A couple of years ago fans of the Jurassic Park franchise were treated to Jurassic World Evolution from Frontier Developments. This was a park building simulation and management game that launched alongside the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom movie.

Now in 2021 we have a sequel to Jurassic World Evolution which helps bridge the gap between Fallen Kingdom and the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion movie.

Players will take on the role of a newbie agent working for the US Department of Fish and Wildlife and it’s up to them to rein in the wild dinosaurs that are now roaming everywhere.

Oh, and you’ll also have to manage a park to house them in. No biggie huh?

The Second Evolution

If you’ve played Jurassic World Evolution in 2018, you should know what to expect here. Jurassic World Evolution 2 is more of the same, but much like the dinosaurs, its genetic code has been altered.

Players will be able to choose from the main campaign mode, a sandbox mode, a “Chaos Theory” mode and a Challenge mode. The main campaign is essentially a glorified tutorial and it’s necessary to play through because of one major grievance that may annoy some players that lack patience.

This being the fact that you cannot jump into the sandbox mode straight away and start building whatever you want. Why not you may ask? Well, it’s because of the fact that most of the building options will be locked away behind “Research” progression walls.

Players are therefore advised to play through the campaign which will teach you the basics of playing Jurassic World Evolution 2 as well as introduce you to the game’s new mechanics. The campaign itself is fairly straightforward with players being given specific objectives to complete in a region.

The first region for example will teach you the basics of tranquillising a wild dinosaur, returning them back to your base of operations and placing them in an enclosure. You’ll also learn how to properly house them and feed them.

The subsequent missions build upon this with the tasks being incrementally bumped up a notch in terms of difficulty. For example, a later mission will have you capturing an injured Allosaurus which will need medical assistance while another one will have you building an aviary to house flying dinosaurs.

Chaos Theory

All of the new additions to the basic park building and management formula require you to hire scientists which will do research into new tech to implement. Unlocking buildings in the campaign then unlocks it in the sandbox mode.

You will also need to play the challenge mode or “Chaos Theory” mode which unlock new content to use in the Sandbox mode. Challenge mode is quite straightforward since it presents you with a task with modifiers which makes things more difficult. These missions are doable, however, but they feel like another grind instead of being an enjoyable task.

“Chaos Theory” is one of the best modes in the game since it allows players to play through specific scenarios which are tied to each of the major Jurassic Park movies. Building the original Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar is such a feel good task that fans of the original movie will love.

With that said though, a lot more could have been done with this mode and it feels like the opportunity was wasted. It becomes rather formulaic and unfortunately, a massive pain in the neck due to numerous reasons.

Much of the gameplay in Jurassic World Evolution 2 could use a lot more polish. Sandbox mode feels like it was more of an afterthought than a core gameplay feature. Playing through the other modes unlocks all the buildings, dinosaurs and more for Sandbox mode, but then this destroys any sort of progression in the Sandbox mode itself. This also brings us to the game’s biggest problem – Micro-management.

Players in Jurassic World Evolution 2 will be able to build a park quite easily using the options available to them. They’ll also be able to bring in dinosaurs and have them set up in enclosures in no time either via expeditions or tranquillising them in the wild.

Building enclosures and making sure that your dinosaurs are happy in your enclosures sounds simple enough, but the game then takes a turn for the worse in the process. Once you’ve set up the functional basics of a park, things start to go haywire quite quickly due to interlinked management aspects.

Trying to micro-manage the needs of the park visitors and the needs of the dinosaurs becomes a tedious nightmare. This problem becomes even worse when natural disasters such as hurricanes or storms roll in and start destroying infrastructure. Dinosaurs will constantly need attention with food and enclosure requirements too.

Dinosaurs also suffer from rampant diseases spreading around or from injuries from fighting with each other. Treating diseases requires players to have researched the appropriate cures so it’s possible to have a dinosaur with a disease that cannot be treated unless you have researched the proper treatment.

Players will need to be on the ball and have multiple ranger stations set up, as well as paleo-medical facilities set up, to deal with their dinosaurs food and medical needs. This then exacerbates other problems in the park such as driving up your costs and pushing you further into debt.

The Scientists you hire can also charge ridiculous fees per minute (Imagine if scientists were paid this in real life! We’d live in a technological utopia by now most likely) and since they are necessary to obtain more dinosaurs as well as medically treat them, it becomes quite expensive quite quickly.

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth

The dinosaurs in Jurassic World Evolution 2 are the real star of the show and they look and behave a lot more believably this time around. Unlocking new dinos and getting them set up in their enclosures is where most of the fun is in this game and it’s quite unfortunate that the micromanagement aspects have bogged it down so much.

Obtaining new dinosaurs in the game is always great and there are also educational aspects with each dinosaur’s info being available for your viewing pleasure from an easily accessible menu. At its core, Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a solid game with tried and trusted gameplay mechanics that have been around for decades and there’s still a lot of enjoyment to be had here.

Hopefully future content and patches can address much of the games issues and streamline it.

Graphically, Jurassic World Evolution 2 looks gorgeous on PS5 with the dinosaurs really being breathtaking. You can also alter their genomes to change their colours and more. The newly added flying and marine dinosaurs round off the package quite well.

Thankfully the game also features a photo mode which lets you zoom right in and view the dinosaurs in all their glory. Some more photo mode filter options would have been nice to have but alas this isn’t the case with only a few colour options and some sticker logos being made available.

The PS5 version of the game does suffer from extremely noticeable pop-in with trees and other foliage loading in as you zoom in and around the map but this isn’t really much of an issue when you’ll be laser focused on trying to manage your park.

The soundtrack of Jurassic World Evolution 2 is excellent with the Jurassic Park main theme being extremely nostalgic. The dinosaurs sound great with their roars and other sounds being quite believable, especially when they are interacting with each other. Dr Ian Malcom is once again voiced by Jeff Goldbum, Claire Dearing is voiced by Bryce Dallas Hayward and BD Wong is back too to voice Dr Henry Wu.

Final Verdict

Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a mixed bag. If you played Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis way back in the day, much of what you have here will feel very familiar.

If you played Jurassic World Evolution recently, this game will feel even more familiar, but with marine dinosaurs and ramped up micro-management aspects added. Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a good game that will easily consume upwards of 20 hours of your time as you play through the campaigns and challenge modes.

Sandbox mode is where the real fun was supposed to be but unfortunately, it’s lacklustre due to micro-management and some disappointing game design decisions.

Here’s hoping this is all addressed with future content patches because players will still have a blast with Jurassic World Evolution 2 and it could be so much better with a few changes.