I never stopped thinking about wanting to repeat all of John Hammond’s mistakes since the first time I saw him make them in 1993’s Jurassic Park. And I’ve had many opportunities to do so in various park-builder games in the decades since, ranging all the way from pretty disappointing to pretty great. The latest, Jurassic World Evolution 3, is looking to deliver more features than we’ve ever seen in a dinosaur park management game before. And at least for my part, you had me at [insert signature T-Rex roar in your mind’s eye here].
The thing that’s always bugged me about the previous Jurassic World Evolution games is that they seemed a bit stripped-down compared to what Frontier has shown us is possible with their sister franchises, Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster. So the thing I’m most excited about with Evolution 3 is that it seems like we’re finally getting the full Frontier feature set in a Jurassic game.
You can build your own hotels, gift shops, and staff buildings by snapping together tons of resizable and re-colorable props. You can reshape the terrain at will, make your own functional waterfalls, and even create dinosaur enclosures that use natural rock formations instead of electric fences as part of the perimeter. The devs want everything you build to feel like it still belongs in the Jurassic franchise, so the props and such are a bit more grounded-looking than what you might see in Planet Coaster 2. But for the first time, it doesn’t feel like they’re compromising at all on the sandbox elements that make their other games great for the sake of being a licensed game.
LIFE FINDS A WAY
The other major addition here is the inclusion of dinosaur breeding and baby dinosaurs for the first time. While the previous games in the series relied on artificial fertilization and incubation of eggs, Evolution 3 will actually allow you to clone fertile dinosaurs, place dinosaur nests, and even selectively crossbreed for specific skins, stats, and personality traits. And this, of course, comes with the addition of juvenile models for all of the more than 80 species included in the base game. On top of this, adult males and females will now exhibit varying levels of sexual dimorphism, like male triceratops having larger frills, meaning there will be more than 240 distinct dino and prehistoric reptile models in total.
This will introduce new challenges to manage within your enclosures, too. For instance, Frontier told us a male T-rex will not have any interest in coexisting with other adult males, though large groups of females can put up with each other. This will vary somewhat from species to species, as they have different social dynamics with each other and with other species. It even matters for breeding, since some species will only nest if they’re out of view of pesky humans and don’t have any other species around.
Evolution 3 will also be taking us to a variety of different worldwide locations that are new to the series, including the mountains of Japan and the Mediterranean island of Malta. They not only feature their own distinct plant life and terrain, but also building sets and props that can add a little bit of global flair to your park. The ones we saw included an East Asian-themed set, an Alpine European-themed set, a set based on the original Jurassic Park films with a kitschy jungle aesthetic, and one based on the newer Jurassic World films that looks more modern and shiny.
While we won’t be fighting with the climate in different biomes the same way as in Planet Zoo, each one will feature different clients in the campaign mode that want you to focus on different objectives. Some might be interested in simply selling as many tickets and luxury hotel rooms as possible, while others lean more into conservation and science.
CHANGING WORLD
All the while we’ll be working with the Dinosaur Integration Network, or DIN. To be honest, the newer films are mostly just a big mushy blob in my head, but I think the idea is that dinosaurs just live in the wild now and we’re trying to learn how to coexist with them instead of putting them back in cages. It’s whatever. The originals are still the ones that matter to me, and it sounds like we’ll be fully able to build a dinosaur theme park in the spirit of the original films.
But there also seems to be something sinister going on with a secretive group who doesn’t like DIN and might cause trouble at your park, based on an ominous moment in the trailer. And that could be interesting, too. In previous games, tropical storms and equipment malfunctions could lead to dinosaurs breaking out and running rampant. But the first book and film were about a human saboteur causing a massive disaster, so that feels in the spirit of the franchise for me as well.
If you are worried about your dinos going for a stroll and choosing to have the kind of snack that’s going to require you to pay out millions to their family, there are some new tools for that as well. You won’t be warned automatically, for instance, if a fence is in poor shape or being attacked by a hangry carnotaurus. For that, you’ll need security cameras with full coverage along the length of the fence, allowing you to be notified as soon as there’s a problem. And if the cameras go down, well, I hope you have good lawyers.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
At the end of the day, you don’t have to work particularly hard to get me excited about a new dinosaur park management game. Especially one with the in-depth customization tools Frontier has become known for. Watching a baby triceratops play in the grass is adorable. I don’t care who you are. And the breeding mechanics open up a lot of long-term possibilities for making not just the parks I want, but the kinds of dinosaurs I want, too. As a paleontology nerd who’s a bit bummed the designs in the Jurassic franchise are a bit stuck in the 90s, I asked if I could breed my raptors to have feathers, but the devs were a bit tight-lipped about that. I guess we can hope.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 will be coming to Playstation 5, Xbox, and PC on October 21.
