Zoo Tycoon

"Better than average Tycoon game"

It all really started with Pop Top developing Railroad Tycoon. It did fairly well. In 1999, Chris Sawyer released RollerCoaster Tycoon, and it did insanely well. This whole "tycoon" craze started with those two titles, and RCT was the one which really woke a lot of developers up. As of this review bring written, RCT is STILL on the Top 10 Selling PC titles in the United States. Obviously something was done right in the game to make millions of people go out and buy it. Since RCT, there have been at least a dozen titles with "Tycoon" in their name. It's simply a marketing ploy, because only one or two of these games is even close to RCT's quality.

Here we have a brand new company that thinks they can make a solid game that will attract a following. Microsoft also has this belief, so they decided to publish it.

Zoo Tycoon offers the ability to create something that just about all of us liked in our childhood, zoos. Creating a zoo is not an entirely easy thing to accomplish. You have to please both your guests and your animals. These animals are very picky in what is in their exhibit, so you need to experiment sometimes. The best thing to do is to check out the Zoo Keeper Recommendations for each animal in an exhibit, then work out what needs to be fixed, whether it's replacing grass with savannah grass or adding a particular type of tree/bush.

Keeping costs down can be one of the most difficult things in this game. Animals aren't particularly cheap, neither are the landscaping, buildings, shops, park staff, and maintenance. They all will ring up a hefty bill every month. Getting money will come in various ways. You can charge an admission at the park gate and you can get money from people who purchase drinks, food, souvenirs, etc. If someone finds an exhibit particularly attractive or interesting, that person may donate a small fee.

You aren't necessarily stuck with what the game gives you when you start out. As expected, you are able to research things, but it doesn't come cheap. There are two different categories of research. One is general research, and the other is for conservation. They both have particular things to research. The conservation style, for example, will allow you to research endangered species and animal toys, while the other may allow you to research animal shelters and other abilities for zoo staff.

When constructing a zoo, keep two things in mind. Predator and prey relationships are in the game. Put a lion and something small in the same exhibit, the little guy won't be there for long. The second thing to remember is to be careful when choosing the fencing for the exhibit. Choose a weak fence for a strong animal, and it'll break through and attack guests, leaving a cloud of dust.

Other than exhibits or facilities, you'll need staff to maintain your zoo. Zoo Tycoon offers three types. The first is a zoo keeper. His job is to oversee everything, feed animals, tranquilize escaped animals, heal animals, and even sweep up animal poo. The second staff member is the maintenance worker. His job it to sweep up trash and repair exhibits. The third and final job is the tour guide, which means that she shows people around the zoo.

To keep a zoo properly maintained, you must be able to keep your workers doing their jobs. Breaking them up and assigning them to certain areas is the best option. Unfortunately, the only person you can assign areas to cover is the zoo keeper. In my opinion, this type of option should be added to the other staff members. RollerCoaster Tycoon is an example of a game which allows for this, and I love that option.

Your zoo keepers are paid quite a bit of money ($800), and they're your most expensive staff member. I think it would have been nice to see an advanced option of changing the amount of money that a staff member was paid, and his/her job performance changed depending on how much he/she was being paid.

Obviously, Blue Fang cannot include every animal to please everyone. They are working on an animal and scenery development tool, called A.P.E. (Animal Projects Editor). As of writing this review, version 1.0 was available. It has problems, but I'm not here to review that.

There are a lot of technical problems with this game. I do expect to see some patches released soon. The bigger the zoo you get going, the slower the game runs. When you load a zoo, the system slows literally to a crawl. The way the terrain is drawn just isn't right. I run this game on a 700MHz machine with 128MB of ram, and this needs to be fixed. There are also bugs with the "People are Hungry" and "People are Thirsty" announcements. I haven't noticed this bug in every zoo, but I've noticed it in a few. Sometimes, you could have a hundred food/drink stalls in the zoo, and people would still be hungry or thirsty.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/31/05