Frontier Developments is set to bring its dinosaur management sim franchise to new heights in Jurassic World Evolution 3.
Creativity is a major focus in this third instalment, which will give aspiring park builders an upgraded set of tools, including expanded terraforming and the ability to fine tune the appearance of individual buildings with a new modular editor.
“We wanted to take all of our experience in the Planet series, where you can build everything with pieces, and thought, ‘how can we make that work? How can we bring this to our [new] game?’” explains designer Mike Evans.
“Jurassic World Evolution 3 is quite accessible if you compare it to our other creative management titles, and since it's accessible we wanted to make sure we had all the options we could. There's blueprints, integrated Steam Workshop, and the ability to share your parks.”
Gameplay dino-mite
This expanded tool set is paired with an all-new 'generations' mechanic that introduces the ability to breed dinosaurs and keep playful juveniles in your park. It was a “highly requested” feature according to principal designer Sandro Sammarco.
“From an aesthetic viewpoint, they're fantastic,” he adds. “They embody all the positive things about dinosaurs.”
The addition of juvenile dinosaurs also has some major gameplay ramifications, with what Sammarco describes as “an extra strata of choices and decision making” thanks to new research options. “If you want juveniles, you have to have parents. So now we've not got the monolith of all dinosaurs being female, with the ability to unlock the research and a way to synthesize male dinosaurs.”
“There are new social dynamics now,” he continues. “Do the children want their parents nearby, or do they not need them nearby? There's all these really interesting combinations with the species because they're all different. Some are really easy-going - some juveniles are very shy, and they stick with their parents, and they're easy to look after. Some are really, really gregarious, and they're likely to traipse around and follow any of the dinosaurs, even ones that might not actually get on with them. There are a lot of new, interesting ways to play the game.”
Juvenile dinosaurs eventually grow up and can breed themselves, passing on a range of potential traits that can have a wide range of effects . “There are definitely weird traits,” reveals Evans. “They show up in challenge mode, like the intelligent dinosaur that you have to be very careful with if they can see or sense guests nearby, even beyond the fences, because they will break them and try to escape.”
There are plenty of positive traits, too, that can make particular dinosaurs more attractive to guests and increase the profitability of your park. “It's really good to collect as many positive traits as you can get onto a dinosaur, because it will make them a real powerhouse,” he continues. “But if you're not on the ball and you get dinosaurs that are perhaps aggressive or needy, the last thing you want is for those to have offspring, because they can pass that down.”
Walking with dinosaurs
All of these new features should help make the sandbox experience even more thrilling, but that’s only part of what Jurassic World Evolution 3 brings to the table. The game also features “a huge campaign with ten levels in total” and, according to Evans, “easily 20 plus hours of gameplay” if you’re just “rushing through it” - and even more if you want to take your time and go for the highest scores.
Rather than being an inconsequential spinoff, the story in the Jurassic World Evolution games is a significant part of the franchise’s universe and has been designed to expand the world of the films seamlessly. “I'm very proud of it. It's an original story based just after Dominion and its canon,” Evans says - “to be a tiny part of something so beloved is really a privilege,” adds Sammarco.
The levels take you all across the world, with some locations that will be familiar to series fans and some more surprise inclusions. “We've got Japan, we’ve got Indonesia, we’ve got China,” says Evans. “China is beautiful, it's where the Guanlong [one of this entry’s smattering of new dinosaurs] is from. We've got a return to Malta. We've got the Mediterranean - I love that map. I got to work on it in the campaign, so the beautiful rock arch there was me. And we've got North America, Central America as well, and Hawaii. We're returning to the Montana badlands, which is a nice bit of nostalgia for people who love the series.”
In addition to delivering a steady stream of objectives to guide your progress as the narrative plays out, Evans explains that each stage is designed to inspire your own creativity: “the levels that we're providing are not just blank slates. There are always some beginning layouts where our artists have done a fantastic job decorating them. It's inspiring, and you'll want to continue the vision that you can see in the park.”
Despite its significant place in the franchise, the team behind Jurassic World Evolution 3 has been given a surprising amount of freedom by intellectual property owner Universal Pictures, introducing their own characters, who appear alongside movie favorites, and unique representations of creatures that haven’t appeared in the series before.
“It's been completely frictionless. Universal has been great and given us great guidance to make sure that we're all working on the same track,” begins Sammarco. “But they also gave us a lot of freedom to make the Jurassic World Evolution franchise the success that it is - so we really couldn't be happier.”
Jurassic World Evolution 3 is set to launch on October 21 for PC, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X and Series S.
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