Build and manage a customizable zoo, balancing animal care, guest satisfaction, and expanding themed attractions
Build and manage a customizable zoo, balancing animal care, guest satisfaction, and expanding themed attractions
Pros
- Designs are limitless
- Care for baby animals until they grow to adults
- Sounds are fun to listen to
Cons
- Very time consuming
- Colors and details could be improved
Design your own zoo, operating it to make a profit while keeping guests happy.
The game begins by selecting the type of land that you want to use for your zoo. Examples include a desert, green grass and a combination of terrain that you will need to landscape before setting up your exhibits. You can create your exhibits using a variety of materials, such as metal fences or wooden fences, water and special types of grass for the animals to enjoy. There is information given about the kind of terrain and the features that you need inside the exhibit to make each animal happy. You need to make sure the exhibit is sufficient for your animals before putting them inside. You also need to hire zoo staff who can feed and care for the animals before you complete your exhibits. Once you have all of the animals in place or at least a few animals, you can open the park.
Create pathways so that guests will know where to walk. Place benches, fountains and other decorations in the zoo that guests can enjoy. As you add more items to the zoo, you can increase the price of admission so that you make more money. As you reach certain milestones, more animals, buildings, and decorations are added to the options that you have for designing your zoo. There are different categories of animals, buildings, and decorations, such as safari or aquatic themes. The restaurants and gift shops follow along with these themes as well as the statues and fountains that you can place in the zoo. These themes allow you to block off certain areas where only those types of animals live. You can hire staff to clean up the zoo and staff to provide entertainment. The graphics of the zoo are decent, but the sounds make the zoo sounds realistic.
Pros
- Designs are limitless
- Care for baby animals until they grow to adults
- Sounds are fun to listen to
Cons
- Very time consuming
- Colors and details could be improved
Pros
- More than 200 animals and 60 variable elements too play with
- The graphics are very cool
- There are lots of interesting strategy elements
- Lots of animal mini games
- The interface is easy to learn
Cons
- Not many challenges to overcome
Create and Manage Your Own Zoo
Zoo Tycoon was released in 2001 and is the first in a series of games that give players the chance to design and create their very own zoo. This zoo comes complete with a full collection of dangerous animals that can easily turn on their keepers if not managed correctly. The aim of the game is to build the most interesting and healthy zoo and keep everything under control so that visitors have a good time rather than being eaten alive. Sounds simple? Read on to see if the game is as exciting as it promised.
There are lots of different elements to Zoo Tycoon, which helps to keep things interesting. Of course, the first and main objective is designing your zoo to make it as attractive as possible. Players also spend time building the exhibits that will accommodate various animals and making sure that visitors to the zoo as well as the animals are content. This means choosing the exhibit that is best suited to each animal and adding extra features to keep visitors entertained.
There are lots of different elements to choose to make your terrain as suitable and attractive as possible. These include the type of foliage that you want to add, shelters, rocks, toys for the animal and zoo keepers to help manage the exhibit. When it comes to the visitors to the zoo, they require elements such as restrooms, restaurants, shops, food stands and entertainment. You also want to make sure the zoo is attractive by adding benches, topiary art and much more.
The different sections of the game are well organised and present a clear picture of how the zoo is working and what needs to be done. Players can switch over to tycoon view to take care of business.
There are three stages to choose from and in the Tutorial stage players will learn how to build and design their zoo. Players are presented with a series of objectives to complete in Scenario mode, while there are lots more options and flexibility to the game play in Freeform mode.
On the face of it, it may feel like this is a full time job, and not the most exciting job at that. Thankfully, gamers also have the chance to play a range of different mini games to bring an extra element of fun to the game. In addition to exploring the zoo on foot, your character can also leap into one of the buggies and speed to the different exhibits if you prefer.
The animals are both adorable and authentic and can make playing Zoo Tycoon a real joy. Animal lovers will be able to interact with cute critters from all around the world and learn much more about them in the research stations. Feeding the animals with fruit and vegetables and watching an elephants, giraffes and other animals eat right from your hand is sure to melt the heart of even the most jaded gamer.
If you enjoy simulation games, you are sure to be enchanted by Zoo Tycoon. This is one of the most richly varied simulation games out there, which helps to keep play fun and interesting. Unlike many simulation games, getting to grips with it is pretty straight forward, making Zoo Tycoon a winner on many levels.
Pros
- More than 200 animals and 60 variable elements too play with
- The graphics are very cool
- There are lots of interesting strategy elements
- Lots of animal mini games
- The interface is easy to learn
Cons
- Not many challenges to overcome
