Zoo Tycoon Reviews
There's definitely a zoo, but where's the tycoon?
You can take a certain hypnotic bliss from simply working along calmly and peacefully, making sure that your park is running as smoothly as it can and improving the conditions for your ever-growing menagerie of creatures. This game was never going to be he bombastic launch title that blows the minds of gamers. Zoo Tycoon is a different pace of game for a different type of player. With the Xbox One Microsoft are looking to create a device that provides all forms of entertainment, for everyone, and a game like Zoo Tycoon certainly shows their commitment to creating a broad base. It may ultimately be a little shallow, but it has bags of charm and there is more than enough on offer here to provide hours of animal magic.
Frontier Developments caught my attention with a game that promised "Tycoon" style sim management and, yes, the ability to play with adorable animals. What I didn't expect was how deep and satisfying the sim would be.
Zoo Tycoon has a distinct lack of depth, but if you're capable of sitting down with this simplistic simulator, you'll smile more times than you can count. The simulator fan in me was a bit disappointed by the ease of it all, but the child in me couldn't help but enjoy myself.
Though creating a zoo is pleasant and breezy, after building several zoos with all of the animals, you've pretty much experienced the lion's share of what Zoo Tycoon has to offer.
Zoo Tycoon's animals are adorable, but a clunky interface prevents this management sim from reaching its potential.
Zoo Tycoon overcomes some small issues with charm and a good heart
Building your zoo offers fun moments, but doesn't have any depth or reasons to try different approaches
A fun demonstration of the Xbox One's capabilities but unfortunately much more a stealth sequel to Kinectimals than it is a proper Tycoon game.
Zoos are special and Zoo Tycoon captures that nicely. The sometimes disappointing limitations and even the dreadful menus don't take away enough from the overall package to prevent it from earning a recommendation, particularly for animal lovers and families.
There's huge satisfaction to be had from building your zoo, observing the animals and watching all the graphs go up. It's just a shame that over time, as the novelties wear off, the lack of depth makes it hard to keep coming back. But who knows? Perhaps a future update will introduce monkey butlers.
Building exhibits and interacting with animals in Zoo Tycoon isn't much fun when you're fighting with this menu system.