With time comes evolution. Not only has life evolved over millions of years, the Jurassic World franchise has reached the peak of what is possible when creating your very own dinosaur amusement park. It is now at a point where every single decision is made with careful consideration for both your guests and your living, breathing miracles. While some of the same frustrations are there, Jurassic World Evolution 3 is filled with such wonder and enjoyment that it’s so hard to step away from your creations.
Frontier Developments has added some great new features to make park management that little more special. Perhaps the greatest inclusion in Jurassic World Evolution 3 comes with breeding. Now, you can create spaces for your dinosaurs to breed and bring new life to the park; quite literally. I’ll never forget the first moment I witnessed life finding a way outside the science and the laboratories. Dinosaur eggs – real organic dinosaur eggs – began to hatch in front of my eyes and bring juvenile dinosaurs to life in my enclosures.
These young offspring regain certain traits of their parents. It can bring with it mischief and potential threats, but controlled correctly with patience and love, these children can grow and become a huge part of your park. Guest adore them, meaning more money for you. Yet on a personal level, these inclusions are a labour of love and hard work. It takes time to go on expeditions, dig up fossils, then extract genomes for incubation. However, seeing all of that time and effort pay off in such a beautiful way increases the enjoyment tenfold.
While breeding is a huge part of Jurassic World 3, there are some other great additions that help to bring more customisation and personalisation to your creations. Blueprints allow you to create your own designs and use them in your park. When JW3 releases, players will be able to share their own creations with the world. This is something that’s going to improve the longevity of the series. Seeing other people’s work and being able to use in your own parks is a cool idea, especially if you’re willing to spend time making something unique.
Not only has creativity evolved when it comes to your buildings, terrain can be terraformed to create landscapes that fit with your vision. You can create mountainous slopes and walkways that add verticality to your park. Stunning scenic changes are at your fingertips. If you can think it, you can probably make it happen. Doing so in the campaign is possible, but these changes come into fruition on a grander scale when you’re free from objectives and mission goals to make exactly what you want.
There are some new guest attractions that improve income substantially, however, you’ll need to make sure they’re safe as well. The Cretaceous Cruise is awesome. It allows you to provide guests with a chance to kayak through enclosures and get up close with dinosaurs existing in their natural habitats. Watching families calm their young and juveniles play about is so wholesome. Incorporating terraforming also allows you to build some natural barriers to stop them from getting too close.
There are balloon rides that give guests a birds-eye view, and the Dinosaur Encounter exhibits gives guests the option to feed and interact with some of the safer dinosaurs up-close. With anything in your park, there’s always the opportunity for disaster to strike. Security cameras will let you see what dinosaurs are up to and allow you to act fast if they break through fences. There’s almost infinite depth to creation, and with everything that has been introduced in previous games, Jurassic World Evolution 3 is filled with opportunities big and small.
As for the campaign, you’re given multiple chances to help rebuild and run parks across the world. From China to Hawaii, there are plenty of stunning locations. With each one, the parks can feel so much different to the next, but seeing cherry blossoms in Japan was a big highlight. The campaign reaches a point where it stops being linear and allows you to choose which park you go to work on next. While there is a thread, each one tasks you with different objectives that all lead to providing knowledge when you go it alone in sandbox mode.
With all of these exciting new features, Jurassic World Evolution 3 still features those frustrations that came before. If a dinosaur breaks out, going through the process of tranquilising and transporting takes a bit of time away from managing your park. I had, on occasion, events happening where guests started to haemorrhage from the park without any obvious reason. Once I found out why and learned the nuances in keeping attractions up to par, dinosaurs happy and healthy, and keeping a close eye on my economy, these issues were solved.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 still features a lot of the same gameplay. Similar issues arise and running the park feels familiar, but the new attractions, improved ways to deal with disasters, and the breeding process make it so much better. The series has evolved, and with it comes a plethora of ways to bring joy to your guests. While the campaign acts as a tutorial, it’s still satisfying to hear the dulcet tone of Jeff Goldblum narrate along the way. If you’ve always wanted to try out the series, this is the best it has ever been.
