Good if you miss Zoo Tycoon?

[dancing_trees]

I've been trying for months to find a way to play the OG Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection (the one I had on my parents ancient PC as a kid in the early 2000s) on my laptop. So far no luck, and I really miss the game. Favorite parts were setting up enclosures to the specifications, breeding the animals (particularly rare ones like pandas or the fated cheat code unicorns), and every once in a while loosing a dinosaur on innocent park goers. Does this game scratch the same itch?

[Kajsa_Kavat]

Yes and no, maybe check out some videos?

[C O O L]

Imagine being so morally bankrupt that you ride the coat tails of a decade+ old game series that singlehandedly created its own sub-genre, making a corrupted, lesser copy of the original with "good graphics".

[Galacticat]

I can see why some people would say no, but I really enjoy playing planet zoo. It reminds me so much of the beloved zoo tycoon, while it's no where near as in detail and immersive as the old games, it is really entertaining. It adds a lot of what the old game lacked such as super detailed building options and a real world animal economy. Idk I wouldnt write this game off just because it doesn't fill the void of having something like zoo tycoon, in my opinion it is plenty like it and if you like animals and zoo games, def check it out if your pc can handle everything!

[Katt]

Just be ready for the game to be tedious and needing to spend a lot of hours just to make a single habitat. xD

[WalrusMan]

Absolutely.

In my eyes it's the Zoo Tycoon 3 I've wanted for 15 years.

[MrHappy]

To me it's the same difference that Planet Coaster made to RCT3. Much better game altogether but way more focused on scenery and design than Roller Coaster Tycoon..... Or Zoo Tycoon.

[Diego]

Originally posted by WalrusMan:

Absolutely.

In my eyes it's the Zoo Tycoon 3 I've wanted for 15 years.

RT.

[Jigglepin]

Originally posted by Katt:

Just be ready for the game to be tedious and needing to spend a lot of hours just to make a single habitat. xD

hmm, not really. you can plop an easy square habitat fence, put a door and wham you have a habitat, put an animal in and off you go. what a boring zoo, why would you play a game like planet zoo and just do this??

spending hours on a habitat, building, creating, imagination, is what makes your zoo come to life. it can be as easy or as complex as the player wants. this is not a negative area of the game, its up to the player how much time they want to spend on it. dont like building? say hello to pre built blueprints and the workshop.

[SpaceSR]

I was big into Zoo Tycoon, and I have to say it does work for most of those. it's not as good as an overall "business" simulator, but setting up enclosures and breeding is fun.

There's a LOT of customization so if you want to get to the animals, you might want to just use pre-built zookeeper buildings and facilities, or you'll waste all your time setting those up. Also, making paths is fiddly without a grid system. But it's fun to craft enclosures where you can stack rocks and branches and animals will climb them.

[dwbudde07]

I LOVED Zoo Tycoon and REALLY miss it. I really like Planet Zoo also, and it definitely scratches that itch, but there are some things I miss so much about Zoo Tycoon that I may never be fully satisfied with Planet Zoo unless it adds things similar to them. 1) More fun Easter Eggs! 2) Dinos! 3) Aquatic park pack! 4) the ability to populate bodies of water with decorative fish and plants, and even feeder fish to entertain the animals that like fish. 5) More flowers and more abundant colors. 6) Aviaries and real birds to fill them! 7) more Exhibit animals. 8) Makling some interactive playgrounds and attractions for the guests would be cool too. I see lots of stuff that people have built that LOOK like various attractions and playgrounds, but the people do not interact with them. 9) Plus expanding into more animals. I have noticed there are no meerkats and cobras, among many others.

[TheRealRws]

This game misses alot even compared to ZT1. the path placement tool is trash tier and building habitats around it is even worse. You do get alot of options to decorate the habitats but it Will be limited by the animals you put in there. The selection of animals is mediocre but the quality is quite high. Dont bother with dlc's unless you can get them for like 2 bucks. they have near to nothing in them. This game also doesnt feature proper aquatic life which is a bit disappointing

[Cloud Atlas]

Eh, yes and no. The game has limited animals, the DLC's are lame because they focus on architecture and only add 5 new species each time. It is pretty of course, and the breeding is there, but I am not addicted to it like I was with Zoo Tycoon 2. And the interbreeding is annoying because you have to keep tabs on your animals. I wish they would turn that feature off.

[Evergamer37]

I don't really get some of these answers because in my experience Planet Zoo is better than the Zoo Tycoon series in most ways, and I used to play Zoo Tycoon for hours and hours when I was younger. The things is does worse is that the path system is hard to work with, and some people are bothered by the lack of dinosaurs and easter eggs. The animals also can't attack the people. The building system is also more complex, so there is a learning curve and it requires practice to use it well.

The game is more complex in how it allows creativity than Zoo Tycoon is. You can place any object in the game literally anywhere, be it in the middle of the sky, or intersecting other objects, which is very useful for crafting rock formations, putting plants close together, etc, just so the player is not limited in any way when trying to design their zoo. The ground is fully sculptable, and the architecture is handled in a similar way The Sims 3 if you'ed ever played that game.

Someone said that the animals limit what you can do with a habitat. You can turn this off in the settings in sandbox mode, so that the animals will stop getting unhappy about unsuitable things in their habitat like biome-inappropriate trees and not enough space. I keep this setting off just so I can be free to do whatever I please when making an habitat.

[BleakBlueJay]

I wondered the same thing before buying myself this game, because Zoo Tycoon was one of my very first PC games as a kid and it set the standard for what I expected. Planet Zoo is as close to the OG Zoo Tycoon as you're ever going to get. It does some things better, and it does some things worse. Ultimately, if you're trying to scratch that itch, I think this game is worth a buy.
Just be aware that this game is only now getting its first aquatic creatures, and we'll probably never see dolphins and sharks the way Zoo Tycoon had. I can see a future game in the Frontier line having sea life or dinosaurs though. Just not this one.
I miss my plesiosaurs and whale sharks.

[boomerkin]

I find Planet Zoo to be Superior to both Zoo Tycoons overall. as far as having dinosaurs... big doubt because Planet Zoo is more focused on conservation and more realism...also Jurassic World Evolution exists....and as for the demand for dolphins and such, I see a possibility for Planet Aquarium in the future. so minus the dinos and fully aquatic animals... zoo Tycoon 2 had 79 realistically zoo viable animals over the entire collection. right now as of Dec. 8th, PZ will have 69... plus the exhibit animals.