Jurassic World Evolution 3 feels like it forgets that you're raising dinosaurs, not zoo animals

If you expect Jurassic World Evolution 3 to build on the past two games to create a more immersive, accurate experience of what raising dinosaurs in an enclosed space would be like, I'm here to tell you to lower your expectations a little bit. Jurassic World Evolution 3 is not a groundbreaking game by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn't make it bad.

If you haven't played a Jurassic World Evolution game before, it is exactly what it says on the tin: a park-building simulator where you raise, research, and sell tickets to see dinosaurs, but it doesn't dare to step outside of that boundary. You'll create buildings, connect them to paths and power them with electricity before inviting guests, alongside sending out research teams to discover new species you'll eventually get to hatch and raise. The cycle continues.

This time around, there are a few notable quality-of-life improvements, such as automating pesky maintenance tasks like repairing fences after a storm or caring for any sick dinosaurs, which makes park life a lot easier. I'll never get back the hours I spent in the past driving around tranquilising dinosaurs and fixing fences, so it's a welcome change.

Seeing dinosaurs for the first time as you release them from their delivery crate has the same wow factor as the first game did, too. But outside of this arrival, there is no discernible personality within each species, which I'd expect to have changed three games later. Every dinosaur quite happily roams around their enclosures once their needs are met by customising the terrain after they have been released, but even then it just all feels a bit lifeless. They aren't particularly fun to sit and watch, which has been the case for the last two games, and they don't give you much reason to check back in as soon as they are satisfied and happy.

It's obvious that the emphasis is on the park building side of things rather than the actual dinosaurs as there isn't really much risk when it comes to raising your dinos (which totally goes against anything we've learned from the movies, by the way.)

Setting up a dinosaur park wouldn't be anywhere near as easy as it's made to be in Jurassic World Evolution, which is great for someone searching for a more laid-back park builder, but if you're like me and want to simulate the full stress of deciding to bring dinosaurs back, you'd probably expect a bit more of a challenge from the creatures along the way—I'd like there to be a few more consequences for my actions.

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One fateful morning, I was issued a warning that one of my fences had been damaged around the velociraptor enclosure, and the family had swiftly found a way into the park. As avid fans of live prey, they took quite fondly to the screaming crowds of visitors and happily started making their way through my guests. I couldn't get to them quick enough to avoid any casualties, but once they were tranquilised and back in their cages, it was business as usual.

Yes, it doesn't look great, and I was given a slap on the wrist as park manager for letting that happen. But everyone is still just as keen to come back the next day. There are no repercussions, no threats to shut your park down—you simply fix the problem and go back to business. I can't help but feel like this lets the experience down, and I really should be held more accountable for my carnivores literally making a meal out of my guests.

I'd love to navigate different scenarios, like a curious visitor somehow getting into an enclosure, or certain species suddenly learning how to escape. After all, they are unpredictable creatures, and their current state doesn't reflect that in the slightest.

There is a challenge gamemode, but this focuses on timed challenges with restrictions like not being able to edit your pens, rather than random situations you'd expect to find yourself in if you had a dinosaur park. The only real challenge you face in the game is periodic storms that tear through your enclosures and stress out your dinosaurs, but with the right setup even these are significantly easier to deal with than they were in the past.

Jurassic World Evolution 3 is by no means a bad game, and it does scratch the undying itch I have to get as close to dinosaurs as possible, albeit virtually. It just doesn't feel like a step up from the previous two—instead, just like a bolt-on. There are improvements, but they aren't significant enough to really blow me away like building my first park did in the first game. If you've played one Jurassic World Evolution game, you've basically played them all, and I can't see that formula changing any time soon.