So... this vs Zoo Tycoon (2017) ?

[Mizuki 水城 泰士]

I thought I'd ask as I tried to search and there are soooo..... MANY results for Zoo Tycoon in this forum, however I haven't seen an actual thread asking "This vs ZT17?" So of course I'm asking.

Being a big fan of the tycoon series but also being quite impressed with Frontier's work, hell I even have JWE and Planet Coaster, this has really perked my curiosity. However, of course being fan, I do own ZT17 and many others and after viewing the trailers this to me is exactly that, Zoo Tycoon 17 copied?? Someone please enlighten me...?! How does this compare, good and bad? And yeah, I know some are going to say "not finished" "not complete" "wait for DLC package" but I still wish to know how does it compare as it stands right now? Thanks.

[Hinkel]

I don't know, but it has absolutly nothing in common with ZT17. Why do you think its copied? They share no features, besides the Zoo theme?

[Lv01 Magikarp]

Zoo Tycoon is / was just a shallow game and didn't even feel like a proper ZT. Planet Zoo has built on everything from the past and given more when it comes to longevity of the game and depth to what you do for the animals, you have a 2 hour refund window, use it or look at a review on YouTube.

[HeatherG]

Please refrain from name calling. Your posts will be deleted
Edited: ANY posts that break the Steam Rules and Guildlines will be removed.

[Mizuki 水城 泰士]

Originally posted by Lv01 Magikarp:

Zoo Tycoon is / was just a shallow game and didn't even feel like a proper ZT. Planet Zoo has built on everything from the past and given more when it comes to longevity of the game and depth to what you do for the animals, you have a 2 hour refund window, use it or look at a review on YouTube.

True but there's no harm in asking here too. Maybe others will check here as well and would appreciate the feedback. You have a point regarding how companies have made the next gen version of these game series vs how Frontier has been in that regard, hell even Planet Coaster sets a fine example of that as a true successor to the original RCT series. Even JWE is a true successor to Operation Genesis so I guess that says alot.

[hleyomac]

zoo tycoon UAC is a good game if you have little childern and want to introduce them to video games and learn abit about animal. the animals have a bit more playfullness element than planet zoo and some minigames in there. thats why its rated family and kids instead of simulation and strategy

i enjoy a few hours i put into it (win store ed)

[Mizuki 水城 泰士]

Originally posted by hleyomac:

zoo tycoon UAC is a good game if you have little childern and want to introduce them to video games and learn abit about animal. the animals have a bit more playfullness element than planet zoo and some minigames in there. thats why its rated family and kids instead of simulation and strategy

i enjoy a few hours i put into it (win store ed)

Little children? I'm 36 this month and I fully enjoy these kind of games.. guess I'm just a kid at heart lol.. To be honest I do enjoy those minigames. Anyway, joking aside, I fail to see why it wouldn't be still a "simulation and strategy" game tbh which again is why I'm comparing. You do pretty much the same thing and tbh it even looks very much alike to me. Perhaps I should take previous advice and look it up on YouTube, maybe someone already created a comparison video.

[Kaiarra]

ZT2 was superior to ZT 2017 in everything but graphics. The building/complexity had to be axed so they could get it on consoles; hence a lot of people that loved ZT2 have negative opinions towards ZT 2017. ZT 2017 was very much a management-lite game to me - planet zoo is super heavy management (but you can play sandbox if you don't want to deal with it).

If I was vaguely comparing it, I'd say I do like the game, but:

The management of animal populations can often be more stressful than fun (unless you just dump everything on contraceptives). You're constantly selling babies, animals are fighting the instant they mature and you constantly need to bring in new breeding males (because inbreeding is a thing now). I can't leave the game running unless I'm constantly watching the event feed because half my animal pens will have a meltdown when the babies mature.

The building system lets you build some amazing things, but it's an utter pig to use. You can't even clip a fence to a path, for example. Paths in general are horrific to place.

The guests are super needy, and they're allowed to fully refund their tickets if they leave annoyed. There is also no gift shop/restaurant buildings so you're left serving thousands of customers from tiny huts (because queues and bins everywhere are fun).

Food costs are currently through the roof for certain species, which can make franchise mode annoying, depending on what animals you want to keep.

No access to modded animals would be a huge downside for me (compared to ZT2 at least). Very disappointed in the skin variations between animals (super rare white skins aside).

[Pheace]

Originally posted by Kaiarra:

The management of animal populations can often be more stressful than fun (unless you just dump everything on contraceptives). You're constantly selling babies, animals are fighting the instant they mature and you constantly need to bring in new breeding males (because inbreeding is a thing now). I can't leave the game running unless I'm constantly watching the event feed because half my animal pens will have a meltdown when the babies mature.

Worst part of the game by far. There's so much micromanaging of the babies. And yes, I love to manage, I need it, but this is just tedious, especially when the menu structures don't really support doing it easily.