Jurassic World Evolution 2

Jurassic World Evolution 2 follows on brilliantly from the original game to provide hours of utter joy. The console fit is a great one, with interfaces and opportunities always at the fingertips. Throw in a multitude of options via various game modes and you’ve got what many could well call the ultimate dinosaur-themed park builder.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 covers all its bases in the newest iteration of the franchise. Aside from a few clunky issues when designing, every detail was considered and the game will appeal to a wide range of gamers, not just fans of Jurassic Park or Sim games.

If a few additions strengthen the depth of the game a little, such as scientists or territory management, others are a little more cumbersome without being unduly disturbing. If we would have liked more clear-cut news, we once again had a great time on Jurassic World Evolution 2, for a good twenty hours.

There’s still room for improvement, a Jurassic World Evolution 1.999 by my calculations, but even with its issues, Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a fantastic sim game that’ll have you coming back for more, even when you’ve exhausted its campaign and Chaos Theory mode. It’s an absolute must if you’ve got the remotest interest in Jurassic Park, dinosaurs or unleashing nightmarish giant lizards upon an unsuspecting public.

While Jurassic World Evolution marked a rock-solid dry run for Frontier's prehistoric theme park management sim, Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a meaningful, erm, evolution, with the new Chaos Theory mode providing engaging scenarios in which you can attempt to set things right. A diverse suite of modes and slick interfaces ensures Jurassic World Evolution 2's status as an excellent sequel.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 certainly has a fitting title, because it's exactly that — a true evolution. The campaign might be a little on the short side, performance problems are unfortunate, and only having a handful of the movie actors reprise their roles can feel a little jarring (the Chris Pratt soundalike is kinda terrible). But rustling beyond the foliage of these superficial issues is a simulation game with the kind of depth and nuance that the original game promised but never really delivered. There's plenty to try out across its smattering of modes, with everything you unlock during regular play feeding back into the Sandbox mode, giving you even more options to mess around with there without limits. Certainly one of the better games of its ilk, especially on console, and while it can still get a little intense by genre standards, it probably wouldn't be a very good Jurassic Park game if it didn't.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 makes as many giant steps forward as it does back but has enough going for it to deliver a fun and rewarding theme-park experience. Like its predecessor, Sandbox Mode is the most fun, and this avenue of play combines everything the player has unlocked while removing all of the stresses. Collecting every dinosaur takes time and effort, but it's worthwhile, especially since you can experiment to see what happens when every dinosaur roams freely in the same space.

While I can’t recommend Jurassic World Evolution 2 based on it being a park management sim, its real draw are the dinosaurs which are undeniably intriguing and captivating. The large variety of them kept me looking for more species to unlock through expeditions and gene splicing. The Chaos Mode was enjoyable as a fan of the Jurassic Park movies with ‘What If’ type scenarios, but Sandbox mode left me wanting more from the game. I would say this was more geared to fans of the Jurassic Park movies as opposed to fans of park management sims, and there are much better ones out there. For fans of the movies and dinosaurs, you’d be hard pressed to find a game more in line with the franchise.