Recent reviews by KevMscotland

The perfect middle ground between original Doom, and Doom 2016.

If you like a more structured single player experience, then Breaking Point 2 makes this worth picking up - just about.
Beyond that, its almost identical (content wise) to F1 2021 and F1 '22. They really haven't done much to move the formula along here.

And yet again, despite containing '22 Season content as part of Breaking Point - they've missed an opportunity here to do a F1 Career Challenge style multi-season game here - which i think given the issues with F1 '22 would have been a nice bonus towards loyal fans unhappy with the overall state and handling of that game.

I personally picked this one up for Breaking Point and the new circuits and circuit updates as part of the season. So really, its the Sport itself that makes this worth buying - certainly nothing EA or CodeMasters have done here.

Lastly - No proper DLC or Classic content - again. Each year i keep thinking I'll skip the next one, and I really should. But I can't help myself.
If you have better will power than I do. Skip it or atleast wait for a sale.

F1 2020 still remains the best package overall of new and classic content. Buy that instead.

Really good Warhammer 40K XCOM cross.
The main plots interesting, the stories well told. Visually its really stunning.
If you've played XCOM, then you really know what to expect here.

The ship management is much the same as base management, the unlockables system is pretty similar.
There's a decent variety of skills to pickup as you level a character.

The DLC is absolutely woeful though, and the game in general could do with more visual variety (I find Nurgle to be really overused in the setting in general).

But I hope the games done well to really see it support with future DLC and expansions.

A really fantastic game that rewards playtime. And believe me, you'll get some playtime. the games huge!
And it keeps throwing new things at you throughout to keep you engaged.
new heroes, new cards, new upgrades, new mechanics, new enemies, new areas. It just keeps giving.

Core combat is really fun, 'The Abbey' friendship stuff starts to get interesting further in but I admit it's tough going in the early hours of the games.
But the game really opens up around the 10-15hr mark and its a brilliant Marvel title.

Really enjoying game, doesn't gate anything off behind a pay-wall or force you to spend any money.
Games are quick and snappy. The art work is beautiful.
Definitely turning into an addiction. Only just found out its on Steam but I've probably played about 30hrs on my phone, and yes, progress/account carries over to both.

Honestly - Its a well crafted Star Wars game with arguably the most complete Star Wars universe and experience you are ever likely to see. A technical marvel and well done to TT Games for that.

That said - its not a very good Lego game. The gameplay cycle is shallow, most of the puzzle/problem solving is gone - and its arguably boring.

Bit of a shame.

Really good prop hunt game with some interesting mechanics. Really polished for Early Access too.

I often don't have the time to play through a game once, let alone twice. My Game Of The Year when it came out on PS4 in 2018. As it stands at the moment, my Game Of The Year again this year.

Like the original Batman Arkham Asylum, its got the balance of story, lore, tightly coupled gameplay and just enough freedom to not be on rails while avoiding the dredges of modern open world game design.
Pretty much perfect.

You did it. You crazy fools, you finally did it.
You finally brought us the SWAT 4 spiritual successor we've all been waiting 15+ years for.

Updated (Update 2 for JWE2)
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They have pretty much addressed all my major gripes about the game on launch.
Customisation aspects have been expanded for individual item placement on certain things.
The resources/refueling has been balanced so its less annoying
Sandbox is due to be updated to truly be a Sandbox mode
Various other changes (worth reading the major update notes)

Its still not perfect, nor is it Planet Coaster/Zoo with Dinosaurs, nor do I think it will ever be. However, its a remarkably better experience after 2 major updates than it was on launch. And as I said in my original review: "One thing Frontier has always been good at with their Park Builder games is post launch support" - has proven to be correct.

My point on the Flying/Aquatic creatures still stands.


Original Review Below:
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Summary
I personally really enjoyed JWE. I saw it as Frontiers first flurry into the world of Jurassic Park. I'd also previously played Operation Genesis and Frontiers own titles Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster.
Despite this, I'm finding JWE2 difficult to recommend. The key word here is 'Frustration'.

Presentation:
Quality of life changes have been made here.
Menu's are cleaner, onscreen information is better presented, overall visual polish is great.
The new Dinosaurs and the animations are fantastic to look at however navigation seems to feel a bit clunkier and hot keys have been rebound since the last game (Transport used to be T, now it isn't?)

One thing that is a markable step backwards is the soundtrack. The first game rifted off the JP official tracks and its own interpretations of them and provided a constant background theme that kept you subconsciously entertained and immersed in the world. This new ones are so bland and forgettable, I'm not even sure if it plays music during the game itself.

Gameplay:
Mixed bag this one.
On one hand, a number of quality of life improvements are welcome here. Little things like the snap lines, the curved pathing system showing circles based on your current curved radius etc.
Hatching eggs now has the nice little edition of the eggs themselves being created by the scientists with a resulting 'batch' with positive and negative traits. You then pick which eggs to proceed with to the birthing stage.
These can then be released or directly transported to a pen. Nice!

On the other hand, this is done via a very shallow Staff system whereby you basically hire some numbers to add to a stat pool across 3 areas. general/science/medical.
You use the pool, they get tired, you rest them. That's it. Frustrating!

Dinosaurs now seem to get injured by the falling of a twig meaning you spend half the time moving them back and forth to the new medical facility. This would be fine if there was some actual gameplay to it beyond click the thing, diagnose it, tranq it, move it, heal it, ship it back.
It sounds like it might be fun. It is not by the 10th time. Frustrating!

Some areas of micromanagement have been reduced, some have been increased. One baffling addition is the requirement to refuel/resupply your buildings and power stations. And as far as I can tell, you cannot automate this.
Its just laborious!. Combine that with the fact you now have a number of required operations your rangers must do to keep you informed with the park, yet despite this, radically reduced ranger availability (due to a reduced upgrade system. more on this in a sec) and you rarely have anyone available to automate anyway! Frustrating!

The JWE upgrade system allowed you to research upgrades which you could then put into up to 6 slots on a building. Giving you some versatility.
These slots have been reduced to 2 presumably to 'challenge' you. Not only that, but things like storm protection that used to be a separate building are now part of these upgrade options. Frustrating!

Story:
I dont have much positive to say about the new 'career' mode. Dinosaurs are free in the USA, you play some wildlife agency tasked with securing them. You repeat a series of missions in different locations without any of the actual Park Management aspects of it. Frustratingly boring.

What is much better, and more akin to the original games campaign mode is Chaos Theory. Its a typical guided park builder mode that gets you unlocking the various species and getting used to the mechanics over the course of the 5 movies locations. Not bad!

Personal gripes:
As I said, Frustration is the word of the day on this. Coming off the back of Planet Zoo/Coaster and seeing the potential for a V2 of JWE, I guess I had higher expectations. This is maybe JWE 1.5.
The building customisation is nice but pretty shallow. The park management aspects haven't much changed, and if anything have gone backwards.
The new dinosaur features: Flying and Aquatic are pretty limited with no depth. I still think the buildings are too big, the placement restrictions annoying (ESPECIALLY when you are within a build area but it straight out refuses to let you put it down for some unknown reason), and there is not enough variation or flexibility in the park options. Planet Coaster, to take an example, lets you place bins, lights etc. Even Operation Genesis had this.
This game feels less like a park building and more like a park observer. You pop down the required assets and watch it go. I mean its all right there in Planet Zoo. Just add Dinosaurs! Frustrating!

One thing Frontier has always been good at with their Park Builder games is post launch support, so I'll be watching closely and updating my review accordingly.