I’m going to start by saying that the game looks amazing and the graphics are just stunning but I don’t think that’s enough. Given the fact that this game is the successor of zoo tycoon and revolves around animals, that are living and breathing creatures I don’t understand why frontier has decided to make the time go so fast and to cut out almost every interaction between the animals. I don’t expect too many from solitary animals that are paired in a habitat just for the sake of breeding but I would expect many from social animals, like apes, wolves, zebras and so on. I’ve spent 20(real life) minutes watching the chimpanzees and not a single interaction, not grooming, not sniffing, not playing, nothing at all. Animals don’t feel “alive”, they just look good. Which is a pity by the time frontier states many times that what they were aiming for with this game was a real life experience. There’s nothing real in seeing a bunch of wolves wondering around they enclosure and fighting all the time for dominance even if they are supposed to be a pack or family. That’s so disappointing cause that was what made me buy the game and what I was expecting to see. It is incredible that zoo tycoon, a pretty old game, feels much more complete, real and alive, even if the graphics are not to die for. Speed time is ridiculously fast, even at the slowest mode you can’t even cheer for a new cub that it has already grown up. I understand that many people are okay with the time speed cause not everyone is playing this game with the idea of getting attached to the animals and watching them grow and mature, but frontier should give this possibility to the players that want to experience this. I don’t understand the need of 2 speed buttons and not a single button that allows you to slow down time, make 1 year-1 hour in real life, even 2 or 3. They should definitely implement something like that, so that everyone would be happy and satisfied. As for now, this game for me just looks good...and that’s definitely not enough.
Time moves too fast and animals don’t interact
- Thread starter FediSinter
- Start date
I agree and I’m just as disappointed to see no social interactions. I really hope they’re patched in soon, because devs told us that they existed and were switched off for beta.
Along with the too-fast time, I don’t feel any connection to my animals. They’re just animatronics, with no individual looks, traits or personality and no bonds with the other animals (even their own offspring or mates). There’s so much potential here, but until the animals interact with one another, they’re just going to look pretty, then die.
Along with the too-fast time, I don’t feel any connection to my animals. They’re just animatronics, with no individual looks, traits or personality and no bonds with the other animals (even their own offspring or mates). There’s so much potential here, but until the animals interact with one another, they’re just going to look pretty, then die.
I feel the same way. I was hoping this would be fixed from the beta, they had plenty of time to adjust it. 3 seconds for one day? It’s insane. They claim they made adjustments to make it better but that is not true. It’s not just about the animals lifespans. Also how long research takes, how long it takes keepers to walk to habitats, how long people spend in the zoo. All of those things takes days or weeks in game which makes no sense. Why would a guest spend a week in your zoo? Why should it take a keeper 5 days to walk to a habitat? It’s so sad that the developers misled customers about what this game was going to be. It was discussed as if it was a game about the animals. Learning about them, enjoying the details the dev team put in like the art, the behaviors. Getting to know the animals. Having a birth be an accomplishment. Getting to use the single animal or single person camera. Not having a baby animal die of old age the same day you get it. Not spending so much time in pause mode. Not getting a notification of a problem every 10 seconds. I had such hopes for this game but sadly it seems I will be returning it and retracting my recommendation of it.
Exactly my point of view. Also, they stated many times that we would have seen different and unique fur patterns that would be inherited by the parents but by the time we don’t even have a family tree and all the animals look copy paste you can’t even tell who are the offsprings of who. Also, they talked so much about inbreeding and how important is to avoid that but it’s almost impossible at this stage to track down who gave birth to who. I don’t know, it feels like they shrugged down our throats what we wanted to hear and now that the game is out it feel as empty as it was in the beta. I don’t see all this attention to details or behaviour they were almost bragging about...what happened in this 30 days after the beta was closed? 
I know, it doesn’t feel like a relaxed game, it feels more like a struggle for money and cc and then, after 3 hours in game, you have tons of both and what’s the point? I’d love to build my franchise relaxed, enjoy every enclosure I design and watch my animals interact(another big issue in my opinion by the time they do not even sniff each other), grow, live, breed and then, after a decent time, die of old age. I can’t do that. At the same time I don’t wanna just play in sandbox mode cause I want to build something I manage and work for. This bugs me off so much, all the pity replies by frontier: if you like to build and watch your animals play sandbox mode. No, I’m sorry, I payed 54€ for a game I want to fully enjoy and that they should have polished after the beta and the hundreds of people complaining about the time issue. Making the lifespan of animals longer feels fake, unrealistic and just a bandaid on a big cut, just to stop temporarily the bleeding. This game has so much potential but right now zoo tycoon, wildlife park and even that crappy zoo empire and outshining it.
