An adventure 65 minutes in the making!
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis gives you the opportunity to build Jurassic Park from the ground up, literally. Mission modes aside, you are first given the choice of island you’d like to build your park on, and this varies in terms of size and shape. You can then fill up with trees, mountains and rivers, and then you begin work on the park.
The game developers really thought of everything, and I mean everything! To get started, you’ll need to get dinosaurs. With limited amount of money, this can be done by employing paleontologists (headed by one Dr. Alan Grant) and deploying them to dig sites all around the world. This digging process takes time. You’ll have to get at least 50% of that particular dinosaur’s DNA strand, and then you can breed the dinosaurs on your park! The more teams you deploy, the faster you’ll get results.
Once you do have enough percentage amounts to breed a dinosaur, you’ll need to build an enclosure, or fence. There 3 levels of fences, with the highest level usually reserved for meat eaters. One you have your enclosure, you build a hatchery, a food dispenser and probably a lake as well in the enclosure so that your dinosaurs don’t die of thirst! Of course, you’ll have to ensure that your dinosaurs stay in perfect health all the time, and will have to conduct research in acquiring vaccines against certain diseases. This too takes time, and if your dinosaur gets infected before you find a suitable vaccine, then bye-bye dino. You also have to build a ranger station just in case a raptor breaks loose and you need to deploy rangers to tranquilize it (also applies to dinos that are infected with disease).
You will also need to create attractions, and these are in the forms of jeep rides, hot air balloons, viewing vents, viewing towers, kiosks, eateries, etc, all of which you can charge money. You’ll also need to construct toilets, tornado shelters, benches, water coolers and other amenities to keep your visitors happy. You’ll have to monitor the visitors too, for should one of them die due to heat stroke, for instance, you lose big money! Another time you could lose money is when there’s a tornado warning, and your park gets hit by a tornado. If you built tornado shelters, then not to worry if anyone gets killed (as you took the necessary precautions). But the worst thing to happen is when the tornado destroys your park and kills a few dinosaurs. Big money to fix later.
A great game if you’re a Jurassic park fan, or are into simulator games. The graphics are generally alright, and the sound effects are pretty commendable, what with the main theme playing in the background often, and the dinosaur roars and effects make it a real life experience. But it’s the gameplay that really makes this game stand out. It creates all the possible scenarios for building and running a real Jurassic Park!