Zoo Tycoon 2 Review

Overall Rating

Free terrain modification.
Good graphics and color.
First-person interface.
I find it relaxing to build the exhibits and watch the zoo prosper.
You can actually complete campaigns without using a money cheat. (Which is a very good thing, since I haven't found one for ZT2!).

Compared to the original game:
Less control.
Less strategy (The new game barely fits into the strategy category).
Less challenge.
Poor "feedback" from the animals regarding your modifications.
Goofy and frustrating "challenges", especially regarding photos. (Yuck)
LONNNNGGGG waits to meet certain goals and obtain certain animals and objects.
Very few cheats or hints available anywhere online!

Zoo Tycoon 2 - I was a huge fan of the original Zoo Tycoon, so my opinions are based largely on a comparison of the old versus the new.
Free terrain modification is the biggest plus, in my opinion. In the original game it was particularly frustrating to PAY to make hills or flatten areas, only to find the animals didn't like what you had done. (And you could only un-do the last alteration and get your money back!) And each square of water or grass cost you hard-earned $. Now you can create ditches, mountains, ponds, and level ground to your heart's content without spending a dime. (As long as you select the basic terrains without automatic trees and rocks, which you do still pay for).

It's a good thing the terrain modification is free, because you really have to struggle to get it exactly how you want it. While I admit that it's easier to use the biome "paint brush", it isn't even CLOSE to as accurate as in the original game. In the old game you could raise, lower, and paint each individual square in your zoo. And as long as you weren't paused, the animals gave you immediate feedback (green smiley face for good, red frown for bad), to let you know if you were making the right modification or not. With the new game you paint an entire area, and you get limited feedback from the animals, who often appear disinterested.

Also, there is no "scoring level" to give you a hint if you've built an outstanding environment or not. You simply have to watch the "green" level on the animals' information chart. The old ratings made the game much more challenging! It was GREAT to aim for 100% or higher. The lack of this feature diminishes the strategy challenge of the entire game.

The first-person interface is very cool! I like being able to "walk" through the zoo as a guest, groom the animals as a zookeeper, and save money by emptying the trash myself as a maintenance worker. However, raking poo because the zookeepers refuse to do their jobs properly gets old REAL fast! There are DEFINITELY problems with the zookeepers. They prefer to sit on benches rather than shovel poop. I've found this complaint on many ZT2 forums, and no one has found a solution yet.

The graphics, while being a bit glitchy, are pretty good, and the color and scenery are really nice. However, I have an excellent and relatively new Sony PC, with tons of RAM and disk space, and the latest graphics and sound cards. And still my PC frequently freezes up during the game, and I have to "hard-boot" the computer! I really hate that! I've learned to save my games frequently so that I don't have to start scenarios from the beginning when this happens. Usually this does NOT happen during regular play. It seems to happen when I'm viewing the stats pages, especially if I change pages too quickly to suit it. Perhaps if you are a novice to computers and make all of your selections very slowly this wouldn't happen. I get impatient sometimes and click different tabs faster than the program likes.

I'm certain that Microsoft and Blue Fang thought the photo interface was a cool addition, but I think it's a waste. Some of the "challenges" require you to sit and watch an animal for lonnnngggg periods of time until they decide to perform the action you need to photograph! And you can't take your eyes away or you might miss it!!!

My last comment is on the long boring periods of time you have to simply wait to collect enough money or earn enough stars to progress through the campaigns. I've found no way to speed up this process; hence I sometimes spend more hours than I'd like to complete my missions.

Overall, I enjoy the Zoo games a lot. And I'm hooked enough that I'll definitely complete all of the available scenarios. But I sure wish the developers had kept more qualities and features of the old game while upgrading to the 3D & First-person interface.

Members' Comments ongjmcg's Review

• zaqzaq1212 on 30th Dec 2008

  Would be a lot more awesome if you could actually play it. So many people have had problems installing the game it makes it not worth it to buy it. And the act that microsoft ignores the problems doesn't help. Poorly made. Wouldn't recommend to anyone.