Game Review: Jurassic World Evolution

Hello Enthusiasts,

My favorite computer game when I was younger was Sim Theme Park. I would spend hours building a park, managing the budget, making sure the guests were satisfied, reading their comments on what could be better, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I've been trying to find an up-to-date version of that game that is just as satisfying, but nothing seems to live up to that. The Roller Coaster Tycoon games are fun, but they seemed to be missing something, some missing ingredient that brought Sim Theme Park to the next level . So when I heard that there was a new theme park builder available with a Jurassic Park theme to it (but not the mobile game), I decided to give it a go. Today, I will be reviewing Jurassic World Evolution. 

The game has you traveling to the same grouping of islands that we've seen in the movies, which are called the Muertes Archipelago in game. You go from one island to another to either build a park from scratch or expand the few existing facilities to create a successful Jurassic Park. You're in charge of security, you'll pay for teams to dig up fossils that can be used to rebuild the genomes of more dinosaurs, you have to ensure the welfare of the dinos, as well as a ton of other tasks. To guide you through these tasks, you have a team of advisors that will chime in and offer you objectives that will help lead you in the right direction to build your park. Some of these people are new faces, while others are recurring characters from the films, including Dr. Ian Malcom who is voiced in-game by Jeff Goldblum. As you build one park up and increase its overall rating, the other islands will slowly open up to you, all of which come with their own obstacles to overcome. When you do unlock the original island, Isla Nublar, you will be treated to a sandbox experience where you can use any research from your other islands, and you have unlimited funds to build with. It's only with getting parks to a full five star rating and completing tasks for the various teams that you unlock all of the content in this game, so it does incentives the player to keep going after all five islands have been opened up.

I found that a lot worked with the game. It does allow you to do a lot on your own without directly following the missions, but the missions are mostly helpful in advancing the park. I loved keeping track of everything and building my own paddocks for the dinosaurs, as well as ensuring that I was keeping certain dinosaurs separate unless I was looking for them to fight. The management system for the stores and restaurants in the park is more than I expected, allowing me to control what food is served and what price to charge, keeping in mind that guests won't pay ridiculous prices. The game also has you place viewing areas for the dinosaurs, and a paddock with a poorly planning viewing area won't bring in as many guests as one where they can see most of the area where the creatures roam. The game also incorporates a decent bit of detail in regard to caring for the dinosaurs. They all have specific needs in regard to what food they eat, having access to water, and how much space and foliage they require to be comfortable. If the dinosaurs aren't kept comfortable, they will become aggressive and break through their fences. If this happens, your guests will being in danger and you'll need to have a team tranquilize the creature. The dinosaurs can also get sick and need to have a ranger team medicate them in order for them to survive. It's all of this extra detail that keeps the game interesting as you build your parks and increase your revenue, because there are always possible issues that can arise.

While I don't have a lot to complain about here, there are some things that bug me with this game. One of my biggest problems is not being able to transfer funds from one park to another. At one point I had a park that was making over $800,000 a minute, but I couldn't send any of that over to my park that kept getting hit with storms and needed the cash to make repairs. I also feel like the terrain adjustment tool could use a bit more detail. An easy fix would be something that lets me know the actual elevation of an area so I can try to match it with other nearby areas for building purposes instead of having me try to eyeball it. That has been a bit of a recurring frustration as I've been playing through these islands. Also, a small complaint, but there's no way to change the color of the buildings in the game. There's an entire system of researching different DNA sequences so you can have different colored dinosaurs of the same species, yet I don't have the option to paint any of my buildings a different color. I know it's petty, but it feels like a simple mechanic that could have been included and would have added another layer of enjoyment for me.

With all of that being said, this is a great theme park builder. It incorporates some of my favorite elements from other builders, plus it has the added fun of maintaining dinosaurs. It does have some issues, but it is overall a solid recommend from me if you enjoy these types of games at all.

I give Jurassic World: Evolution an 8.5 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast

Game Review: The Witness

Hello Enthusiasts,

Today, I will be reviewing a game that I would not have played at all if it wasn't free on PS Plus this month. Today, I will be reviewing the puzzle game The Witness. I'm not sure if anything I will say will qualify for this, but note that there may be some very mild Spoilers Below.

The game follows your unnamed character as they walk around and solve a plethora of puzzles. You'll travel from location to location, with each one offering slightly different types of puzzle and/or puzzles of varying difficulty. Once you solve all of the puzzles in a location, a laser will rise from the area and fire a beam at a fixed location on top of the mountain. Once all of the locations have been completed, the final area at the top of the mountain opens up to be solved. It's a short synopsis, but the game really doesn't offer much in terms of a story.

I will say that some of the puzzles in this game do offer a challenge. There were times where I would roam around for 10 or 15 minutes trying to figure out how to solve a single one. Some of them are pretty straightforward, while other require a bit more creativity to solve, such as the puzzles that require that the player view them from behind a tree to see the solution. I also have to compliment the art in the game, which is wonderful. Everything is bright, colorful, and somewhat stylized. There's a lot of attention to detail, from the trees to the dilapidated buildings and even the weird states that you'll find around the island. I also appreciated the soundtrack, which was fitting for each environment and seemed to change seamlessly.

My biggest issue with the game is the assumption that everything can be intuitive. There are absolutely no instructions in the game, nothing to let you know what your doing. It doesn't even prompt you that this is a puzzle game when you start, you're just standing there and walk over to a puzzle. The game tries to introduce you to new types of puzzles by having easier areas, but without a map being available and not being given much in terms of a sense of direction, it's very easy to breeze right past those areas. I am all for treating your players with some respect and not hand-holding them through everything, but this game takes it a bit too far. In that same vein, I also think the game could have benefitted from a hint system for the more difficult areas. Nothing that gives too much away, I still enjoyed figured the puzzles out on my own, but something that can at least point the player in the right direction.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this game. It does have its flaws, primarily its stance that it doesn't need to offer the player any information, but it was satisfying to complete the puzzles in here. If you're not one . who enjoys difficult puzzles that may take a while to finish, this isn't the game for you. However, if you do like that kind of thing, this game offers a challenge that may just scratch that itch.

I give The Witness a 6.5 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast

Retro Game Review: Star Wars - The Force Unleashed

Hello Enthusiasts,

Star Wars games don't have the best history. Most of these games are either debatably good or downright terrible. There are a few exceptions to this, and today I look at one that is often put into this category, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. As always, there may be some Spoilers Below. 

The game starts off strong, as the prologue has the player learn basic controls by playing as Darth Vader. After slaughtering endless waves of Wookiees, Vader finds the Jedi he was looking for (to murder), as well as a force-sensitive child. Vader takes on this child as his apprentice, and he becomes our protagonist for the duration of the game. Known only as Starkiller, Vader's apprentice trains to the point of being able to hunt down the few Jedi left in the galaxy since the Clone Wars. We find out that Vader's ultimate goal is to use Starkiller to kill Emperor Palpatine. Is that all there is to it though? The game throws some low-levels twists into the story that, while apparent from a mile away, do add enough variety to justify the story's end.

More than any other Star Wars game I've played, this game uses force powers very well. As the story progresses Starkiller gains access to more and more powers. He can use a force push, a force grip, force lighting, create a lighting shield, a shockwave called force repulse, and throw his lightsaber using the force. All of these attacks would drain Starkiller's force energy, though it refills relatively quickly. Having multiple ways to defeat enemies without ever engaging them in combat grants a feeling of real force mastery. The block button also allows Starkiller to deflect most laser fire, and after upgrading the ability he can block one or two blasts at a time without even having to press block. The levels take place on a variety of different worlds, which are all pretty well built out, and the game is rich with Star Wars lore. I also enjoyed some of the different collectable pieces in the game. There are a variety of different colors for the lightsaber, as well as compressed and unstable versions of each color. On top of that, there are different power crystals for the lightsaber as well, which allow the saber some different abilities (added damage, electrical damage, force powers costing less force energy, etc). Having such variety for the lightsaber and having to only pick one made for some difficult decisions on what to sacrifice, though the game allows the player to change them freely. Each level also has Starkiller in a different costume, which can be changed to any of the ones that he had worn previously (though changing the costume causes the player to start the entire level over, so it's better to make that decision earlier on on).

Not everything for this game is fantastic though. The graphics are certainly dated, especially in the cutscenes. The melee combat is also frustrating, as a number of the enemies won't have any slowdown when hit with the lightsaber and can just hit you as you're slashing them. This is especially frustrating when you're trying to fight three or four of these enemies simultaneously.  Some of the platforming in the game is also irritating, as the movement controls aren't perfectly designed and some of the sections require precision. There are some other small issues, such as a few bugs with the enemies and some lag, but my biggest complaint lies with the loading times. Levels will take a while to load, and levels are broken up into two or three sections. I had to wait for over a minute for some of levels to load just their second section, and it gets annoying after a while. This could be overlooked, but even the pause screen and the upgrade screen have extended wait times. It could take fifteen or twenty seconds just to get to the upgrade screen, which is only two button clicks away from playing the game. It's bad enough that I was completely aware of the wait times throughout the duration of the game, I never got used to it. Little things like that, just a few added seconds for everything, can take away a great deal of the immersion that the game often does so well.

Despite any of my complaints, this is a good Star Wars game at the end of the day. There was certainly room for improvement, but it's not hard to see why this game is remembered so fondly. If you're a fan of the series and have a compatible system to play on, this game is certainly a good buy. You may get frustrated with some things, but you'll likely enjoy the experience overall.

I give Star Wars: The Force Unleashed a 7.5 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast