Design Your Own Dinosaur Games

US Markets Loading... H M S

If you ever thought you could build a better dinosaur theme park than they did in the Jurassic Park movies — with fewer deaths and catastrophes — this is the game for you

What if the Jurassic Park movies were void of corrupt, questionable characters, and the parks flourished instead of crumbling into catastrophic failure?

Well, for one, there wouldn't be any Jurassic Park movies. And two, it gives the opportunity for video games that will let you do what Jurassic Park characters couldn't: create the perfect dinosaur theme park.

I've been playing "Jurassic World Evolution" for the last couple of weeks for many, many hours, and anyone who has a hint of fondness towards dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park movies will surely share my enjoyment.

Check out "Jurassic World Evolution" in a nutshell:

(Hint: To watch the GIFs below in higher resolution, click the gear icon on the bottom right of the GIF and select "HD.")

You can build your own dinosaur theme park that doesn't make the same mistakes in the movies, where hundreds of people die as a result of questionable actions.

You can design absolutely everything in your theme park, like the dino enclosures, what type of fences you use, and what dinos you incubate. But you have to manage your dino's happiness, as well as your guests'.

There's a campaign mode where you need to complete contracts and missions for three different divisions — Science, Entertainment, and Security — to unlock building upgrades and special dinosaurs like the Indoraptor.

There's no real story in the campaign mode, and it only serves to make you work to unlock all the dinosaurs you can possibly get in the game, as well as building upgrades to make your parks better.

I'd absolutely complete the campaign mode to get all those unlockable extras. That way, you can build the best possible park on Isla Nublar, the original Jurassic Park island. It's a large island with lots of open space to let your creative juices freely flow for your perfect park.

It's also a good way to learn how the game works to build your ultimate park.

To make dinosaurs, you have to use your Expedition Center to find fossils around the world, then extract the DNA to get a more complete dino genome. The higher the genome, the higher your dino's star rating, and ultimately, the higher your park's star rating.

You can also add genetic modifications to your dinos, like different color patterns, extended life spans, better attack or defense, and even better resistance to disease.

The more modifications you use, the less viable your dinosaur's genome becomes. You have to be careful you don't modify your dinosaurs too much if you want them to incubate successfully.

You need to use your park rangers and their jeeps to keep your dinos' feeders topped up, and to medicate them when they contract a disease.

You'll want to make sure your carnivores are well fed.

And you need to make your enclosures are comfortable for your dinos with the proper ratio of forest and grassland, as well as enough members of its own species. Otherwise, they start attacking fences.

Sometimes, storms will roll through your park. This makes your dinosaurs uncomfortable, which means they'll start attacking fences. Carnivores really don't like being uncomfortable.

If they get agitated enough, your dinos will attack fences and potentially break them, and wreak havoc in your park. You need to make sure you have enough emergency shelters and use them whenever you get a storm warning.

If you don't have shelters ...

... sometimes, a tornado will break your enclosure fences. In this case, my T-Rex's fence was just broken by a tornado, which is ... unfortunate.

If your dinos escape, you need to use your ACU Center's helicopter to tranquilize them. Then you can transport them back to their enclosure ... after your rangers fix the fence, of course.

The dinos and scenery look amazing.

It's not a perfect game, but it hasn't stopped me from enjoying the game tremendously.

I have a few issues with the game. My main problem is that the game doesn't allow you to place buildings in certain areas due to "terrain constraints," despite the fact the patch of land I want to place the building is perfectly smooth.

I have a other minor complaints, but they shouldn't distract you. I paid $60 for this game, and I comfortably feel like I got my money's worth.

Jurassic World Evolution is out for Steam on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 4.

More: Features Video Games Gaming Jurassic World Evolution

For you