14 DAY TRIAL // One Yutysaurus is feeling frisky and manages to escape its enclosure, taking advantage of a hole created by a big storm. While I drive the rangers around to get fence repairs going, the dinosaur has managed to get to at least one visitor, which is a shame, and now is wandering the premises, apparently feeling lonely.
So I hop into the helicopter, move to his location, and use the tranquilizer gun to put it to sleep. A bigger helicopter is going to relocate him back to his enclosure and companions, while I get to researching sturdier barriers.
I want to focus on getting new dinos and finding ways to impress visitors, not on chasing down escaped hungry carnivores. Although I might be ready to explore the potential of dinosaur on dinosaur violence and what it might do for visitor attraction.
Feathered Species Pack for Jurassic World Evolution 2 is developed and published by the same team as the base game, Frontier Developments. The downloadable content pack is the latest release for the title, designed to add more dinos for players to get to their parks.
All four of the new creatures added to the game have plumage. Yutysaurus is a big meat eater with a distinctive crest, Jeholopterus is a small and quick flying dino, Deinocheirus represents the largest of the ornithomimosaurs, and Sinosauropteryx is small and hunts in packs.
Players have to invest in research and expeditions to get them to their park and, of course, they need different types of investment to get comfortable. But, otherwise, there are no additions to the main mechanics of Jurassic World Evolution 2.
Players will need to create the infrastructure required to keep a complex park with unique challenges going. Researchers are needed to discover new tech, go on expeditions to find DNA and then work to make that viable and bring species back to life. Rangers and vets take care of them, while players also work to keep visitors both safe and engaged.
I like the mostly laid-back nature of park development. I tend to play in the sandbox with no monetary restraints, simply looking for dinosaurs while researching upgrades for my park. It makes it easier to focus on the dinosaurs themselves and on finding good ways of showing them to the visitors.
The game is also getting a free patch that tweaks things and improves the management experience. The update accompanying the DLC introduces new viewing gallery options, zip lines, as well as a cinematic camera mode. There are also tweaks for the sandbox and other changes (make sure to check the patch notes for all details).
Jurassic World Evolution 2: Feathered Species Pack is good-looking. Sure, players will spend most time zoomed out, on the fastest speed setting, creating the best park they can. The user interface makes that relatively painless, although placing paths can still be a pain. But I like to take a moment, pause, and move around the dino enclosures, taking a closer look at the specimens and watching them simply exist. The game’s sound design is also pretty good, especially when it comes to dinosaur calls.
Conclusion
Newcomers are better off picking up the base release and playing through the campaign to get a hang of the mechanics. Jurassic World Evolution 2 could use a few more gameplay tweaks, including extra automation, but it remains the best way to live out the fantasy first sketched by the movie series.
A review key was provided by the publisher
