Each one has a diverse set of needs that made me think about them as living beings, from the amount of vegetation they need around them to enrichment activities for staving off boredom. These animals aren’t just props to bring in revenue, either.
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And a clean, easy-to-navigate interface provides all the information you need on how to keep each species happy.Įach animal has a diverse set of needs that made me think about them as living beings. Each exhibit really comes to life, especially if you place multiple species with an affinity bonus together. The sound design is also excellent, with every roar, howl, and screech adding atmosphere and authenticity. I got a lot of enjoyment out of simply watching my apes climb, jump, and swing around a tropical canopy or dropping a cardboard box into the wolf enclosure to see what kind of games they would play with it. They’re all impressively modeled with lifelike fur and feathers, and their animations are excellent. The real stars, of course, are the more than 50 animals you can put on display. I did wish, though, that the franchise mode would have let me start on a map with a bit more realistic terrain without having to rely on other users. The possibilities go far beyond what I would ever have the skill or patience to make myself based on what I’ve seen other users create already, and it’s great to have access to it all. To give your non-story-mode zoos some drama and character, you’ll either spend a lot of time sculpting the land and placing foliage yourself, or browsing the Steam Workshop for a landscape someone else has made and shared that strikes your fancy. Which is good, because outside of a handful of pre-made story scenarios, you always start from a boring, flat plain. The structure and terrain editors are incredibly powerful and easy to use. Much like Frontier’s other theme park world, Planet Coaster, this sim wowed me with a huge amount of customization. In that way, Planet Zoo even makes poor business decisions fun. But when the in-depth animal welfare screens told me my prized timber wolves were a little bit sad, of course I was going to throw money at them until their accommodations were heavenly and the accountants were in a panic. I can’t blame any lack of tools or inability to find vital information, because those things were all at my fingertips and worked pretty well. Planet Zoo taught me two main things as I tried to wrangle its beautiful animals and satisfying tycoon economy: running a wildlife preserve can be a lot of fun, and I would be absolutely terrible at it.