Is it any good?

[MidnightDragon]

Waiting for the retail version in July, but is it any good? Loved Operation Genesis.

[damon8r351]

Michael Brookes left Elite Dangerous to make this game, so he's not around to keep David Braben from doing weird crap with Elite's lore and back story.

 

So all I'm saying is it damn well better be good.

Edited June 12, 2018 by damon8r351

[Yuukiyun]

I like it, but it's hard to say whether someone else would like it too. Don't know about "Operation Genesis", so I can't compare.

[nickr_]

It works pretty damn well with a controller, better than with Cities:Skylines and it looks and run great.

All in all I say it's good. I'm not sure about the price but if you liked OG, you'll probably like this one too, although don't expect an in depth visitor management system. The game can only go up with some new content and patches.

[Mio]

Steam reviews are currently sitting at 79% positive and metacritic/opencritic scores are hovering around the 75-80/100 region at the time of posting (Still best to wait a few days for scores to normalize). So it's a decent enough game, looks like it will be enjoyable for people that are fans of the management genre or stuff like the old zoo tycoon games etc.

 

I was fairly hyped for this as I really enjoyed Planet Coaster (Their previous game, wasn't on consoles) but I try not to pre-order games anymore so I haven't bought it myself yet. If I do buy it though, I will be getting it on PC for the mouse/kb input, not PS4.  I have no idea how this type of game plays with a controller and I prefer mouse/kb anyway

Edited June 12, 2018 by Mio

[nickr_]

37 minutes ago, Mio said:

Steam reviews are currently sitting at 79% positive and metacritic/opencritic scores are hovering around the 75-80/100 region at the time of posting (Still best to wait a few days for scores to normalize). So it's a decent enough game, looks like it will be enjoyable for people that are fans of the management genre or stuff like the old zoo tycoon games etc.

 

I was fairly hyped for this as I really enjoyed Planet Coaster (Their previous game, wasn't on consoles) but I try not to pre-order games anymore so I haven't bought it myself yet. If I do buy it though, I will be getting it on PC for the mouse/kb input, not PS4.  I have no idea how this type of game plays with a controller and I prefer mouse/kb anyway

It actually works well with a controller, unlike Cities:Skylines.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

There's one negative review on Metacritic, but it's from IGN USA and it seems another case of IGN not caring if a reviewers has an actual interest in the game's genre or hook.

 

I'm in doubt about getting it. I like sponsoring Frontier Developments but it seems weird that this is more expensive than Elite Dangerous.

[trixter123]

I like it , great controls and you get eased into the system.

 

like the fact you can control it from the sky or go first person also.

 

and btw dinos are awesome , like it alot

[BlackCatBurrito]

The price of it isn't any good in my region. I'll tell you that much. 

 

Very interested in it though, I've enjoyed all the gameplay I've seen. 

[Pirelli913]

15 hours ago, Cthulhu said:

There's one negative review on Metacritic, but it's from IGN USA and it seems another case of IGN not caring if a reviewers has an actual interest in the game's genre or hook.

Well, you can't spell IGNorant without IGN. If you've watched any of their game play videos on this game, the guy that narrates it constantly mispronounces ISLA as "aisle-uh".

 

As to the game itself, for those interested in platting the game, it seems easy enough. I've earned 20 of the trophies in just over a day. I won't focus on the positives (because there are a lot - so if you wanna know something, ask). But I will say this, the species list is insane.

 

As for the negatives, there are three main ones: 1) The game lags something fierce. It didn't at first, so I can only assume it's due to either how much I've unlocked or how much I've constructed on each island. 2) The island space (including Isla Nublar - which you unlock with a 4-star rating on the first island) is surprisingly small. Dinosaurs need their space, so it forces you to get creative in where to construct not only your zoo enclosures, but also buildings. If you want BIG enclosures (say, for a herd of hadrosaurs), you may have to sacrifice the other enclosures and make them small. 3) Unlike in JPOG where you can place a hatchery in an enclosure, EVERYTHING needs to be attached to the main path AND to a power source.

[Mio]

17 hours ago, Cthulhu said:

 

I'm in doubt about getting it. I like sponsoring Frontier Developments but it seems weird that this is more expensive than Elite Dangerous.

Because it's a new game and elite dangerous came out almost 4 years ago? lol 

[MidnightDragon]

I'm going to get it, but waiting for a price drop. $60 feels too high for what it is.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

7 hours ago, Pirelli913 said:

Well, you can't spell IGNorant without IGN. If you've watched any of their game play videos on this game, the guy that narrates it constantly mispronounces ISLA as "aisle-uh".

 

As to the game itself, for those interested in platting the game, it seems easy enough. I've earned 20 of the trophies in just over a day. I won't focus on the positives (because there are a lot - so if you wanna know something, ask). But I will say this, the species list is insane.

 

As for the negatives, there are three main ones: 1) The game lags something fierce. It didn't at first, so I can only assume it's due to either how much I've unlocked or how much I've constructed on each island. 2) The island space (including Isla Nublar - which you unlock with a 4-star rating on the first island) is surprisingly small. Dinosaurs need their space, so it forces you to get creative in where to construct not only your zoo enclosures, but also buildings. If you want BIG enclosures (say, for a herd of hadrosaurs), you may have to sacrifice the other enclosures and make them small. 3) Unlike in JPOG where you can place a hatchery in an enclosure, EVERYTHING needs to be attached to the main path AND to a power source.

 

Thanks for that.

 

5 hours ago, Mio said:

Because it's a new game and elite dangerous came out almost 4 years ago? lol 

 

You misunderstand, and you're missing information.

 

Elite Dangerous came out only less than a year ago on PS4, for €50, which was €25 for the base game and €25 for the season pass. While the game came out 3.5 years ago on PC, it was still only €50 back then, and once the season pass was introduced on Steam the base game price was lowered to €25 so it's probable that the €50 game before that included the season pass.

 

At any rate, €50 for everything available day one does not equal €65 for everything available day one.

 

 

 

The extra money is likely to pay the actors for their work, and for the licence.

[Pirelli913]

Just wanna add that when I logged on today, there was a patch (1.03). The game seems to be moving smoothly now, but I've only been playing today for like two minutes, so we'll see...

[bioxz]

The performance of the game is horrible. When you're near five stars and there is much going on, every command for a vehicle will crush the FPS for few seconds, using the menus and scrolling gets also much, much slower. It's not unplayable, but really annoying.  If you want to build a big park, wait and see if they can patch it.

 

Beside that, the game is great. If you like to watch the dinos or hunt them with a jeep, it's awesome. Just don't expect anything but watching and building, there is no management component in the game. The dinos are incredibly although, they have super detailed animations and interesting behavior.

[DrakeHellsing]

I agree, the game is pretty great.  Only issues I've had so far is the left menu, trying to select things can be a small annoyance in getting said menu to pop up.  And I'm not sure if it's my controller that's doing it in this game (other games it doesn't do it), but the cursor on the map (and even in the research area), it sometimes very slowly drifts downwards now and then.

 

But really, overall, the game is still great, sure it can be a slow start, at least for me it has been, in getting dinos set up to view with the expenses and not running out of money.  But I'm sure once the island picks up, money should be fine to be able to build the perfect park.

[Pirelli913]

11 hours ago, DrakeHellsing said:

But I'm sure once the island picks up, money should be fine to be able to build the perfect park.

I have 70+ million on the first two islands, 80+ million on the third island and 15+ million on the fourth island (it just started to turn a profit). Once I 100% all dinosaurs and unlock all research options, I'm gonna demolish everything on every island and start creating my perfect park for each island. Can't wait for that. Unlocked Isla Sorna, but haven't started on it yet. This is definitely one of those games that's a slow burn where it takes a while to unlock everything and turn a profit and the payoff is so fun. The waiting in anticipation make it even better.

[Dragon-Archon]

Glad to see the game is smooth and enjoyable, will give this a try.

[kerck11]

The trophy list looks tedious but its not. Its actually quite fun when dinosaurs break out and kill people especially when my 4 velociraptors escaped. The hard part is getting them tranquilized because they are small so the A.I. would miss a lot of shots.

 

The fun it gives is just endless. I let out 2 of my dilophosaurs and damn they spit on people's faces and pounce at them.

[DrakeHellsing]

7 hours ago, Pirelli913 said:

I have 70+ million on the first two islands, 80+ million on the third island and 15+ million on the fourth island (it just started to turn a profit). Once I 100% all dinosaurs and unlock all research options, I'm gonna demolish everything on every island and start creating my perfect park for each island. Can't wait for that. Unlocked Isla Sorna, but haven't started on it yet. This is definitely one of those games that's a slow burn where it takes a while to unlock everything and turn a profit and the payoff is so fun. The waiting in anticipation make it even better.

Yeah, second island, I had to restart at the start as I made a mistake, wasn't turning a profit, so I couldn't do anything... especially not really having any dinos at first.  So restarted, fixed the problems, incubated a dino or two, ground feeder or two and letting it sit for now.  And once I get a decent profit, I can build the dig site team and fossil center first... either them or the research center first.  Haven't decided, but yeah, slow start for sure.

[Pirelli913]

On 6/13/2018 at 11:53 AM, Pirelli913 said:

Just wanna add that when I logged on today, there was a patch (1.03). The game seems to be moving smoothly now, but I've only been playing today for like two minutes, so we'll see...

 

On 6/15/2018 at 6:47 AM, Dragon-Archon said:

Glad to see the game is smooth and enjoyable, will give this a try.

 

I may have spoken too early when I say the lag was fixed. It was at first, but the cursor can lag when it drags over buildings you've placed. Really annoying.

 

On 6/15/2018 at 10:56 AM, kerck11 said:

The trophy list looks tedious but its not.

Trophies are actually really easy. The only one I have a concern on is achieving 5 stars on each of Las Cinco Muertes. The most I've achieved is 4 stars and that was on the first island. If anyone has advice on raising the rating of each island, I'm all ears.

[kerck11]

12 hours ago, Pirelli913 said:

 

 

I may have spoken too early when I say the lag was fixed. It was at first, but the cursor can lag when it drags over buildings you've placed. Really annoying.

 

Trophies are actually really easy. The only one I have a concern on is achieving 5 stars on each of Las Cinco Muertes. The most I've achieved is 4 stars and that was on the first island. If anyone has advice on raising the rating of each island, I'm all ears.

I said it "it looks tedious" it means its easy but it takes me time to complete this game because I can only play for 4 hours each day so yeah fck my boring life

 

[bioxz]

14 hours ago, Pirelli913 said:

Trophies are actually really easy. The only one I have a concern on is achieving 5 stars on each of Las Cinco Muertes. The most I've achieved is 4 stars and that was on the first island. If anyone has advice on raising the rating of each island, I'm all ears.

 

Actually it's really easy to get five stars everywhere. You just have to open your ratings and look where you are missing stars:

• If it's a dino problem, you either need more in quantity or more special ones, they are sick or you have to many of the same type. Small hint here: You can easily get five stars on any island with only two or three enclosures and a few high rated dinos in them. It is not required to fill the complete island, that might make it even harder.
• If it's a visitors problem, look what they want. If it's a capacity problem, build a hotel, if it's anything else look at the percentages and build what is required. You can use the "eye tool" to see if some buildings are required in specific areas.

Just build small and what the visitors want, don't grow the park for no reason. On the third island I made my park way to big and had to fit 9 hotels in the end to make them happy -- in another try I got five stars with only 3.

[Pirelli913]

20 minutes ago, bioxz said:

 

Actually it's really easy to get five stars everywhere. You just have to open your ratings and look where you are missing stars:

• If it's a dino problem, you either need more in quantity or more special ones, they are sick or you have to many of the same type. Small hint here: You can easily get five stars on any island with only two or three enclosures and a few high rated dinos in them. It is not required to fill the complete island, that might make it even harder.
• If it's a visitors problem, look what they want. If it's a capacity problem, build a hotel, if it's anything else look at the percentages and build what is required. You can use the "eye tool" to see if some buildings are required in specific areas.

Just build small and what the visitors want, don't grow the park for no reason. On the third island I made my park way to big and had to fit 9 hotels in the end to make them happy -- in another try I got five stars with only 3.

Thanks for the advice. When next I play, I'll heed it.

[Dragon-Archon]

On 6/17/2018 at 4:46 AM, Pirelli913 said:

I may have spoken too early when I say the lag was fixed. It was at first, but the cursor can lag when it drags over buildings you've placed. Really annoying.

Ok, thanks for the heads up.