Jurassic World Evolution 3 Review

Jurassic World Evolution 3 Review

Dear Frontier, if you're reading this, please make all your fantasy sims cross-compatible somehow. Of course, Planet Zoo's wallabies might not want to breed next to a velociraptor enclosure while triple inverted slides zip overhead. However, you say “build it your way”, right? Wishful thinking aside, thank you for Jurassic World Evolution 3. This is the best of the series. It's also just a wink and a nudge from Planet Zoo, so let's talk about this crossover.

Gradual but large increments

In Jurassic World Evolution 3, your tasks remain much the same as in previous games. The main challenge is to find a balance between trade and conservation, exploitation and, in general, evolution. Make a profit by developing science, dinosaur genetics and efficient maintenance. The missions are not much different from those in Planet Zoo, but the captives are a little more extreme.

Jurassic World Evolution 3 doesn't throw out the baby T. rex with the bathwater because it doesn't need to. The fundamentals remain strong. There is a campaign, a sandbox and several one-time challenges. More than enough to keep fans happy for a long time.

However, with Jurassic World Evolution 3, Frontier added a little more depth to dinosaur reproduction, genetics, and the growth cycle. The game features young animals. Apart from being charming and crowd-pleasing, they also have a special range of behavior with each other and with their parents. They also exhibit the mixed genetic tendencies and appearance that would be expected. Minors have unique needs that are different from adults. This means there are more things to balance, but that's what players like.

Breeding now takes into account sexual dimorphism, fecundity, compatibility, territory size and nest location. Part of the game's campaign is dedicated to bioengineering enough males to be included in breeding programs.

Dr. Malcolm is back

The quirky Jeff Goldblum, aka The Fly, aka The Wizard of Oz, aka Dr. Ian Malcom, returns to make jokes and deliver his usual science warnings, but the cast as a whole is pretty good. Overall, the game's campaign is the best of the three games, taking the player from Hawaii to Japan to the Nevada desert and other new locations. As always, the campaign is part storytelling, part education, and is promoted through a highly anticipated, optimized clip.

The game's Challenge Mode offers players a series of one-shot scenarios to test their abilities in a variety of situations. At the very least, scenarios are a great practical tool for diving deep into game systems.

Play in the sandbox

For me—and I suspect for many other players—the campaign is the vegetables and the sandbox is the dessert. That doesn't mean vegetables aren't nutritious and can't be delicious, but the freedom to build them in a sandbox is endlessly fun. As always, players can shape the sandbox experience in great detail. For some players, paying attention to every detail of infrastructure, staffing, maintenance, and research is a pleasure; others are frustrated by concerns about building a sustainable energy system.

In Jurassic World Evolution 3, Frontier introduces modular construction tools and the ability to easily customize buildings and other design elements in greater detail. Ease, of course, is relative. Creating an aesthetically pleasing and entertaining park is always a challenge.

This version includes several new attractions, perhaps the coolest of which is kayaking. Guests can raft down the river while dinosaurs graze on the banks. Ziplining is back, allowing people to fly over herds of dinosaurs. Will a herd of hungry allosaurus be hot on the zipliners' heels? Let's find out.

Fly in amber

I played Jurassic World Evolution 3 on PS5, which means using a controller to build. Thanks in large part to Frontier porting its games to consoles, the practicality of playing the complex construction simulator with a controller has continually improved. It will probably never be as simple and intuitive as using a mouse and keyboard, but in Jurassic World Evolution 3 the process is relatively painless.

Let me copy/paste my standard complaint about the Frontier simulator: lack of compatibility with previous games. Especially when the game's technology is more iterative than radically different, repurchasing content always smacks of greed. This was true in Planet Coaster, and it is true in Evolution 3. However, there is one really positive thing: Blueprints and player-created content in Frontier Workshop are cross-platform.

Overall, Jurassic World Evolution 3 looks great, especially the lighting and scenery. At least on PS5, some dinosaur skin textures have an unrealistic plastic/rubbery sheen to them. However, dinosaur animation continues to evolve and become more realistic. Players looking forward to playing on PS5 should note that some players are reporting issues with the park's difficulty limits. Frontier is working on this issue.

With modular building systems, new baby dinosaurs, and a compelling campaign, Jurassic World Evolution 3 is the best game in the series. It feels like a more flexible and refined version of a familiar game. If it had compatibility with previous content it would be a 10/10, but Jurassic World Evolution 3 is a great base for expansion.

***PS5 code provided by publisher for review***