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Lots of Improvement

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 372 / 379
Date: November 23, 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 predators will not kill other animals. 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.

This game is Awesome...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 79 / 91
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. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Its even better than the first

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 20
Date: November 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I just bought this game today...and played it for a few hours. My initial impression is just "WOW look at all the new features". The world is MUCH more detailed. You can go into "zoo guest mode" and see everyting up close, as well as personally clean and tend to the animals yourslef. The animals are not nearly as picky as in the first game, and they reproduce easily. This game in some ways reminds me of the sims, but in a good way. The freeform has unlimited cash. The animals and people have little icons saying whether they are happy or not. My favorite part is all the cool animations they put into the game. The animals interact, the people have various actions. I see it as a great improvement of an already fun game.

Zoo Tycoon 2...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 20
Date: September 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Zoo tycoon 2 is Great! so worth Buying Even if you have Zoo Tycoon 1! So much more Realistic! My favorite thing to do is Make a Eco System... Like Fence in the Main Front Gate and Make the Whole Land one Big HUGE Animal Cage Then Fix up the Land Scape for like African Animals (or whatever kind of animals I want to put in it)... Then Make Herds of Zebra.. Eliphants.. And anything else that Lives in Africa Then Also Set some Lions and Cheetas Free in there and Watch and see what they do.. I love the Cycle of Life.. Its great to see the lil babys :-).. Zoo Tycoon 2 is Much more Real then 1.. The Lions Actualy get to Eat there Prey and they get to Drink out of the Rivers Instead of there water Dishes.. and The Zebra Get to eat the grass Insted of Bales of hay (and they also drink from the rivers) The one thing I wish they would have done is Make the Prey animals Smarter and Stay More in herds then go off and Spred out also it would have been great if they Made them More Aware of the Lions.. Insted of just running if they r attacked (The rest of the time there like sleeping next to eachother) I found that the smartest Prey animal in the game is The ring Tailed Lemor (Rain forest animal) They stay in groups and Give alarm calls!

Hey and if anyone knows of any other games that are Just wild life and/or Eco (...) -Thanks!

The BEST GAME EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: May 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is very good although it takes FOREVER to load (IF YOU SAVE IT.) I have zoo tycoon 1 also and my dad bought me the dinasaur digs/marine mania thing that you have to have zoo tycoom 1 to play when I heard about it at school. When I got zoo tycoon 2 though, they only have mammals.(EXEPT FOR ALLIGATORS!)
I was disapointed that they didn't put sea creatures on this game but I was still THRILLED that I had gotten it.The animals must be pregnat to have young, witch is good cuz you can wait for the baby.The WORST THINGS IS THAT MY DADDY GRIZLY BEAR KILLED HIS SON AND MY LEAMUR DIED CUZ HE WAS SICK!!!I recomend this game for EVERYONE!!! bye, I'm gonna go play it now...

Fun Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: July 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I love "tycoon" games of all sorts. Zoo tycoon 2 and its expansion packs are great and most of the scenerios are fun (if not a little time consuming). You can zoom in and walk around the zoo like a guest as well as save yourself some money (in the game of course) by doing the zookeeper and maintenance tasks yourself.

This is a great, educational game for kids. They'll learn about many different animals and conservation efforts. It's also the sort of game that you could sit down and play with your kids.. help them out with planning and ideas and read about the different animals with them.

I'm also happy to see that Microsoft is donating money from the sales of this game to the World Wildlife Fund.. all the more reason to buy it :)

Zoo Tycoon 2 rocks!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: September 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is exellent. I loved the first Zoo Tycoon, but I love this one better. It's even better than Zoo Empire. You can pretend to be a guest and walk around your zoo in Guest Mode. I loved that but my favourite feature is being able to release animals back into the wild! It's worth every penny!

Zoo Tycoon 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: May 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game after playing and enjoying Zoo Tycoon 1. It is the same idea, but greatly improved. It is a fab game and I would recommend it to anyone who likes animals and looking after them!

Creativity Makes the Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: April 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I definitely think that if you liked the first Zoo Tycoon computer game and all of its expansions, you will also very much enjoy Zoo Tycoon 2. However, I will tell you right now, it does not require you nearly as much to use strategy skills, as the first one does. If you have already read the reviews of Maria Padue "Strategy Game Fanatic" and D. Neal "Catlady", you may be quite appalled by this game by now. But before you decide that Zoo Tycoon 2 is definitely not the right game for you, just hear me out, because I think that they are both missing the beauty of the game. They obviously were both looking for something in the game that made them think and use strategy skills, and I think that that is why they particularly did not enjoy the game. However, if you are someone that likes to use their creativity, like me, I have no doubt that you will love this game.

The new tools and features are so much better than the ones in the first Zoo Tycoon. They allow you to build much more unique and realistic exhibits that resemble your animals' natural habitats. In the first one, the game only allows you to make box-like exhibits, and if you want to raise or lower the ground in an area, it will only do it in squares. In Zoo Tycoon 2, the tools allow you to shape the ground so that it looks natural. Also, the new biome brush makes it much easier to meet the environmental needs of your animals. The game allows you to construct the pathways, fences, and buildings diagonally as well, which gives you more options and lets you be more creative when you are building your zoo.

The new 3D effects are also absolutely awesome!! When I am in the zoo guest mode, I feel like I am really walking through a zoo. I love that it allows you to get a truly close-up look of the animals. (you can take pictures of them and put them in your photo album too!!) The new zooming and turning features are also very handy. I find it quite frustrating in the first Zoo Tycoon that the closest it will let you zoom in is still a pretty far distance away, and you only have four angles to view your zoo from. Zoo Tycoon 2 gives you the maximum "zoo-viewability", with almost every angle you can imagine. It makes it much easier to see things that you need to get to, like an empty food trough that is hidden behind a tree.

Also, the different playing modes allow you to choose how you want to play the game. I especially like the freeform mode because you can be as creative as you want while building a zoo. In this mode you do not have to worry about how much money you are spending in doing so because there is an unlimited amount of money that you have to spend. And even when you do want that extra challenge, you can go into the challenge mode, where you do have a limited amount of money.

Overall, I think Zoo Tycoon 2 is amazing!! They did an awesome job of making a new and improved version of the game. I definitely suggest that you buy it. I think the true challenge of the game is to use your creativity to build you ultimate dream zoo, and that's what makes this game so awesome!!

* If you want a better feel of the game, I would suggest going to www.zootycoon2.com. They have some awesome close-up screenshots from the game, info, and other cool stuff.*

I hope my review was of help to you.

Great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: May 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Zoo Tycoon 2 has one of the greatest first-person perspective of all tycoons games I played so far. The graphics are wonderful and you feel like you are actually visiting a real zoo at times. Very fun to play!

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