Why buy this game over Zoo Tycoon 2?

[Nats]

The screen shots seem to show a very limited look to the game - only rectangular enclosures that are obviously made up of squares for example, and it only looks like you have a couple of different terrains as well, not to mention the animations seem to be rather basic and all occur very repetititively at the same time for multiple people. So it looks rather basic really.

I know its rather cheap but as you can buy Zoo Tycoon 2 for a lot less than this game why should I get this game? Zoo Tycoon 2 you have a hell of a lot of diversity, complexity, loads of challenges etc and with all the packs loads of differnet animals including dinosaurs.

What makes this game better than Zoo Tycoon 2, which is arguably the market leader in this genre and cheaper to buy as well?

[Thomas]

Originally posted by Nats:

What makes this game better than Zoo Tycoon 2, which is arguably the market leader in this genre and cheaper to buy as well?

"Zoo Tycoon 2" do not have to be the genre leader, have a look at the old "Wildlife Park 3" game from another publisher, which is "accidentally" for some weeks available on Steam since Excalibur makes advertising for their "Zoo Park". ;-)

One good reason for "Zoo Park" is that you can support a small game company which has a new genre title in the zoo simulation genre. They will fix actual bugs in their game and it is playable on Steam and current Microsoft Windows versions. That´s a big point against old zoo games, with constant annoying bugs and eventually stunts for installing them in Windows 7 or Windows 8.

And the price is interesting. Current version of "Zoo Tycoon HD" for XBox One costs nearly 50 euros, "Zoo Park" here on Steam just 13 euros. Long-time gameplay seems to be better in "Zoo Park" for less money. :)

[Nats]

I can get ZT2 for £6.54 on Amazon. The fact is if this game wants to make any headway against ZT2's lead it needs to be much better or much cheaper and this seems to be neither. I dont fund small companies by the way I buy games that I can play. The fact is that there are plenty of improvements that could be made over ZT2 - better graphics, real views for the ground, more detailed conservation issues, more complex animal behaviour etc. More detailed finances and stocking. Things that real life zoos need to deal with today. Now that would be a game I could buy.

[Thomas]

Originally posted by Nats:

I can get ZT2 for £6.54 on Amazon. The fact is if this game wants to make any headway against ZT2's lead it needs to be much better or much cheaper and this seems to be neither.

Are you REALLY sure about that? :D

There is a little mistake in your argumentation. You compare the current year 2014 price from "Zoo Tycoon 2" and NOT the 2004 release price. Let´s make the comparison a little bit fairer:

2004 "Zoo Tycoon 2" => nearly 39,99€
2014 "Zoo Park" => 12,99€

As we can see, "Zoo Park" is approximately a quarter of the full price of Zoo Tycoon. That´s a very good price for a little Zoo simulation game. :)

Best regards,
Thomas

ps: You can have "Wildlife Park 3" released in March 2011 for less than 10 €. Try it on Steam, its more complex with cooler 3D animation than the youtube videos I see about "Zoo Tycoon 2".

[Nats]

Originally posted by thomas_pakkanen:

Originally posted by Nats:

I can get ZT2 for £6.54 on Amazon. The fact is if this game wants to make any headway against ZT2's lead it needs to be much better or much cheaper and this seems to be neither.

Are you REALLY sure about that? :D

There is a little mistake in your argumentation. You compare the current year 2014 price from "Zoo Tycoon 2" and NOT the 2004 release price. Let´s make the comparison a little bit fairer:

2004 "Zoo Tycoon 2" => nearly 39,99€
2014 "Zoo Park" => 12,99€

As we can see, "Zoo Park" is approximately a quarter of the full price of Zoo Tycoon. That´s a very good price for a little Zoo simulation game. :)

Best regards,
Thomas

ps: You can have "Wildlife Park 3" released in March 2011 for less than 10 €. Try it on Steam, its more complex with cooler 3D animation than the youtube videos I see about "Zoo Tycoon 2".

I dont see what the history of pricing has to do with anything. Zoo Tycoon 2 is dated in some ways - animals graphics mainly, but the gameplay is there. And most imporantly it still looks good on my 19" monitor, my kid loves playing it.

But all these other games - well they may be ok they may not, but without demos you just cant tell. Wildlife Park 3 has some serious problems mentioned in the forums and yeah the animals look nice enough but you dont buy a zoo game just to stare at a load of animal sprites you need a lot more than that.

So I stick by my advice, ZT2 Complete is the best Zoo game out there, these small-time indie games really dont seem to have much to offer over it if anything. And not only is it by far the most comprehensive and playable game its also the cheapest! So in this genre the old game wins out by far.

So really the only reason for buying one of these new ones is if you have played ZT2 to death, you love Zoo games, and you need a new game to play. Thats it really, just for the change. I cant see any other reason.

[Karmataurus]

The whole 'Zoo Tycoon' gimmic fascinated me for a long time simply because of the amount of games that came out around that time, so i decided to do some reasearch.

The first Zoo Tycoon, surprisingly, came out in 2001. This is much later than may would imagine it, with expansion packs Marine Mania and Dinosaur Digs both being released in 2002, and finally a compilation with bonus content was released in 2003.

The first Wildlife Park game, which many believe to predate Zoo Tycoon, actually came out in 2003, somewhere around the time that the complete collection of the original Zoo Tycoon. A second expansion, Wild Creatures, came out sometime later.

That was the first gen, however. Things really heated up in the second one. But who won the first gen? Probably Zoo Tycoon. Although both were incredibly similair, Zoo Tycoon had more animals and more to do in general.

The Second Gen brought us a few titles, Zoo Tycoon 2, Wildlife Park 2, Zoo Empire, and World of Zoo.

Zoo Tycoon 2 came out in 2004 and revolotionized the simulation genre, and to this day vies with Rollercoaster Tycoon as the Number #1 of it's genra. While the first game had a measly amount of animals and things to do, the expansions made up for this greatly. The game added a first person mode to view animals, vehicles to ride in such as trucks, jeeps, and skylines, a nice cartoony artstyle, and the ability to resurrec long dead animals from their bones.

Wildlife Park 2, which came out in 2006, tried something different this time. Rather than try to be a copy of Zoo Tycoon 2 as it's predecessor was, it tried to improve it. As i recall, the website literally ahd a list of features that weren't in Zoo Tycoon 2 that were present in Wildlife Park 2. Interestingly enough, many of these features never existed in the first place. Instead of being a good game for children and creative new comers, it tried to be a 'hardcore' version. Animals needed incredibly specific enclosures, all plants needed to be watered continuously and unfortunately for the younger audience, mating animations were added to animals.

Zoo Empire, which came out in 2005, was essentially a combination of the most mediocre parts of these games. Not a bad one by any means, just pretty meh.

World of Zoo came out in 2009 and was pretty much an animal-customizer. Not much else to say.

I'll get to the third gen later, just an insight into the zoo games and where they all started.

I might grab this one, not to sure. Right now it seems like a neat little spin on the franchise, but i;m not too sure about it. Wildlife Park 3, which i will get too later, has nice graphics but that's all it has over ZT2. Plus there are graphic-enhancing mods for ZT2.

[Thomas]

@Karmataurus:
Impressive insight of game titles in this zoo genre - thanks! Waiting for your last part which compares the third game generation ("Zoo Tycoon HD XBox One", "Wildlife Park 3", "Zoo Park").

[Aperture Kills]

Originally posted by thomas_pakkanen:

@Karmataurus:
Impressive insight of game titles in this zoo genre - thanks! Waiting for your last part which compares the third game generation ("Zoo Tycoon HD XBox One", "Wildlife Park 3", "Zoo Park").

I really don't think Zoo Park can compete with the other two titles. It has outdated graphics among other things listed by the author of this post, and is really just a junk game that made it past Steam's radar with the ton of other shovelware that's been plaguing it. It's like saying Angry Birds is in competition with Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare. I guess technically it is, but in a completely different way.

[Nats]

There are some small indie games out there that are worth buying - Kerbal Space Program, Terraria and Qvadriga for example but that is only because they are new and refreshingly different and fill a certain void in gaming. This game doesnt fill a void because that void was and still is mightily filled by Zoo Tycoon 2.

I could see a better game taking the crown because ZT2 is getting on a bit but we are talking a zoo game with superb 3d graphics, complex animal requirements and in depth zoo management. So this game definitely isnt that game.

[Torhrolfr]

Because you cannot buy a new Zoo tycoon 2 today

[Nats]

Originally posted by Lennart Stek:

Because you cannot buy a new Zoo tycoon 2 today

You can buy Zoo Tycoon 2 today that is still great and also is very cheap. And if you buy it via Ebay you can buy a 'new' copy of the 'old' game. So yes you can buy it new.

[iSurvivedRKelly]

Originally posted by Nats:

Originally posted by thomas_pakkanen:

Are you REALLY sure about that? :D

There is a little mistake in your argumentation. You compare the current year 2014 price from "Zoo Tycoon 2" and NOT the 2004 release price. Let´s make the comparison a little bit fairer:

2004 "Zoo Tycoon 2" => nearly 39,99€
2014 "Zoo Park" => 12,99€

As we can see, "Zoo Park" is approximately a quarter of the full price of Zoo Tycoon. That´s a very good price for a little Zoo simulation game. :)

Best regards,
Thomas

ps: You can have "Wildlife Park 3" released in March 2011 for less than 10 €. Try it on Steam, its more complex with cooler 3D animation than the youtube videos I see about "Zoo Tycoon 2".

I dont see what the history of pricing has to do with anything. Zoo Tycoon 2 is dated in some ways - animals graphics mainly, but the gameplay is there. And most imporantly it still looks good on my 19" monitor, my kid loves playing it.

But all these other games - well they may be ok they may not, but without demos you just cant tell. Wildlife Park 3 has some serious problems mentioned in the forums and yeah the animals look nice enough but you dont buy a zoo game just to stare at a load of animal sprites you need a lot more than that.

So I stick by my advice, ZT2 Complete is the best Zoo game out there, these small-time indie games really dont seem to have much to offer over it if anything. And not only is it by far the most comprehensive and playable game its also the cheapest! So in this genre the old game wins out by far.

So really the only reason for buying one of these new ones is if you have played ZT2 to death, you love Zoo games, and you need a new game to play. Thats it really, just for the change. I cant see any other reason.

Actually, that is contradiction. How can you state ZT2 is the best out there if you havnt played the others?

Why not just say, ZT2 is the best and only zoo simulator i have played?

Aperture Kills 1 Jul @ 3:21pm
Originally posted by thomas_pakkanen:
@Karmataurus:
Impressive insight of game titles in this zoo genre - thanks! Waiting for your last part which compares the third game generation ("Zoo Tycoon HD XBox One", "Wildlife Park 3", "Zoo Park").
I really don't think Zoo Park can compete with the other two titles. It has outdated graphics among other things listed by the author of this post, and is really just a junk game that made it past Steam's radar with the ton of other shovelware that's been plaguing it. It's like saying Angry Birds is in competition with Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare. I guess technically it is, but in a completely different way.

I certainly hope you are not saying Angry birds is a phone ap and COD is the pinnacle of pc gaming. Because cod is a long way off being the pinnacle of anything pc related bar being the biggest cash cow.

So many better games out there.. So many..

[SlyMeerkat]

I like to own all these sort of games that are to do with animals but Zoo Tycoon 2 is defintely up there with being one of the best around.

[Lucius]

Let's put it this way - ZT2 wasn't even that great a game in the first place. It's a park game. Its gameplay value only has so much merit.

So if ZT2 already isn't a great game, then a dumbed down ZT2 equals...