Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis

Jurassic park operation genesis for the play station 2 takes the sim genre and throws in dinosaurs. Rather than trying to escape a bunch of rampaging prehistoric monsters, or running around as one of those rampaging prehistoric monsters as in previous games, this time your job is to manage the park and prevent the prehistoric monster from going on a rampage…if you feel like it. Similar to any sim roller coaster or zoo game, you have a god perspective which allows you to survey the island where you instantly construct buildings you need to keep visitors happy. Your first order of business is to make a pen for you first dinosaurs which are predetermined by the game, and never very good. After you make your first cute little genetic monster, you can open the park and people start coming in on helicopters. You can build walkways, kiosks, observation towers and security devices while researching new buildings and attractions to construct later on. You also have to manage dig teams that uncover fossils you use to get new dinosaurs and extend the lifespan of the creatures you’ve already unlocked.

The goal of the game is to get a five star park. As your popularity increases, you can unlock a new dig-site to access three new dinosaur species. Unfortunately you can only unlock 3 dig sites out of nine, and the first one is predetermined by the game. Each dig-site unlocks 3 dinosaur species, so you are limited to nine species of dinosaurs for your park. This problem is amplified by the fact that you can only have a set number of dinosaurs in the park at any given time, and they can’t breed. This is because they are all female which is from the movie, but it is a bit of a headache to have to constantly replenish your supply of animals manually. Even in the alternate game mode, site B in which there is no park, you have to constantly create dinosaurs manually rather than try to create a balanced ecosystem between predators and prey, which I think would have been a very interesting game mechanic.

Better dinosaurs attract more people which makes your park more popular. You also have to deal with keeping your park clean, and animals healthy which can be a chore until you research auto immunization and all the vaccines. Otherwise your animals become sick and you have to select them and order your helicopter to cure them, if you have the cure researched. Another constant hassle is the weather. It changes between seasons, but none of it really affects you other than the tornadoes which tear through your park, kill animals and people, and damage your buildings. This can be very annoying if you just spent a fortune on a pack of raptors only to have them sucked up to the land of OZ. Another frustration is when one of your animals goes on a rampage. This happens in the raptors so often I’m convinced it’s a glitch. This happens when your animals become stressed, they go crazy, kill any nearby animals, and destroy the fence. If you don’t react quickly they will eat the guests before they collapse and die.

The game does have a few other game modes in which you either take certain photographs from a jeep, kill rampaging beasts from a helicopter, or muster a herd of herbivores with a helicopter. There are also a few special parks in which you have a specific goal to meet such as get a good rating within a time limit or get a photo worth a certain amount of points. Despite all of this, the game only really comes down to doing one of two things: either breeding a bunch of carnivores and letting them loose to eat your visitors, or to zoom in on your favorite dinosaur and watch it like a peaceful nature show. Actually playing the game to make a five star park seems a pointless and unrewarding chore. Once you’ve unlocked the three dig sites you’ve chosen and bred all nine dinosaurs, there’s really no incentive to get a five star rating. There is also a limit to everything you can build which further limits your options.

This isn’t an exciting action game, and I can only really recommend it for dinosaur fans such as myself who can enjoy watching dinosaurs just walking around and grazing. The game does have a very relaxing soundtrack, and this game can put you to sleep if you let it.