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The Next Generation

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 105 / 110
Date: November 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've waited with baited breath for Zoo Tycoon 2 to come out for quite awhile now, followed the previews and developer interviews, and purchased it as soon as I could. New campaigns, better graphics, fun objects, 30 animals! I couldn't wait to get it installed. Started playing and this review is a result of that. Conclusion: Zoo Tycoon 2 is a great game. But is it as good as the original Zoo Tycoon?

This time round you have 3 modes of play: Freeform, Scenario and Campaign. Freeform is pretty self explanatory, whilst scenario mode allows you to play different zoos with no main objective, just little in game challenges you can accept or decline. If you complete enough of these in game challenges you gain access to new themed objects (jungle and safari). In Campaign mode you get a zoo and have to complete specific pre determined goals. They are locked so you have to go through from beginning to end. Some were quite fun, a pity I went through them in a day and a half though. Sigh. Not long enough in my opinion, but hopefully expansion packs will provide us campaign hungry players with more.

An important aspect to pay attention to in Zoo Tycoon 2 is the fame rating (represented by stars in the top left of your screen). Various factors such as number of animals and guest happiness are combined to give you a star rating from 1-5. Each new rating opens up new objects (both zoo and animal types), animals, and plants/rocks. Adoption of animals (unless you have an objective that limits your usage of adoption) is a bit like a slot machine. You can place the animals or decline the offer, in which case another animal (which takes awhile to get) pops up depending on your star rating. Varied animal types with detailed graphics, objects, and actions can be accessed eventually.

Zoo Tycoon 2 is much less animal oriented than its predecessor. Biomes can be combined in slip slop ways, most of the advanced objects are not really needed unless you want the guests to be entertained, and often times the animal is available long before plants/rocks from its biome are. The layout of the animal objects and biomes menus is much improved and lots of neat new objects are available though.

The guests are your standard tycoon fare, having wants and levels of that want. Fun, Food, Drinks, Benches all of these and more are necessary to make your guests truly content. There are loads of decorative objects and path laying and deleting of objects is a snap with some new systems. And user created content, let's not forgot the infinite possibilities of that. When laying out fences you can choose to do so in freeform, square, or line manner. So the game is more manageable than before in zoo layout manner.

One thing I didn't like was the default resolution and zoom power. I had to up mine to 1280X1024 to be able to view the zoo from a far away enough distance to make it all manageable. The zoom (when using the mouse button) is a bit awkward to use, and does not go very far out. And be prepared if you're graphics card, cpu and processor aren't at least average at this point you most likely will not be able to play this game.

I really like that a lot of the campaigns have you rescuing abused animals or taking over zoos with unhappy animals. And you no longer "sell animals" you can release it into the wild (yay) or give it up for adoption. Most people who play games like this tend to like animals, and I found this added a happy nice feeling to the game if you know what I mean.

The graphics are bold and beautiful, detailed and colourful. No complaints in that department. There is a wander mode where you can become a mechanic/zoo keeper/pedestrian and the graphics move smoothly and look good even at this close a range. And it is quite amusing (and handy if you're low on cash) to empty trashcans, fill food dishes, and clean animals (amongst other things).

Zoo Tycoon 2 is a great game - fun for all ages. But does it surpass its predecessor? In my opinion as a control obsessed tycoon/simulation lover ALMOST but not quite. Of course the graphics are better and the numerous improvements are remarkable, but the game play isn't any deeper. Quite the contrary. The game has become much more "kid friendly" i.e. easier and while this is great for kids, for serious tycoon players who want full control and a bit of a challenge Zoo tycoon 2 falls short. But in its own right, when not compared to the wonderful Zoo Tycoon and with recognition of the fact that this one has no expansion packs or patches as of yet and can become a whole lot more, its a FABULOUS game. So if you liked the first, or want a game the whole family can enjoy rush out and get it.

Lots of Improvement

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 71 / 74
Date: November 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was going to resist getting Zoo Tycoon 2, having recently being disappointed by the update of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (which is NOT an improvement). I am, however, a simulation/strategy game addict--and I am happy to report that I don't regret giving in to the impulse to buy Zoo Tycoon 2.

The original version of this game was not one of my favorites. I found changing little squares of landscape and mending fences rather tedious for long term game play, not to mention only having income from entrance fees and food/drinks keeping my bank account in a permanent decline, and visitors loosing interest in the exhibits too quickly.

WHY THIS VERSION IS BETTER:
* 3D Animation - I tend not to care much about graphics in general, however these graphics are quite well done, and you can zoom in quite close to observe the animals. You can also click on any animal and find out what it's doing at any given moment.

* Photo Safari - In certain scenarios and challenge games, you can earn awards by taking pictures of specific events. Switching to a digital camera style view, you may have to take a snapshot of two animals, or an animal running, etc.

* Interactive Mode - You can switch to guest view, and walk around your park, getting a close-up view. Further, you can play caretaker and clean up after animals (and guests), clean animals and fill food dishes yourself.

* Donations/Income - Guests continue to visit all exhibits as the game progresses, and contribute donations at each exhibit. The more interesting the exhibit, the more they donate (they like biomes: exhibits in which the terrain, plants, rocks and animals are all appropriate to one another).

* Guest/Animal Detail - Similar to Roller Coaster Tycoon, you can view each guest or animal's specific needs, discovering which are fulfilled and which are not. You can also view lists of this information that can be organized by any category (which animals are pregnant, which guests most need a bathroom, etc.)

* Responsive Guests - In the previous versions, guests nearly dying of thirst would walk right by a soda stand complaining. Now they form lines (though they'll whine if the line is too long) or give an opinion ("I want something other than soda.")

* Atmosphere - Part of your score depends on the appearance of your zoo. Guests will get unhappy without fountains, arches and bouncy kangaroo rides to keep them entertained (and you'll get a message if too many of them are dissatisfied).

* Zoo Rating/Progress - As your zoo improves, so does your rating, unlocking more objects and animals.

* Exhibit Design - As with the previous version, you paint exhibits with appropriate terrain and fill them with the right vegetation for the animal. However, you paint in broad strokes, rather than micromanaging every square. Also, you don't pay for the change of terrain, which keeps the costs of building an exhibit much more manageable.

* Gifts to Wear - There's a different gift for each animal, and guests will buy those relating to animals they've seen in your zoo. You might see them walking around with moose antlers on their heads or peacock backpacks.

* No Broken Fences: The fences no longer deteriorate, so animals only escape if you use the wrong kind of fence, and most predators will not kill other animals (i.e. crocodiles won't go after flamingoes, but lions will hunt gazelle given the opportunity). Guests will still flee from escaped animals, however.

*Animal Adoption: No longer can you purchase unlimited flamingoes or tigers. A limited number and variety of animals are available at a time, the higher your zoo rating, the more species available and the more options you have. You can choose to pass on adopting a species, and it will be replaced by a random other species after some time that isn't already an option (but each level only makes certain species available, you need to earn 5 stars to get the rarest animals).

* Specified Research: Rather than having to research several things you don't want to get the one you do, you can choose the specific object you want to research next for a set fee. Objects available for research expand with your zoo rating.

WHAT IT LACKS:
* Number of Scenarios: I've had the game less than a week, and have already beaten most of the campaign scenarios. However, there are many challenge games still to be played. No doubt an expansion pack is already in the works to fix this.

* Number of Animals: There are only 30 different animals, mostly the same as those found in the previous version. However, there is a wide variety: for instance you have one species of tiger, one of elephant, etc. I imagine there will be an expansion pack to supplement this, too.

* Limited Initial Animal Choice: You always start out with the same three (Moose, Peacock and Camel) and need to establish them before more are made available, which gets a bit tiresome when you play a number of scenarios.

BOTTOM LINE: A family-friendly game, I'd say this is one of the best simulation games of 2004 (and I've played a lot of them). Easy enough for kids to play, but entertaining enough for adults. If you're a fan of Rollercoaster Tycoon or SimCity, this is an excellent choice.

Makes Zoo Tycoon 1 look like a pile of Elephant droppings!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 30 / 31
Date: November 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As I said before, this game didn't work with quite a large percent of PC viedo cards. I bought a new card from Fry's Electronics and it works fine. No glitches or anything. It's so, so, much better. It's simple too. The animals are not as picky, and they're much more realistic. For example, my Grizzly Bears fight over the female. One of them is killed. No volince or anything. Complety E-rated. Just growling and pawing, then one of them turns into... well, basicly, bones. One thing that annoys me is that guests really care about amusment. No statues+ no fountains + no bouncy-rides = lots of angry guests that leave the zoo instantly. On the plus side, Freeform games come with unlimited cash and you don't have to wait for new objects. That's what I think a freeform game should be like.
I recomend Zoo Tycoon 2 with Bonus Animal Pen (Monkey or Tiger) instead of Zoo Tycoon 2, because it not only comes with the pen, but with a National Geographic DVD.

nearly perfect ...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: November 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is an excellent sim game, and a worthy successor to ZT1.

I'm much more enchanted by the ability to walk around the zoo in 3D than I thought I would be. It's nice to see the efforts of your design from a first-person perspective. One minor drawback though is that there's no 'pause' option in that mode, which is sometimes frustrating when trying to snap a photo of some rare animal behavior ...

The exhibit design aspect is much improved. To begin with, no longer will you spend half your time clicking on a plant, waiting for the happy face, clicking on a plant, waiting for the happy face, clicking on a plant -- oops, got an angry face, delete ... Also, no more broken fences or 'trampled' terrain, two ideas from the first game which I don't miss at all.

Instead you can paint realistic landscapes with a 'brush', or if you're a bit more artistic/controlling, paint ground cover (grass, dirt) and add plants and rocks by hand. You can even transplant any plant or rock to a different location. Animals are much less picky about the exact number and species of plants they need in their space. The terrain height controls have a bit of a learning curve to them, but work wonderfully (and for free!) after a bit of practice. The ability to place fences and other items on the diagonal instead of in strict rectangles adds a lot to the realism and attractiveness.

I do miss the wide variety of animals and scenery I was used to with Zoo 1 and its downloads and expansion packs, but I understand that each animal in the new version had to be painstakingly created from scratch. The animal behaviors are much more detailed and interesting, very species-specific. It's often fun just to zoom in and watch them for a while. They do have a sort of low-polygon look to them, which I understand was necessary to make it playable on lower machine configurations, but given that, the textures are really outstanding.

By contrast, the people are very rudimentary and uninteresting, both in look and behavior sets. At least the AI works well enough; no problems with people desperate for a restroom walking right by an empty one, or anything like that.

(As an aside: one exception to the very realistic animal behaviors in the program is that of mating. I know there's a "family-friendly" factor here, though as a parent I would prefer to have seen a comparably accurate representation of mating behavior -- after all, what do kids see at zoos? But I recognize that many parents won't agree with me, and the developers had no real choice about that. However, I would point out that it's a bit odd to give kids the idea that all these animals 'mate' by simply lying down next to each other, not even touching, after which the female arises, pregnant ...)

I've run across three or four bugs in the program, all very minor and not significantly hurting gameplay. Kudos to Blue Fang for shipping out a relatively clean and playable product.

I do have two major complaints about the game. One is the lack of zoom-out capability. Close-up is great, but even at 1280x1024 resolution you can only see a small section of the zoo at once.

The worst problem is lag when shifting between regular gameplay and the tabbed information screens. I've got a 1.7ghz processor, more than double the 'minimum' requirements, and 1024mb of ram ... and it often takes *several minutes* to load a detail screen or save a game. It's really appalling, and enough to drop the game from five stars to four for me.

I will note for those few who may be interested that the game is playable in 2-D mode with a tablet and stylus, but a mouse is required for the first-person 3-D view.

I definitely recommend this game to sims fans and ZT1 fans, though I hope they create a patch soon to speed up the interface lag.

This game is Awesome...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: November 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I love Zoo Tycoon 2. I played the original & the expansions & loved them as well but Zoo Tycoon 2 is so much better. I really like the ability to build diagonically. The zoo looks much better with this ability. I also find it really neat that you can go into Zoo Guest Mode which allows you to walk throug the zoo & see what everything looks like from the guest's point of view. The Photo Safari Mode is neat also. It allows you to go into the exhibits & take really good pictures of the animals. Did I mention that the animals are a lot more realistic & easier to please? This game is really awesome. By the way, the pen that you get with this game is very cute. I highly recommend it to anyone.

not better just different

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: November 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

We have Zoo Tycoon 1 and all the expansion packs. They run fine. This game is veeery sloooow at times. In some aspects they have made the game easier. The animals are far easier to please and you don't have to know much about them or their enviroment. Just hire a zoo keeper and you're set. The graphics that allow you to walk through the zoo as a guest are interesting but it is also frustrating to get where you want to go. Overall until the price comes down, the earlier version is a much better game for the money.

A Great Sequel to Zoo Tycoon

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Zoo Tycoon was great, but Zoo Tycoon2 is much more realistic. You can adopt 29 animals, 4 of which are different from what you get in Zoo Tycoon.
You can assume the role of different people in your zoo; a zoo guest, a matinence worker, a zoo keeper, and the zoo owner.
In this game, you can actually choose what you feed your animals. You can groom, wash, and heal your animals. You can also build waterfalls and moats.
Another good thing is that in the freeform games, your cash is unlimited, so you can buy whatever you want. But in the campaign games, you don't get very much money, except for in the first one.
One con is the system requirements. It was days before I could actually start playing the game becuse first we didn't have a 3-D graphics (video) card, then we didn't have enough memory, and we had just gotten a new computer a month ago.

For the most part, I like the new game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

As my heading states, I DO like the new Zoo Tycoon 2 game, and I was a great fan of the first one. However, I am an adult woman and find this new game to be a little too "kid-friendly" for me. I feel at this point that there should have been two new games, one for kids and one for adults. Some of the graphics are starting to look a little cartoonish to me, something I never thought with the first one. Also, why do we start off with only three animals, and silly ones at that? Makes no sense to me, since anyone playing this game surely has played the first game and already knows how to play it. I am disappointed also that there is no marine pack and dinosaur pack, because I loved the marine parks I created and sorely miss them. I hope expansion packs take care of all of this, and I also hope we can see more objects like roller coasters, hot air balloons, a jungle safari ride which would be awesome, and more objects for an amusement-park theme.

Check your video card before you buy!!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: December 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It is very important that you go to the website to check the compatibility of your video card before you buy the game--even if it meets the minimum system requirements. My current video card is barely two weeks old (not expensive, but nice enough) and appears to meet the requirements, but it is an unsupported brand. The game looks wonderful and I wish we could play it but I can't afford a new video card when I already have a new one. I would have given the game more stars since it looks like it would be great, but now I have opened software to attempt to return and a crying daughter who was so excited about the game that we drove a long distance to buy it. You can find the list of unsupported cards at support.microsoft.com/games.

One of the best games ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: February 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Zoo tycoon 2 is A great game! Graphics are awsome and the option of being able to feed and clean your animals is cool!
I do like the Zoo tycoon Complete Collection better only because it has so many more animals including dinos and marine animals, but this game is still very fun! This game has far more pros then cons and is diffently worth the money!! I made a list of some pros and cons.

Pros
1. Its got great graphics
2. Its really easy and quick to install
3. Its not hard to learn how play
4. It can be as challenging as you want it to be depending on the options you choose.

Cons
1. I wish it had more animals

There is diffently more pros then cons! I'v played a lot of tycoon games (they are my favorit) and by far this is the best tycoon game ever I diffently recommend this game and if not this one try Zoo tycoon Complete collection that one is great too!!!

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