Review #4: Zoo Tycoon (29/06/23)

There's a reason the Tycoon series is so iconic and that is probably its extreme addictiveness. This is the first ever Zoo Tycoon game and it is a fun and addictive and way too hard (probably just for me, I make my zoos too ambitious) game that sucks away hours of time. Just like the Sims, Zoo Tycoon takes away so much of your day without you feeling like you've even done that much. There's something about the constantly rising and falling money and the constantly unsatisfied guests and the hectic management that just makes this game really addictive. I don't think there's too much to say about this game that hasn't already been said. Zoo Tycoon is like a drug, you keep playing to build more of your zoo and to try to get everything in order and then you get that drop into debt and just HAVE to keep playing to get back out and finish what you were doing. It is hard to stop yourself constantly falling into bankruptcy if you don't manage your animals and guest wants and money well, but that's part of the fun. What's less fun is slowly waiting to accumulate the money you need while unable to do anything and then subsequently in 10 minutes dropping back into bankruptcy due to your employees. This game is far from perfect, it can be very annoying sometimes in how much basic terrain and employees will end up costing you, plus progress ends up being WAYYYYY too slow and placing stuff in the right place can be super annoying sometimes. Anyway, that's about as much as I can say about the gameplay and I don't want to beat the dead horse of the Tycoon series' gameplay because every other person on earth seems to have played it. Graphically, the game is. Well. A 2001 PC game. It's not going to be good but it could benefit from probably a bit more colour. I can't criticise it too much and it works in the game, plus it has this old isometric style that does have it's own good vibe to it, coming from someone born a bit too late to get nostalgia from stuff like that. I was a Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 girl myself but I lost the disc for that, sadly. There is one piece of music in the whole game (well, some attractions and stuff emit some simple music tracks but that's really it), being the main menu. There is a lot of ambience to just silence or chattering and animal noises but I do wish there was like... something. Just some music that can occasionally play, rather than nothing. The box art looks like Goosebumps art. It has the elephant front and centre and various animals around it, which works pretty well. Good box art commonly needs a nice central focus. I just sadly can't say this style appeals to me all too much, it just has very dull colours and isn't all too exciting. I also have some worse box art, with my personal version having the bright red "XPLOSIV" banner that makes the game art tiny and even completely infects the back with its design. Game: 7/10 Music: 1/10 Box: 3/10 Box (XPLOSIV): 1/10