pounce them when contact has been made. It will make a bit more sense how the guests would fall over when being pounced by a compsognathus as opposed to be pushed around easily like feathers in the wind.
PTERANODON
The Pteranodon is yet another unique addition to the roster, in which she is the first pterosaur in the game. Her situation is different because of that fact as she would not be containable in the gameâs current fencing system. This has been solved by the aviary, a dome shaped building that has made both an appearance in Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World. This makes a lot of sense canonically and mechanically, so it flows well into the gameâs current engine and setting.
In the aviary, we are able to have up to 6 Pteranodon, and customization limited to building upgrades and skin options. This limitation of customization is the result of using a small paddock. The Pteranodons fly around, could be sold, die of old age, or escape. The interaction is also limited due to the extremely simplified exhibit. Owning Pteranodons is then functionally a means to boost dinosaur ratings in such a small space without worrying on food, environment, population, dinosaur compatibility, or diseases. As long as the aviary has power and is repaired as soon as it breaks in a storm, then it could only benefit the player in raising numbers efficiently.
I like the inclusion of the aviary, itâs massive size and shape makes it stand out in a park. And its mechanic feels like an investment for players who wish to raise their dinosaur star rating without worrying about space. Plus, the animations available in the aviary are well done, the sounds are superb, and the camera options allow for some great shots.
What could be improved?
For starters, I would like to see the Pteranodon camera to allow players to swap between flock members with the direction buttons like every other dinosaur in the game instead of going to the Pteranodon menu and selecting the Pteranodon we would like to see.
Also, I think this aviary could be improved with the implementation of genetic modification.
The aviary would allow for 2 different upgrades to be placed, success rates and incubation speed. When playing the game in challenge or campaign modes, players first have to retrieve at least 50% genome of the Pteranodon in order to incubate them in the aviary. The Pteranodon could be hatched successfully if players have placed in the success rate 2.0 upgrades, as they should have access to those upgrades by the time they reach 3 stars.
However, once the Pteranodon genome has reached 100%, the success rates upgrades become useless as players would be better off using the incubation speed upgrades. We do have the ability to change the look of the Pteranodon with 5 other skins, a change that brings the success rate down to 95%. However, that 5% failure is really miniscule and would not warrant a need for a success rate to be implemented.
Implementing a means to use the gene traits we have in the game would allow for customization and to grow our aviary over time and provide us a need to use the success rate after acquiring 100% Pteranodon genome. Pteranodons as creatures are limited to 2 stats: lifespan, and rating. Since no other stats are available, only gene traits that affect the lifespan are usable for customizing the Pteranodons.
Customizing the Pteranodons would be different from other dinosaurs as we would only need to select a single gene trait to modify the Pteranodon to keep things simple. Since we are only selecting a single gene trait, we would need the results to reflect the quality of the genes by showcasing what kind of Pteranodon we would get by impending them with a single trait.
So Pteranodons could be like this:
(These estimations are done with full authenticity rating, they are not final but to give an idea on how these traits could be implemented).
⢠Base Pteranodon:
98 rating, 70 lifespan, 100% Success rate: Base price
⢠Pteranodon with âCardio Strengthâ:
99 rating, 100 lifespan, 80% Success rate: A tad pricey
⢠Pteranodon with âReaction Speedâ:
120 rating, 75 lifespan, 60% Success rate: Pricey
⢠Pteranodon with âBrain Ageingâ:
110 rating, 85 lifespan, 60% Success rate: Pricey
⢠Pteranodon with âImmune Responseâ:
120 rating, 100 lifespan, 40% Success rate: Very pricey
⢠Pteranodon with âStrong Muscle Fibersâ:
170 rating, 90 lifespan, 0% Success rate: Expensive
⢠Pteranodon with âHyperefficent Bloodâ:
120 rating, 160 lifespan, 0% Success rate Expensive
⢠Pteranodon with âRapid Metabolismâ:
175 rating, 140 lifespan, -30% Success rate: Most expensive
With this, not only could we choose a skin option, but also choose what kind of Pteranodon we would like to have in the park. Should we go for Pteranodons that will stay around a while longer? Or do we want Pteranodons to raise the dinosaur star rating high enough to win challenge mode?
Likewise, another implementation could be made: Feeding frequency.
This one is very straightforward. How often do you feed the Pteranodons? A choice between cost and health of the pterosaurs.
There will be 4 options:
⢠Frugal (Half the upkeep cost, 50% lifespan)
⢠Recommended (Same upkeep cost, same lifespan)
⢠Additional (x1.5 the upkeep cost, 120% lifespan)
⢠Generous (x2.5the upkeep cost, 140% lifespan)
Each one correlates to how often the Pterosaurs will be fed. The more you feed them the longer they live, but the costs of upkeep would be greater. And vice-versa where you could cheapen the costs of upkeep in expense of halving the lifespan of the pterosaurs. This would allow players to spare no expense and have the longest living Pteranodons in any park, or risk everything to reach the dinosaur count in the final moments of challenge mode without losing valuable money.
At least with these 2 additions, we could have more customization for our birdcage beyond the number of Pteranodons. One more thing I would like to add before we move on, I think there should be a feeding animation to the Pteranodon. This animation does not necessarily reflect their hunger need (or lack thereof) but play every now and then to give the idea that the Pteranodons feed. There is this nice section of the aviary I took a picture of which looks suitable for a feeding animation. Where the Pteranodon would fly around the middle pillar, dive in near the body of water and scoop up a fish, land on a platform, and swallow the fish whole.
LEGACY SKINS
One of the biggest hype behind this DLC is the addition of legacy skins to the base game dinosaurs. These skins range between a recoloration to an entirely new model. The skins in the pack are really excellent and would introduce some fresh looks to some of the gray looking dinosaurs. Some dinosaurs like the triceratops, ankylosaurus, and stegosaurus are now sporting new models that represent their franchise debut, alongside some extra skins that are not film canon but add some variety to the new model. The parasaurolophus and tyrannosaurus rex both have new skins that do not change the model but add some much-needed variations that cater to movie fans and players who like a more colorful look. The Brachiosaurus and raptors have benefited the most with this DLC, the Brachiosaurus got a whopping 12 skins that cater to a wide range of colors, 6 on the 1993 model and 6 on the 2001 model. The raptors only got 5, but those 5 are arguably the best skins introduced in the game, each one taken out of the movies in which they are featured in, especially the 2001 variants with their distinct skulls and male variant with quills on his head.
The skins are great to have, and cater to players who like the more retro look of JP design. Likewise, this adds a feel of subspecies for certain dinosaurs, so it adds further variety in exhibition setup. There has been some dinosaur omissions from the skin update such as the gallimimus, dilophosaurus, and spinosaurus. This may be due to time constraints and them having a default skin close to their debut look, and the other dinosaurs had a greater priority to have their old JP designs be depicted, time will tell if the other dinosaurs would receive a similar legacy update.
MAPS
Credit goes to u/86karlos for making this map comparison. Thank you!
There are 2 new maps introduced in this DLC, Nublar 1993, and Sorna 1993.
Nublar 1993 has a map size of 1.73 km². For comparison, main campaign Isla Nublar is 1.08 km². This makes this map the largest map in the game, plus the overall circular shape of the map makes this the most balanced without any odd plateaus, bridges, or mountains to worry about. I really enjoyed the size of this map as I get to make more expansive exhibits, and will be my go to map for large parks in sandbox mode. I just recently finished sandbox mode in the Jurassic park era and filled it with 254 dinosaurs of 42 different species, I was not aiming to cram in all of the dinosaurs in the roster and focused on open exhibits with sizeable populations. As a base PS4 player, it was fun to test out the limits of the console (it was chugging the frame rate with the last 5 dinosaurs) but I was really happy to see the extent of my park and still had a fun time despite the frame rate drop in the end. We need more maps like this!
Sorna 1993 is a bit different, this map is 0.57 km². Making it the 3rd smallest map after Isla Pena (0.41 km²) and Isla Tacano research facility (0.4 km²). I will say that this is not as welcoming of a map as Nublar 1993, but it is built for the new JP tour system in mind. The map is the most branching map in the game, with 6 narrow connections that the bridge the mapâs 5 land masses together. The narrow paths and open areas act as a natural divider for your dinosaurs, and it has a decently sized middle area for the main section of the park to be built in. This map is more catered for the players who like a more limited park size to work with, and was fun to play in 1993 challenge mode as the bridges could be used as routes for the tours.
THE JURASSIC PARK ERA
One of the biggest surprises during the lead up of the DLC's release was the information that the Jurassic Park assets would be exclusive to the Jurassic Park era. This was disheartening to hear as it limits the mixture of world assets with park assets, where we could make a park that is part of Jurassic world with a nostalgia section to reintroduce the Jurassic Park the franchise originated from. Besides that, why the split?
The split is a means to fully emulate the park building feel for the original Jurassic Park film. We no longer have major facilities and large buildings of Jurassic World, but have smaller safari themed buildings that give off more of a wildlife preserve, and this is what the era is going for. One thing players will realize is the limited number of buildings, we no longer have variations of guest catering stores and various research facilities. Instead we have only a few that covers the main basics, and the facility needs are handled by the visitor center that houses the modules needed to do expeditions, DNA extractions, and research. The Jurassic World entrance monorail is replaced with the Arrival Helipad, a placeable building that barely takes up space. Even paths only have a narrow version and does not have the wider variant found in Jurassic Park, as the transport need has been completely omitted in this era, so no large paths or monorails are needed. All of this is really simplified so to have all guest needs done in a designated are of the park, and that is the major idea.
Playing the game in Jurassic Park era is not just an aesthetic switch but almost a new game mode. Park building is not planned with viewing platforms and galleries in mind and is exclusively focused on the Jurassic Park tour. A tour vehicle similar to that of the original film where guests follow a path with a new binocular vision to expand their viewing area. Because of this, exhibits are also planned to allow for the tour path to pass through them or near them for exhibits that houses the carnivores. This then changes the balance between guests and dinosaurs, where guests are moved to a single section of a park where all their needs are met, and dinosaurs get to have more open and expanded exhibits. Building with this theme in mind is rather fun, it allows for players to focus in a more simplified park management that focuses less on the guests needs in the whole park and more in dinosaur management and balancing out the species. Likewise, the different direction in park layout allowed for a more flowy fence placement. In standard Jurassic World era game, I would make parks with a grid focused path and fencing, and I found myself making fencing that curves around to accommodate the dinosaurs and allow for the tour to take different directions and explore my park in the Jurassic Park era.
Challenge mode
Challenge mode has also been updated to fit the JP era. In challenge mode, the divisions are not focused in having the top attention in park management but all are willing to contribute to the growth of the park. Your 3 major divisions are John Hammond that focuses on the parkâs growth and expense, Alan Grant that focuses on fossil hunts and dinosaur incubation, and Ellie Sattler that focuses on the parkâs and dinosaurâs health and authenticity. Alongside these 3 are Cabot Finch and Ian Malcom, Cabot finch as the intern to Hammond would give more money and building based missions that would invest to John Hammondâs division, where Ian Malcolm cares more on the safety of the guests and would give missions to construct guest shelters, weather defense, and time-based missions in guest safety. There is no threat of sabotage and challenge mode focuses in maintaining park growth while surviving the threats of dinosaurs, disease, storms, and financial management.
A decision that I really love is that the missions felt like they belong to those divisions. It no longer feels like âhatch a stegosaurus for science, hatch a stegosaurus for security, and hatch a stegosaurus for entertainmentâ. These missions are now more expected from the divisions we see in the game. I would expect Dr. Alan Grant to give me fossil based missions cause he is the paleontologist, and of course John Hammond wants to give me missions to help increase guest count, this sense of expectations would allow for players to actually think to choose what mission they want without the feeling of âI really want to take this mission, but Ellie Sattler will sabotage my park if I do not give her attentionâ.
Another really cool reason why I want to choose some missions over others is the implementation of unlocking research objects. By doing Alan Grant missions, you unlock access to dinosaur related rewards, Ellie Sattler would reward the player with dinosaur dig and care items, and John Hammond would award the player with park management assets. You could go through challenge mode without accepting any of these missions and not risk sabotage, but will miss out in researchable content that would aid in park management. The method of unlocking research items feels more like earning rewards for missions as opposed to earning trust with a division to avoid sabotage.
Lastly, another change in Jurassic Park era is the removal of the ACU building. The Ranger team does all of the dinosaur related work and has the ACU transport choppers at hand when a dinosaur is tranquilized and needs to be moved. This change would make players be more involved in the park as they drive through the exhibits they have constructed and avoid dinosaurs attacking the vehicle, as opposed to flying over everything with no consequences. This change also makes use of update 1.12âs vehicular destruction as it allows for a sense of mortality when dealing with these dinosaurs, adding some much-needed tension in managing a prehistoric park.
What could be improved?
MORE MISSIONS
There needs to be more missions in the Jurassic Park Era. After a while, the limited amount of missions became more noticable. I think this needs to be expanded on to reduce the mundane feel of accepting the same missions over and over again. I also believe there is plenty to work with in terms of what could be a new missions, some exclusive to the JP era as well.
⢠Photography based missions: There is a lack of photography based missions in my playthrough. And I think photography could work in this era. The Lost World Jurassic Park begins with Hammond hiring a photography crew to document Isla Sorna to showcase to the world that the island is a natural habitat for these dinosaurs and must remain untouched by humanity, maybe he would like you to take photographs of the dinosaurs in this park to showcase the variety this park has to offer.
⢠DNA sampling: This is Jurassic Park at its prime, and we are still unsure how pure the dinosaurs are, so Ellie Sattler would ask for the player to dart out a specific dinosaur in the park (TRC â 001) for example. That way we could have missions where the player needs to go and grab a sampling of a specific dinosaur or a member of that species.
⢠Dinosaur care: I could also see Dr. Ellie Sattler requesting the player to ensure that the dinosaurs in the park get the right amount of food and water for a set period of time. âmake sure that the proceratosaurus has access to food and water for 3 minutesâ. Or âMake sure all dinosaurs have access to food and water for 4 minutesâ.
⢠Recovering dinosaurâs health, comfort, and illness: Missions where you are tasked to take care of a specific dinosaur. Not only will it reward the player, but it should help keep unrecorded issues in check before they get worse.
⢠Observe a dinosaur for a minute: A mission where you get in the ranger vehicle and observe a dinosaur in their enclosure for a minute. This is to emulate researching the dinosaurs in the park and would allow for a survival mode of sorts, where players would get into a ranger vehicle and be near a mission dinosaur. This could either be observe a docile gallimimus flock, be wary of a triceratops spontaneous attack, or avoid the continuous attacks of a tyrannosaurus rex!
IMPORT THE DINOSAURS
Allow players to implement a hatchery through the Arrival Helipad. Using the Arrival Helipad in campaign mode to bring in dinosaurs from Isla Sorna was fun. It relieved us of having to construct an incubation lab and helped us save time and space by flying the dinosaurs to the locations we want in our parks. It will be a missed opportunity if we could not use this feature outside of campaign mode.
UPDATE THE RAPTOR PEN
And finally, the raptor pen. The raptor pen has only a single use in the campaign mode, and after that it is relegated to a decorative building. There really is not much use out of it once campaign mode is over, but I think there could be some use to it for outside campaign mode.
As a building that is associated with raptors in the JP franchise, why not give it a special effect where raptors dropped in the building and released will receive a bonus 30% boost to their base rating? Housing a raptor in the raptor pen could be an additional method to raise the ratings of the dinosaur further, defining them more from the other small carnivores.
This building would boost the rating of a pack of 6 raptors from 444 (74 rating raptor * 6) to 577, which is the equivalent of having an additional raptor and a half to the pack. Saving you the money in incubating the additional raptor and a half.
LET MR.DNA DO MORE STUFF
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUaFYzFFbBU
There is a design rule I like to follow, there has to be a reason to implement something in a project. If it adds nothing of value, it should not be in the project to begin with. Mr.DNA just BARLEY adds something to the UI. The concept of Mr.DNA is nostalgic, a fun little character that we could see in the research section. And as cute as he is, all he does is point to himself, and that is underwhelming. I think having Mr.DNA in the research tab UI is cute, but he has to do a little more for him to feel like a worthwhile implementation, nothing too drastic. Seeing as how he is a cute mascot to entertain the player in the research menu, let us have fun with that!
⢠Let Mr.DNA have a unique animation when researching items. Mr.DNA's character design is a strand of balls. I think it would be fun to see him get into a small animation loop when the player is researching something. So if the player gets into researching a fence upgrade and leaves the building tab, the player would see Mr.DNA in a Neutron loop, akin to that of researching something scientific.
⢠Mr.DNA could change his looks to a dinosaur if the player is researching a new fossil or genetic material. In the Jurassic Park movie, he describes himself as the blueprint of a living thing and turns into a silhouette of a Brachiosaurus. We could have him shift his look to 4 dinosaurs similar to this, a sauropod, a ceratopsid, a stegosaurid, and a theropod, and loop again. This will give the player a feel that they are researching a new asset or helpful genes for their dinosaurs.
⢠Have Mr.DNA goof around when no research is done. We could see him play basketball with his body, or juggle the DNA code, or maybe be surprised to see him be replaced by a frog! (as the frog is the key gene to fill up the gaps). That way we could feel he is entertaining himself as we are busy handling the chaos of the park. It will be funny to recover from a disastrous tornado attack and go to the research tab, only to see him in a sauropod body.
LEGACY MODE FOR CHALLENGE MODE
I have been thinking during the playthrough of JP and loved the experience, and I do not mind the limited buildings and dinosaurs as they are to both emulate a starting park but also a compressed way of park management to focus more on dinosaur exhibits and tours. I will say however, it still feels too limiting at times.
Simply put, let us have a mode called âLegacy Modeâ in the challenge menu. This mode has 2 options: on and off.
⢠ON: Setting the mode to on would start up a challenge mode where players are given the default roster of dinosaurs, buildings, and the like. The same mode we are playing now, untouched.
⢠OFF: Setting the mode to off would allow players to have access to all dinosaurs as options in challenge mode, and DLC content that could add to the JP experience. This in turn would help extend the replay-ability of this era and give players some options in building their parks.
With Legacy Mode turned off we could have:
⢠Access to all dinosaurs from base game, DLC, and updates in our JP playthrough.
⢠An option to create hybrids
⢠Global Operations should be accessible, we especially would like the transport team speed increase upgrade.
⢠Success Rate 4.0 and Incubation Speed 4.0
⢠New Genes from the Secrets of Dr.Wu DLC
⢠Advanced Storm Station, we will more likely use this building in a guest area already so compressed in the JP era.
⢠The entire Paleobotany set to allow us to experiment with dinosaur combinations in the JP era.
As of writing this, we are currently a year and a half of support after the gameâs launch. There will be more to be added to the game with further updates and DLC content. Having the JP be limited to certain dinosaurs and building options is fun for a different approach in park layouts, but having that limitation be the only option would harm JP eraâs impact in the long run when more stuff gets added to the game. The era is already in a setting where we contract Jurassic Park that did not fail, so to have more options for the JP playthrough would add to its replay ability and future interest in coming back, and having some additions from DLC wonât harm the experience as players gets to choose what they would have in their parks. A good sum of DLC content could blend in the JP era, so let us have fun with the content for a more expanded experience.
Keep in mind that Sandbox could also benefit from the additions from legacy mode, Nublar 1993 is fun to play in, but the large park size makes me wish the Transport team speed increase upgrade is available, and Incubation Speed 4.0 to help increase the dinosaur incubation need.
OTHER ELEMENTS TO UPDATE AND PATCH UP
Alongside the release of the DLC, there has been an update to release alongside it that allowed for some patch fixes, new inclusions, and QOL changes. I wish to see some of these things to be introduced or patched in the next update.
⢠Have the Jurassic World Tour be Destructible, similar to the Jurassic Park Tour.
⢠Have more than one dinosaur attack the ranger vehicle in one time. Some dinosaurs such as the raptors, could be seen as a more sociable creature than the triceratops, so having more than one raptor attack the vehicle would help make them more dangerous than your average large dinosaur.
⢠Allow players to phase into the Aviary with camera mode.
⢠The Dilophosaurus can now socialize with their frills, I like this new implementation but I believe there should be a transitional animation for the frill to open and close. As is, it feels very robotic as it just clicks in an out, not as lively as the frill opening when the creature left the incubation lab.
⢠The 2001 skinned brachiosaurus still clips her neck when leaving the incubation lab, an issue that has been resolved for the Jurassic World and 1993 Brachiosaurus.
⢠Adjust the Compsognathusâs body to ground distance as it climbs up a slope, it currently looks like it is sliding its body across the ground.
⢠Have the Compsognathus be closer together when forming packs, they are quite the distance away from each other in my exhibits, their bulk as a pack would make them more observable.
⢠Allow players to manually restart tours without needing to delete the tour itself, as there would be moments where cars would get stuck in narrow areas and block the path for the rest of the tour.
⢠The Camarasaurus has her head fully clip as she leaves the JP era Hammond incubation lab.
⢠Carnivores are reportedly back to their kill everything on sight mode when the game first came out, despite the changes done in sandbox mode.
⢠There is an explosive audio bug when you take a picture of a dinosaur and accept or decline when in a tour during the tourâs vocal moment.
⢠Cabot Finchâs intro and exit dialogue in challenge mode has disappeared.
⢠I had a bug with a proceratosaurus that has been destroying fences nonstop after a storm has ended and her comfort reach to normal a long time ago.
⢠I brought this up before but I believe we need new fossil artworks, especially now with the Pteranodon in the game. It is odd to see the Pteranodon use a small theropod fossil to resemble that of a pterosaur, updating this would add more uniqueness to the Pteranodon, as it is not even a dinosaur to begin with.
⢠Have signage be adapted to the Jurassic World Era, we could benefit using the decoration items for our Jurassic World tours and galleries.
⢠I really enjoyed the inclusion of the redwoods and wish to see a few more natural scenery items to expand the possible biomes we could have in the game, such as dead trees for desert environments, logs to make exhibits similar to gallimimus scene in Jurassic Park, long grass that hides raptors akin to that in the Lost World, prehistoric plant species for more accurate exhibits, and a possibility to include the shale brush in all sandbox maps. If JP era will focus more in exhibit design, let us have more tools to design the exhibits with.
CONCLUSION
Return to Jurassic Park DLC has became my favorite addition in the game. Despite the split between eras, I did have a fun amount of time playing its campaign mode, challenge mode, and sandbox mode. The new creatures add some needed variety to the roster and the legacy skins freshens up the current roster with new looks that cater to our nostalgic needs. This DLC may need to include some updates to enhance the experience and keep the game mode relevant when more additions are brought into the game, but the experience overall has been fun. I would recommend this DLC to players who enjoy the Jurassic Park experience, and players who like a more safari focused form of play.
This has been my view of the game, but please let me know how your experience was with the latest DLC and update.
Here is looking forward to the year 2020 and the future of JWE!
In this review I will be going over each aspect of the game, what elements were great, and give my thoughts if improvements are possible. I will place an overall summary of my thoughts of the DLC and update at the very bottom if you wish for a more summarized review. I will try to keep the campaign section spoiler free.
With that in mind, grab a nice cup of tea or any drink of choice, and letâs get started!
For this review I:
⢠Played the Reurn to Jurassic Park Campaign (04:03)
⢠5 starred Isla Nublar - 1993 in campaign mode
⢠5 starred Isla Nublar - 1993 in JW era challenge mode: Jurassic Difficulty (07:17)
⢠5 starred Isla Sorna - 1993 in JP era challenge mode: Jurassic Difficulty (07:19)
⢠Played in Isla Nublar sandbox mode with 42 species and 254 dinosaurs (15:04)
CAMPAIGN MODE
This is currently the best campaign in Jurassic World Evolution, and that is no exaggeration. As a soft canon continuation of the original Jurassic Park film, there has been a lot of implementations and elements that cater to those whom have enjoyed the first movie. From the unique title sequence, the roster of characters, and the writing, this campaign has been a lot of fun. I especially like the tease of fan theories and attempt to answer some unclear questions.
This campaign launches alongside update 1.12, and this makes use of the implementation of vehicular destruction by limiting players to manage a park with just a ranger vehicle at hand. There are more missions that revolve around the ranger vehicle and I felt I was more involved in the Jurassic Park setting as a triceratops I would once see as a passive A.I. into a creature that notices me and gets agitated by my presence.
Likewise, it does a good job introducing the player to managing a park in the Jurassic Park era. With the split between JP and JW, there is a bit more than an aesthetic change, and this era wants to have players to think differently in park layout. No longer is the construction of paths and fences made for galleries and platforms in mind, but this time around focuses on having tours as the only means to have this park up and running. Players who like to have a more open park with an expanded enclosure size and a structure akin to a wildlife park would like this mode of play.
Campaign mode was never really the priority I look forward to in a new expansion pack, but it is a nice passage this time around. I may see myself playing this campaign again to see how I could handle things more differently.
COMPSOGNATHUS
This has been a major surprise. When she was first announced, we were misled by a game site informing us that she would be in her own peaceable paddock, which was a believable statement due to her size. This was later debunked by Frontier as they informed us that the dinosaur is a free roaming dinosaur like every other dinosaur in the game so far! With this in mind, how does she function in game, and what makes her unique from the other dinosaurs?
For starters, she is truly a small creature! The blades of grass are already tall enough to hide her small body. When she eats from the meat feeder, she would pluck a small cut and eat on the ground, so as to not be swallowed by the feeder when it will restock. Large carnivores ignore them and wonât even bother chasing them like the other small carnivores, where small carnivores themselves would seize the opportunity and chase down the compyâs and swallow them whole. This small size is truly unique for this dinosaur, but there is a bit more that I learned about that makes her just as lovable.
When looking at her stats, she has an unmodified social max of 25 and an unmodified population max of 30. If I am not mistaken, this makes her the most sociable dinosaur in the game, that even the population max of 30 is unique to her. She could either be by herself or be part of the largest pack in the game.
Her comfort is also interesting, she has the lowest comfort threshold at 5%, the lowest I have seen in the game. This means that it will take longer to aggravate her than the usual struthiomimus.
As players have also noted, she is not really that dangerous. She would not attack any dinosaur in the game, has no way to defend herself, and would trample guests without a kill animation. She could only ever attack her kind if the social max has been bypassed. This makes the compsognathus as harmless as the standard small herbivore.
There is a flip side to this, what I find really interesting is that it is not the compsognathus herself that is dangerous, but her large social pool alongside her small size. If her enclosure breaks and is connected to another enclosure, her population will trigger every dinosaur in the other paddock if the compsognathus count is of a high enough population. Her danger is that she has a domino effect in making every other dinosaur uncomfortable. And unless the other dinosaurs are small carnivores, there is very little they could do and will break out of their enclosures. This in turn makes them really difficult to recapture as their small size is their best defense against the playerâs trying to contain them again after a breakout. So there is a consequence in investing in a lot of small compys, despite their cheap incubation cost and upkeep.
What could be improved?
Honestly, nothing. I think the compsognathus is a great addition in the game, the game has their large sauropods and carnivores, so having a dinosaur so small is a refreshing change of pace and compliments the already large dinosaurs even more. Hopefully this could lead to a few more small critters to expand the variety of the tiny roster.
If additions are to be made, I think we could benefit with a net/trap option for the compsognathus. That way, players could have a automated option to capture escaped companies and similarly small dinosaurs in the later part of the game when the breakout gets too much to handle. Some new animations would also be nice to let the compies stick out more. I doubt there could be new animations to let them attack guests (where the guests position themselves and the carnivore gets ready to attack). I do think it will be humorous and visually appealing to see the compy switch to a jumping animation when chasing guests at a close range. This could signify to the players that the compsognathus is attempting to scare the larger humans and pounce them when contact has been made. It will make a bit more sense how the guests would fall over when being pounced by a compsognathus as opposed to be pushed around easily like feathers in the wind.
PTERANODON
The Pteranodon is yet another unique addition to the roster, in which she is the first pterosaur in the game. Her situation is different because of that fact as she would not be containable in the gameâs current fencing system. This has been solved by the aviary, a dome shaped building that has made both an appearance in Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World. This makes a lot of sense canonically and mechanically, so it flows well into the gameâs current engine and setting.
In the aviary, we are able to have up to 6 Pteranodon, and customization limited to building upgrades and skin options. This limitation of customization is the result of using a small paddock. The Pteranodons fly around, could be sold, die of old age, or escape. The interaction is also limited due to the extremely simplified exhibit. Owning Pteranodons is then functionally a means to boost dinosaur ratings in such a small space without worrying on food, environment, population, dinosaur compatibility, or diseases. As long as the aviary has power and is repaired as soon as it breaks in a storm, then it could only benefit the player in raising numbers efficiently.
I like the inclusion of the aviary, itâs massive size and shape makes it stand out in a park. And its mechanic feels like an investment for players who wish to raise their dinosaur star rating without worrying about space. Plus, the animations available in the aviary are well done, the sounds are superb, and the camera options allow for some great shots.
What could be improved?
For starters, I would like to see the Pteranodon camera to allow players to swap between flock members with the direction buttons like every other dinosaur in the game instead of going to the Pteranodon menu and selecting the Pteranodon we would like to see.
Also, I think this aviary could be improved with the implementation of genetic modification.
The aviary would allow for 2 different upgrades to be placed, success rates and incubation speed. When playing the game in challenge or campaign modes, players first have to retrieve at least 50% genome of the Pteranodon in order to incubate them in the aviary. The Pteranodon could be hatched successfully if players have placed in the success rate 2.0 upgrades, as they should have access to those upgrades by the time they reach 3 stars.
However, once the Pteranodon genome has reached 100%, the success rates upgrades become useless as players would be better off using the incubation speed upgrades. We do have the ability to change the look of the Pteranodon with 5 other skins, a change that brings the success rate down to 95%. However, that 5% failure is really miniscule and would not warrant a need for a success rate to be implemented.
Implementing a means to use the gene traits we have in the game would allow for customization and to grow our aviary over time and provide us a need to use the success rate after acquiring 100% Pteranodon genome. Pteranodons as creatures are limited to 2 stats: lifespan, and rating. Since no other stats are available, only gene traits that affect the lifespan are usable for customizing the Pteranodons.
Customizing the Pteranodons would be different from other dinosaurs as we would only need to select a single gene trait to modify the Pteranodon to keep things simple. Since we are only selecting a single gene trait, we would need the results to reflect the quality of the genes by showcasing what kind of Pteranodon we would get by impending them with a single trait.
So Pteranodons could be like this:
(These estimations are done with full authenticity rating, they are not final but to give an idea on how these traits could be implemented).
⢠Base Pteranodon:
98 rating, 70 lifespan, 100% Success rate: Base price
⢠Pteranodon with âCardio Strengthâ:
99 rating, 100 lifespan, 80% Success rate: A tad pricey
⢠Pteranodon with âReaction Speedâ:
120 rating, 75 lifespan, 60% Success rate: Pricey
⢠Pteranodon with âBrain Ageingâ:
110 rating, 85 lifespan, 60% Success rate: Pricey
⢠Pteranodon with âImmune Responseâ:
120 rating, 100 lifespan, 40% Success rate: Very pricey
⢠Pteranodon with âStrong Muscle Fibersâ:
170 rating, 90 lifespan, 0% Success rate: Expensive
⢠Pteranodon with âHyperefficent Bloodâ:
120 rating, 160 lifespan, 0% Success rate Expensive
⢠Pteranodon with âRapid Metabolismâ:
175 rating, 140 lifespan, -30% Success rate: Most expensive
With this, not only could we choose a skin option, but also choose what kind of Pteranodon we would like to have in the park. Should we go for Pteranodons that will stay around a while longer? Or do we want Pteranodons to raise the dinosaur star rating high enough to win challenge mode?
Likewise, another implementation could be made: Feeding frequency.
This one is very straightforward. How often do you feed the Pteranodons? A choice between cost and health of the pterosaurs.
There will be 4 options:
⢠Frugal (Half the upkeep cost, 50% lifespan)
⢠Recommended (Same upkeep cost, same lifespan)
⢠Additional (x1.5 the upkeep cost, 120% lifespan)
⢠Generous (x2.5the upkeep cost, 140% lifespan)
Each one correlates to how often the Pterosaurs will be fed. The more you feed them the longer they live, but the costs of upkeep would be greater. And vice-versa where you could cheapen the costs of upkeep in expense of halving the lifespan of the pterosaurs. This would allow players to spare no expense and have the longest living Pteranodons in any park, or risk everything to reach the dinosaur count in the final moments of challenge mode without losing valuable money.
At least with these 2 additions, we could have more customization for our birdcage beyond the number of Pteranodons. One more thing I would like to add before we move on, I think there should be a feeding animation to the Pteranodon. This animation does not necessarily reflect their hunger need (or lack thereof) but play every now and then to give the idea that the Pteranodons feed. There is this nice section of the aviary I took a picture of which looks suitable for a feeding animation. Where the Pteranodon would fly around the middle pillar, dive in near the body of water and scoop up a fish, land on a platform, and swallow the fish whole.
LEGACY SKINS
One of the biggest hype behind this DLC is the addition of legacy skins to the base game dinosaurs. These skins range between a recoloration to an entirely new model. The skins in the pack are really excellent and would introduce some fresh looks to some of the gray looking dinosaurs. Some dinosaurs like the triceratops, ankylosaurus, and stegosaurus are now sporting new models that represent their franchise debut, alongside some extra skins that are not film canon but add some variety to the new model. The parasaurolophus and tyrannosaurus rex both have new skins that do not change the model but add some much-needed variations that cater to movie fans and players who like a more colorful look. The Brachiosaurus and raptors have benefited the most with this DLC, the Brachiosaurus got a whopping 12 skins that cater to a wide range of colors, 6 on the 1993 model and 6 on the 2001 model. The raptors only got 5, but those 5 are arguably the best skins introduced in the game, each one taken out of the movies in which they are featured in, especially the 2001 variants with their distinct skulls and male variant with quills on his head.
The skins are great to have, and cater to players who like the more retro look of JP design. Likewise, this adds a feel of subspecies for certain dinosaurs, so it adds further variety in exhibition setup. There has been some dinosaur omissions from the skin update such as the gallimimus, dilophosaurus, and spinosaurus. This may be due to time constraints and them having a default skin close to their debut look, and the other dinosaurs had a greater priority to have their old JP designs be depicted, time will tell if the other dinosaurs would receive a similar legacy update.
MAPS
Credit goes to u/86karlos for making this map comparison. Thank you!
There are 2 new maps introduced in this DLC, Nublar 1993, and Sorna 1993.
Nublar 1993 has a map size of 1.73 km². For comparison, main campaign Isla Nublar is 1.08 km². This makes this map the largest map in the game, plus the overall circular shape of the map makes this the most balanced without any odd plateaus, bridges, or mountains to worry about. I really enjoyed the size of this map as I get to make more expansive exhibits, and will be my go to map for large parks in sandbox mode. I just recently finished sandbox mode in the Jurassic park era and filled it with 254 dinosaurs of 42 different species, I was not aiming to cram in all of the dinosaurs in the roster and focused on open exhibits with sizeable populations. As a base PS4 player, it was fun to test out the limits of the console (it was chugging the frame rate with the last 5 dinosaurs) but I was really happy to see the extent of my park and still had a fun time despite the frame rate drop in the end. We need more maps like this!
Sorna 1993 is a bit different, this map is 0.57 km². Making it the 3rd smallest map after Isla Pena (0.41 km²) and Isla Tacano research facility (0.4 km²). I will say that this is not as welcoming of a map as Nublar 1993, but it is built for the new JP tour system in mind. The map is the most branching map in the game, with 6 narrow connections that the bridge the mapâs 5 land masses together. The narrow paths and open areas act as a natural divider for your dinosaurs, and it has a decently sized middle area for the main section of the park to be built in. This map is more catered for the players who like a more limited park size to work with, and was fun to play in 1993 challenge mode as the bridges could be used as routes for the tours.
THE JURASSIC PARK ERA
One of the biggest surprises during the lead up of the DLC's release was the information that the Jurassic Park assets would be exclusive to the Jurassic Park era. This was disheartening to hear as it limits the mixture of world assets with park assets, where we could make a park that is part of Jurassic world with a nostalgia section to reintroduce the Jurassic Park the franchise originated from. Besides that, why the split?
The split is a means to fully emulate the park building feel for the original Jurassic Park film. We no longer have major facilities and large buildings of Jurassic World, but have smaller safari themed buildings that give off more of a wildlife preserve, and this is what the era is going for. One thing players will realize is the limited number of buildings, we no longer have variations of guest catering stores and various research facilities. Instead we have only a few that covers the main basics, and the facility needs are handled by the visitor center that houses the modules needed to do expeditions, DNA extractions, and research. The Jurassic World entrance monorail is replaced with the Arrival Helipad, a placeable building that barely takes up space. Even paths only have a narrow version and does not have the wider variant found in Jurassic Park, as the transport need has been completely omitted in this era, so no large paths or monorails are needed. All of this is really simplified so to have all guest needs done in a designated are of the park, and that is the major idea.
Playing the game in Jurassic Park era is not just an aesthetic switch but almost a new game mode. Park building is not planned with viewing platforms and galleries in mind and is exclusively focused on the Jurassic Park tour. A tour vehicle similar to that of the original film where guests follow a path with a new binocular vision to expand their viewing area. Because of this, exhibits are also planned to allow for the tour path to pass through them or near them for exhibits that houses the carnivores. This then changes the balance between guests and dinosaurs, where guests are moved to a single section of a park where all their needs are met, and dinosaurs get to have more open and expanded exhibits. Building with this theme in mind is rather fun, it allows for players to focus in a more simplified park management that focuses less on the guests needs in the whole park and more in dinosaur management and balancing out the species. Likewise, the different direction in park layout allowed for a more flowy fence placement. In standard Jurassic World era game, I would make parks with a grid focused path and fencing, and I found myself making fencing that curves around to accommodate the dinosaurs and allow for the tour to take different directions and explore my park in the Jurassic Park era.
Challenge mode
Challenge mode has also been updated to fit the JP era. In challenge mode, the divisions are not focused in having the top attention in park management but all are willing to contribute to the growth of the park. Your 3 major divisions are John Hammond that focuses on the parkâs growth and expense, Alan Grant that focuses on fossil hunts and dinosaur incubation, and Ellie Sattler that focuses on the parkâs and dinosaurâs health and authenticity. Alongside these 3 are Cabot Finch and Ian Malcom, Cabot finch as the intern to Hammond would give more money and building based missions that would invest to John Hammondâs division, where Ian Malcolm cares more on the safety of the guests and would give missions to construct guest shelters, weather defense, and time-based missions in guest safety. There is no threat of sabotage and challenge mode focuses in maintaining park growth while surviving the threats of dinosaurs, disease, storms, and financial management.
A decision that I really love is that the missions felt like they belong to those divisions. It no longer feels like âhatch a stegosaurus for science, hatch a stegosaurus for security, and hatch a stegosaurus for entertainmentâ. These missions are now more expected from the divisions we see in the game. I would expect Dr. Alan Grant to give me fossil based missions cause he is the paleontologist, and of course John Hammond wants to give me missions to help increase guest count, this sense of expectations would allow for players to actually think to choose what mission they want without the feeling of âI really want to take this mission, but Ellie Sattler will sabotage my park if I do not give her attentionâ.
Another really cool reason why I want to choose some missions over others is the implementation of unlocking research objects. By doing Alan Grant missions, you unlock access to dinosaur related rewards, Ellie Sattler would reward the player with dinosaur dig and care items, and John Hammond would award the player with park management assets. You could go through challenge mode without accepting any of these missions and not risk sabotage, but will miss out in researchable content that would aid in park management. The method of unlocking research items feels more like earning rewards for missions as opposed to earning trust with a division to avoid sabotage.
Lastly, another change in Jurassic Park era is the removal of the ACU building. The Ranger team does all of the dinosaur related work and has the ACU transport choppers at hand when a dinosaur is tranquilized and needs to be moved. This change would make players be more involved in the park as they drive through the exhibits they have constructed and avoid dinosaurs attacking the vehicle, as opposed to flying over everything with no consequences. This change also makes use of update 1.12âs vehicular destruction as it allows for a sense of mortality when dealing with these dinosaurs, adding some much-needed tension in managing a prehistoric park.
What could be improved?
MORE MISSIONS
There needs to be more missions in the Jurassic Park Era. After a while, the limited amount of missions became more noticable. I think this needs to be expanded on to reduce the mundane feel of accepting the same missions over and over again. I also believe there is plenty to work with in terms of what could be a new missions, some exclusive to the JP era as well.
⢠Photography based missions: There is a lack of photography based missions in my playthrough. And I think photography could work in this era. The Lost World Jurassic Park begins with Hammond hiring a photography crew to document Isla Sorna to showcase to the world that the island is a natural habitat for these dinosaurs and must remain untouched by humanity, maybe he would like you to take photographs of the dinosaurs in this park to showcase the variety this park has to offer.
⢠DNA sampling: This is Jurassic Park at its prime, and we are still unsure how pure the dinosaurs are, so Ellie Sattler would ask for the player to dart out a specific dinosaur in the park (TRC â 001) for example. That way we could have missions where the player needs to go and grab a sampling of a specific dinosaur or a member of that species.
⢠Dinosaur care: I could also see Dr. Ellie Sattler requesting the player to ensure that the dinosaurs in the park get the right amount of food and water for a set period of time. âmake sure that the proceratosaurus has access to food and water for 3 minutesâ. Or âMake sure all dinosaurs have access to food and water for 4 minutesâ.
⢠Recovering dinosaurâs health, comfort, and illness: Missions where you are tasked to take care of a specific dinosaur. Not only will it reward the player, but it should help keep unrecorded issues in check before they get worse.
⢠Observe a dinosaur for a minute: A mission where you get in the ranger vehicle and observe a dinosaur in their enclosure for a minute. This is to emulate researching the dinosaurs in the park and would allow for a survival mode of sorts, where players would get into a ranger vehicle and be near a mission dinosaur. This could either be observe a docile gallimimus flock, be wary of a triceratops spontaneous attack, or avoid the continuous attacks of a tyrannosaurus rex!
IMPORT THE DINOSAURS
Allow players to implement a hatchery through the Arrival Helipad. Using the Arrival Helipad in campaign mode to bring in dinosaurs from Isla Sorna was fun. It relieved us of having to construct an incubation lab and helped us save time and space by flying the dinosaurs to the locations we want in our parks. It will be a missed opportunity if we could not use this feature outside of campaign mode.
UPDATE THE RAPTOR PEN
And finally, the raptor pen. The raptor pen has only a single use in the campaign mode, and after that it is relegated to a decorative building. There really is not much use out of it once campaign mode is over, but I think there could be some use to it for outside campaign mode.
As a building that is associated with raptors in the JP franchise, why not give it a special effect where raptors dropped in the building and released will receive a bonus 30% boost to their base rating? Housing a raptor in the raptor pen could be an additional method to raise the ratings of the dinosaur further, defining them more from the other small carnivores.
This building would boost the rating of a pack of 6 raptors from 444 (74 rating raptor * 6) to 577, which is the equivalent of having an additional raptor and a half to the pack. Saving you the money in incubating the additional raptor and a half.
LET MR.DNA DO MORE STUFF
There is a design rule I like to follow, there has to be a reason to implement something in a project. If it adds nothing of value, it should not be in the project to begin with. Mr.DNA just BARLEY adds something to the UI. The concept of Mr.DNA is nostalgic, a fun little character that we could see in the research section. And as cute as he is, all he does is point to himself, and that is underwhelming. I think having Mr.DNA in the research tab UI is cute, but he has to do a little more for him to feel like a worthwhile implementation, nothing too drastic. Seeing as how he is a cute mascot to entertain the player in the research menu, let us have fun with that!
⢠Let Mr.DNA have a unique animation when researching items. Mr.DNA's character design is a strand of balls. I think it would be fun to see him get into a small animation loop when the player is researching something. So if the player gets into researching a fence upgrade and leaves the building tab, the player would see Mr.DNA in a Neutron loop, akin to that of researching something scientific.
⢠Mr.DNA could change his looks to a dinosaur if the player is researching a new fossil or genetic material. In the Jurassic Park movie, he describes himself as the blueprint of a living thing and turns into a silhouette of a Brachiosaurus. We could have him shift his look to 4 dinosaurs similar to this, a sauropod, a ceratopsid, a stegosaurid, and a theropod, and loop again. This will give the player a feel that they are researching a new asset or helpful genes for their dinosaurs.
⢠Have Mr.DNA goof around when no research is done. We could see him play basketball with his body, or juggle the DNA code, or maybe be surprised to see him be replaced by a frog! (as the frog is the key gene to fill up the gaps). That way we could feel he is entertaining himself as we are busy handling the chaos of the park. It will be funny to recover from a disastrous tornado attack and go to the research tab, only to see him in a sauropod body.
LEGACY MODE FOR CHALLENGE MODE
I have been thinking during the playthrough of JP and loved the experience, and I do not mind the limited buildings and dinosaurs as they are to both emulate a starting park but also a compressed way of park management to focus more on dinosaur exhibits and tours. I will say however, it still feels too limiting at times.
Simply put, let us have a mode called âLegacy Modeâ in the challenge menu. This mode has 2 options: on and off.
⢠ON: Setting the mode to on would start up a challenge mode where players are given the default roster of dinosaurs, buildings, and the like. The same mode we are playing now, untouched.
⢠OFF: Setting the mode to off would allow players to have access to all dinosaurs as options in challenge mode, and DLC content that could add to the JP experience. This in turn would help extend the replay-ability of this era and give players some options in building their parks.
With Legacy Mode turned off we could have:
⢠Access to all dinosaurs from base game, DLC, and updates in our JP playthrough.
⢠An option to create hybrids
⢠Global Operations should be accessible, we especially would like the transport team speed increase upgrade.
⢠Success Rate 4.0 and Incubation Speed 4.0
⢠New Genes from the Secrets of Dr.Wu DLC
⢠Advanced Storm Station, we will more likely use this building in a guest area already so compressed in the JP era.
⢠The entire Paleobotany set to allow us to experiment with dinosaur combinations in the JP era.
As of writing this, we are currently a year and a half of support after the gameâs launch. There will be more to be added to the game with further updates and DLC content. Having the JP be limited to certain dinosaurs and building options is fun for a different approach in park layouts, but having that limitation be the only option would harm JP eraâs impact in the long run when more stuff gets added to the game. The era is already in a setting where we contract Jurassic Park that did not fail, so to have more options for the JP playthrough would add to its replay ability and future interest in coming back, and having some additions from DLC wonât harm the experience as players gets to choose what they would have in their parks. A good sum of DLC content could blend in the JP era, so let us have fun with the content for a more expanded experience.
Keep in mind that Sandbox could also benefit from the additions from legacy mode, Nublar 1993 is fun to play in, but the large park size makes me wish the Transport team speed increase upgrade is available, and Incubation Speed 4.0 to help increase the dinosaur incubation need.
OTHER ELEMENTS TO UPDATE AND PATCH UP
Alongside the release of the DLC, there has been an update to release alongside it that allowed for some patch fixes, new inclusions, and QOL changes. I wish to see some of these things to be introduced or patched in the next update.
⢠Have the Jurassic World Tour be Destructible, similar to the Jurassic Park Tour.
⢠Have more than one dinosaur attack the ranger vehicle in one time. Some dinosaurs such as the raptors, could be seen as a more sociable creature than the triceratops, so having more than one raptor attack the vehicle would help make them more dangerous than your average large dinosaur.
⢠Allow players to phase into the Aviary with camera mode.
⢠The Dilophosaurus can now socialize with their frills, I like this new implementation but I believe there should be a transitional animation for the frill to open and close. As is, it feels very robotic as it just clicks in an out, not as lively as the frill opening when the creature left the incubation lab.
⢠The 2001 skinned brachiosaurus still clips her neck when leaving the incubation lab, an issue that has been resolved for the Jurassic World and 1993 Brachiosaurus.
⢠Adjust the Compsognathusâs body to ground distance as it climbs up a slope, it currently looks like it is sliding its body across the ground.
⢠Have the Compsognathus be closer together when forming packs, they are quite the distance away from each other in my exhibits, their bulk as a pack would make them more observable.
⢠Allow players to manually restart tours without needing to delete the tour itself, as there would be moments where cars would get stuck in narrow areas and block the path for the rest of the tour.
⢠The Camarasaurus has her head fully clip as she leaves the JP era Hammond incubation lab.
⢠There is an explosive audio bug when you take a picture of a dinosaur and accept or decline when in a tour during the tourâs vocal moment.
⢠Cabot Finchâs intro and exit dialogue in challenge mode has disappeared.
⢠I had a bug with a proceratosaurus that has been destroying fences nonstop after a storm has ended and her comfort reach to normal a long time ago.
⢠I brought this up before but I believe we need new fossil artworks, especially now with the Pteranodon in the game. It is odd to see the Pteranodon use a small theropod fossil to resemble that of a pterosaur, updating this would add more uniqueness to the Pteranodon, as it is not even a dinosaur to begin with.
⢠Have signage be adapted to the Jurassic World Era, we could benefit using the decoration items for our Jurassic World tours and galleries.
⢠I really enjoyed the inclusion of the redwoods and wish to see a few more natural scenery items to expand the possible biomes we could have in the game, such as dead trees for desert environments, logs to make exhibits similar to gallimimus scene in Jurassic Park, long grass that hides raptors akin to that in the Lost World, prehistoric plant species for more accurate exhibits, and a possibility to include the shale brush in all sandbox maps. If JP era will focus more in exhibit design, let us have more tools to design the exhibits with.
CONCLUSION
Return to Jurassic Park DLC has became my favorite addition in the game. Despite the split between eras, I did have a fun amount of time playing its campaign mode, challenge mode, and sandbox mode. The new creatures add some needed variety to the roster and the legacy skins freshens up the current roster with new looks that cater to our nostalgic needs. This DLC may need to include some updates to enhance the experience and keep the game mode relevant when more additions are brought into the game, but the experience overall has been fun. I would recommend this DLC to players who enjoy the Jurassic Park experience, and players who like a more safari focused form of play.
This has been my view of the game, but please let me know how your experience was with the latest DLC and update.
Here is looking forward to the year 2020 and the future of JWE!
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