Wildlife Zoo

I was surprised at the content and the graphics on this game. I thought Zoo Tycoon 2 was good. Wildlife Zoo's graphics are so much better and it seems like you have more to do (micromanaging). You have to grow certain food, build poulty farms for meat, and watch plants grow. I loved the thunderstorms that include rain and makes the skies a little dark. Seeing it snow and it sticking onto the ground was a welcome site; however one flaw which takes away from the realism of the game is that people who come into the park and are wearing shorts makes you think, "huh", when the temperature shows that it's -2C. Hopefully a patch will fix that. But on another flaw of the game, on Dreamcatcher's website who published the North American version of Wildlife Park 2, used a weird extension on a patch that virtually makes it not downloadable. A flaw in the game shows up way too much because the animals eat and drink in the "air". There mouthes are not exactly in the water bowl or the food bowl yet theyre actually eating and drinnking perspectivly. Both the shorts in the winter and animals eating and drinking in the air take away the realism. The animals in Zoo Tycoon 2 (and its expansions) are more realistic in the behaviors (eating, drinking, sleeping, playing with toys). Some people might be turned off by the lack of support by the publisher and the sense that the game was left for dead. You would think that if the game has terrible graphics and is totally a mess, that it would be left for dead. I believe this can be a great game if some polish is added (though not as bad as some other games) and some added content and expansions are added.

Mentioning both Wildlife Park 2 and Wildlike Zoo might confuse some people. Wildlife Zoo is Wildlife park 2's North American release is so much better than Wildlife Park. Wildlife Park 2 was released in Europe. I would rate this game a little higher than Zoo Tycoon 2 (a half star more)because of the graphics, how its presented, and the fact that nothing is recycled. If the 2 expansions of Wildlife Park 2 ever make it to Wildlife Zoo, then Dreamcather could have a hit, and a terrific game (if the bugs are fixed also). Now hen I say recycled, look at Zoo Tycoon and its expansion Marine Mania. Marine Mania was redone for zoo tycoon 2. Zoo Tycoon's latest (last year) expansion was a recycled Dino Digs expansion for the original Zoo Tycoon labeled Extinct Animals. Many kids like it but I was very disappointed as I was looking for new content and some fixes as well. Wildlife Zoo also seems to cater to both adults and kids. Zoo Tycoon 2 seems more geared towards kids but is great for adults ( I have it).

Basically in Wildlife Zoo, you are given tasks to run a zoo. I believe it has 20 campaigns with goals that you must complete. The first 3 campaigns are tutorials to help you with minor tasks and get you going. The game has a great tutorial which is not confusing and allows you to grasp the games concepts and pulls you in. They are very informative and dont push you but more along the lines of guiding you. If Wildlife Zoo comes out with expansions then I really see this game skyrocketing over Zoo Tycoon 2. For now it has a slight edge on ZT2.

By the way, for system requirements, it says P4 2.0GHZ and recommends P4 3.0GHZ, however I'm running it on an Intel Core2 Duo (e6300- 1.86GHZ) and it works without any coughs or hickups. If you can, get a system that has Intel Core2Duo. NOT INTEL CORE! These are 2 different processors. If you are interested in AMD processors just make sure it's at least a Dual Core processor. DO NOT run onboard video and/or sound. This can drain your systems resources and cause games to not run, or fail, act sluggish, or act strange. The prices have fallen on processors, video cards, RAM (system memory), and sound cards.

Please note: I don't work for Intel, AMD, Dreamcatcher, Microsoft, or any other company associated with this product! :)

Update: You might want to hold out on this one because Wildlife Zoo Deluxe Edition has been released. The Deluxe edition includes Wildlife Zoo and the expansion Marine World. This is the North American release of Wildlife Park 2. Wildlife Park 2's 2nd expansion was Marine World. Its first expansion was called Crazy Zoo which isnt available for Wildlife Zoo. I bought Wildlife Park 2 and its expansion Crazy Zoo by importing it. WP2 is the same as Wildlife Zoo. So basically, if you want Crazy ZOo, you have to get WP2 Gold edition. If you want the expansion Marine World you could buy Wildlife Zoo Deluxe Edition since Marine World for WP2 is unavailable here as well as from international sellers (the English/U.K. version. Wildlife Zoo Deluxe does have some bug fixes from Wildlife Zoo but it's still missing what could make it a hit. I will write a review for the Deluxe edition, soon.

I'm disappointed in this game because it just seems like Zoo Tycoon 2 recycled. Same format, same controls, same items, same clicking the same patch of dirt a hundred times to keep your animals happy in their environment. I actually bought this game because I was looking for an alternative to Zoo Tycoon 2, which I just don't care for. Instead, I got virtually the same game that I don't care for, and already own. The only major difference is in this game you have to raise your own meat, fruits, and vegetables for food and create your own water supply. Do zoos really do this? It just seems like busy-work to make an already mediocre game even less fun. Hard-core fans of Zoo Tycoon 2 might like this, just for the addition of the growing-your-own-food component, and there is also weather in this game. Other than that, I don't see any big difference.

Nice graphics, but we didn't like the game much overall. Tasks were boring, sometimes you just have to wait when something was happening on the screen and watch animation, sometimes you just move the objects around. Control panels were too complicated and didn't give many options at given time.

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