I love dinosaurs. I studied paleontology in college. I also worked and interned at the largest theme park purveyor in the world. I have played several other theme park games and I've have dreamed of building my own theme park. Jurassic Park Evolution was destined to be a dream come true. Instead, after playing Jurassic Park Evolution, what I've found is an economy simulator with some dinosaur window dressing placed hastily on top.

Jurassic Park Evolution (JPE) is a beautiful, relatively performant game, that allows you to build and operate a dinosaur sanctuary/theme park. The dinosaurs are gloriously realized and the game has a variety of campaigns, dinosaurs, park customizations and objectives to fulfill. You can lead fossil digs, create security response protocols, deal with adverse weather conditions and choose various islands for your park. You can even assume first-person control of dinosaur teams. From a value and content perspective, JPE has a lot to offer.

Unfortunately, despite a large variety of options, beautiful environments, tons of lovingly crafted dinosaurs and a slew of activities to participate in, JPE also has several key weaknesses to undermine its core gameplay. JPE, while performant and attractive, devolves over time and its camera controls can often spin out of control during the most crucial moments. At times, nothing but a game restart will repair the issue, even after years of community reporting. Additionally, despite a variety of objectives and activities, JPE suffers from a relatively moderate amount of theme park customization cosmetics. I've played iOS dinosaur theme park games with more customizations than JPE.

JPE's greatest weakness however, is its rigidity and unwillingness to allow players to experience the game on their own terms. The JPE sandbox mode, wherein you immediately jump in and design a theme park, can only be accessed after you navigate through a 10-15 hour tract of operations that can only be likened to the world's longest tutorial. Do you want to just design a theme park and add dinosaurs? Too bad! Optimize your t-shirt prices first! Click through dozens of menus as you antiseptically lead "fossil digs" over and over and over until you grind a triceratops to 100% genetic completion. Once you reach 4 stars, we'll let you try your hand at a nerfed, shriveled, partially-complete sandbox mode.

Even once you've unlocked sandbox mode, you still have to keep grinding, dealing with electricity mini-games, economics mini-games and fossil hoop jumping, until you can move your sandbox to a new island that adds new dinosaurs, structures and cosmetics options. This game is less a dinosaur theme park simulator and more a menu-driven economics game with some dinosaurs used as carrots. The most stupefying implications of these choices quickly come when you realize that the dinosaurs and environments are walled behind rote, boring, repetitive activities that are added to the game for no other reason than to serve as some sick, fetishistic power trip by the developers.

Jurassic Park Evolution is probably the biggest let down of a theme park game I've ever played. It's also one of the least accessible dinosaur games ever. If you're an accountant that wants to be hired by a dinosaur theme park and see dinosaurs once in a blue moon, then this game might be for you. For everyone else, I doubt you'll have the requisite 20 hour patience to unlock most of the sand boxed content.

Not worth the time. There are better games available.

6.5/10.

I love dinosaurs. I studied paleontology in college. I also worked and interned at the largest theme park purveyor in the world. I have played several other theme park games and I've have dreamed of building my own theme park. Jurassic Park Evolution was destined to be a dream come true. Instead, after playing Jurassic Park Evolution, what I've found is an economy simulator with some dinosaur window dressing placed hastily on top. Jurassic Park Evolution (JPE) is a beautiful, relatively performant game, that allows you to build and operate a dinosaur sanctuary/theme park. The dinosaurs are gloriously realized and the game has a variety of campaigns, dinosaurs, park customizations and objectives to fulfill. You can lead fossil digs, create security response protocols, deal with adverse weather conditions and choose various islands for your park. You can even assume first-person control of dinosaur teams. From a value and content perspective, JPE has a lot to offer. Unfortunately, despite a large variety of options, beautiful environments, tons of lovingly crafted dinosaurs and a slew of activities to participate in, JPE also has several key weaknesses to undermine its core gameplay. JPE, while performant and attractive, devolves over time and its camera controls can often spin out of control during the most crucial moments. At times, nothing but a game restart will repair the issue, even after years of community reporting. Additionally, despite a variety of objectives and activities, JPE suffers from a relatively moderate amount of theme park customization cosmetics. I've played iOS dinosaur theme park games with more customizations than JPE. JPE's greatest weakness however, is its rigidity and unwillingness to allow players to experience the game on their own terms. The JPE sandbox mode, wherein you immediately jump in and design a theme park, can only be accessed after you navigate through a 10-15 hour tract of operations that can only be likened to the world's longest tutorial. Do you want to just design a theme park and add dinosaurs? Too bad! Optimize your t-shirt prices first! Click through dozens of menus as you antiseptically lead "fossil digs" over and over and over until you grind a triceratops to 100% genetic completion. Once you reach 4 stars, we'll let you try your hand at a nerfed, shriveled, partially-complete sandbox mode. Even once you've unlocked sandbox mode, you still have to keep grinding, dealing with electricity mini-games, economics mini-games and fossil hoop jumping, until you can move your sandbox to a new island that adds new dinosaurs, structures and cosmetics options. This game is less a dinosaur theme park simulator and more a menu-driven economics game with some dinosaurs used as carrots. The most stupefying implications of these choices quickly come when you realize that the dinosaurs and environments are walled behind rote, boring, repetitive activities that are added to the game for no other reason than to serve as some sick, fetishistic power trip by the developers. Jurassic Park Evolution is probably the biggest let down of a theme park game I've ever played. It's also one of the least accessible dinosaur games ever. If you're an accountant that wants to be hired by a dinosaur theme park and see dinosaurs once in a blue moon, then this game might be for you. For everyone else, I doubt you'll have the requisite 20 hour patience to unlock most of the sand boxed content. Not worth the time. There are better games available. 6.5/10.