Two weeks ago, Frontier Developments unveiled a new expansion of its Dairy Park simulator Jurassic World Evolution from 2018. The “Return to Jurassic Park” extension is designed to help players solve the problems of the original dinosaur park from the 1990s movies , I traveled to Frontier Developments to see how ambitious this project is.
To date, Jurassic World Evolution has seen several post-launch packages, including three premium DLC drops, seven dinosaur packages and seven free updates. All of these additions, however, took place in the modern Jurassic world.
Return to Jurassic Park does exactly as its name implies and gives players the keys to the legendary Jurassic Park Gate in the hope that you can solve the problems of the first movie and get the ship right in the doomed theme park. Return to Jurassic Park not only presents a whole new story of seven narrative missions, but also brings back the original actors Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum to play Dr. Alan Grant, dr. Ellie Sattler, to repeat. or Dr. Ian Malcolm.
“Recruiting the original actors proved to be relatively easy,” says Game Director Michael Brookes. “The hardest part was planning them all so that we could all record them on time, but they did seem to be on board quite a bit, Jeff, we had worked with before, but Laura and Sam seemed very interested and interested to get involved. ” They are so independent characters, and it was good to get them involved in a game. “
Since Return to Jurassic Park takes place immediately after the events of the first Jurassic Park movie, the aesthetic is different from the Jurassic World theme used in the base game. Certain dinosaurs have new models, while others have new skins similar to those from the 1993 film. The different structures you have set up are more like those from the first movie. These visual changes are also available for all challenges and sandbox mode starting with the base game in 93er mode.
“Obviously we were fans of the original films and the aesthetics between the two (eras) were very different,” says Brookes. “It’s something we’ve seen from the fans as well, they love the original films and they wanted to recreate Jurassic Park, but since they look so different, you can not do that to the same extent.” the original idea was to go back in time and do Jurassic Park, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do with it. “
Jurassic Park is less commercialized than Jurassic World, which means you need to consider new variables. Visitor galleries, for example, are not there for visitors, as is the monorail, but in their place are guides and a helipad. While you can open stores to please customers, this is not required.
When I finally got my hands on the upcoming expansion, I was able to play Mission 1 and Mission 6 to get an idea of what players need to do to repair Jurassic Park. Each mission begins with a spoken dialogue between the main characters from the films. While we hear Goldblum step down into the role of Ian Malcolm in the core game, it’s a pleasure to hear him go back and forth with Dern and Neill’s characters.
On the first mission, I have to restore the park’s various functions. To do this I set up a ranger base and assign them various repair tasks. After things get back in the lead, I queue queues for rangers (such as capturing escaped raptors) and start researching a few fancy new electric fences while manually repairing the damaged safety fences. This mission is brief, but teaches the topic of helping the busy theme park to reach its full potential.
While the first mission took very little time, the sixth mission was tedious, with several required field trips and egg slippage missions. My first task is to add a new Dino species to the park, the Compsognathus. You can remember those little guys who defeated poor Dieter in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. This time it will probably be better, right? I research the Compsognathus and send out an expedition team to search for DNA for the Compies. This effort requires multiple expeditions over a long period of time. During this process, I perform general maintenance in the park and use rangers to replenish dinosaur feed and treat sick creatures. In addition, side missions, such as reaching a certain number of guests in the park or achieving a particular park rating, will give you monetary rewards if you are able to meet them.
Finally, I buy 75 percent of the genome for the compies and start hatching. While I wait for the eggs to hatch, I build an enclosure for them, where they find meat-eating platforms and a small pond from which to drink. When they start hatching, I give them to their newly built pen and the mission continues.
The next step in the mission is to build an aviary and fill it with pteranodons. These reptiles from the air are a major attraction for patrons. So if I want to find out my numbers, I need some good DNA samples to work with. That means it’s back to the expedition. The slow burning gives me more time to address things in the park. I’m trying to increase my numbers, so I add more toilets, new shops and lower prices for the souvenirs. I do not notice an influx of numbers, but as soon as the construction of the aviary is complete and the first pteranodons fly, the numbers sneak in. I get the numbers that the side mission gave me thanks to my new flying friends, but I have to be careful; Storms can damage the aviary and let the dangerous creatures out.
For those who do not intend to spend more on Jurassic World Evolution, Frontier is preparing the next batch of free content. In addition to the toilets (which customers now need) that can be deployed throughout the park, your ranger teams can now be taken out when in a dangerous situation. I witnessed this first-hand as I waited for an expedition to end during the Pteranodon mission. I’ve sent a ranger team to try to stem an outbreak of avian influenza among the dinosaurs, then be completely destroyed by a neighboring animal. While rangers can fire torches to distract the aggressive dinosaurs, this team probably did not receive the memo, and they paid dearly for it. I had to pay to hire a whole new team of Rangers to replace them and continue where the troop I left so far had stopped.
Jurassic World Evolution: Return to Jurassic Park for $ 20 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 10th December.
