Let's Build a Zoo is a cute yet chaotic sim full of animal abominations

Features
By published

Chickows, crocoducks and more.

VIDEO: Why you should play Let's Build a Zoo. Also on YouTube.

Take a quick look at Let's Build a Zoo, and you'll see your bog-standard zoo management game. There's a tiger, there's a cow… wait, is that an elephant's head on a giraffe's body? How does that even work?

It's something I found myself asking a lot as I pondered the various crimes against nature you can commit in Let's Build a Zoo. Sure, at its core it is very similar to the likes of Planet Zoo and Zoo Tycoon. But then Joe Exotic wanders into my zoo and offers to sell me a raboose—a cross between a rabbit and goose—and it feeds some weird chaos-loving part of my brain that the other games can't satiate.

Of course, you're not forced to dabble in these questionable activities. They often appear as random events, offering you a choice in the matter. One man asked me if I would like him to paint my horse to look like a zebra. Zebras are much cooler than horses, apparently. 

(Image credit: Springloaded Games)

It's these fun, if rather immoral, choices that make Let's Build a Zoo feel a little spicier. But even without all the weird science, it's still an awfully enjoyable zoo management game. The 2D art style is great and lends itself to making your animal mash-ups more palatable. It's also super easy to plonk down and subsequently rip up your various attractions and enclosures, perfect for indecisive decorators like myself.

Let's Build a Zoo is only available as a demo on Steam right now, but the full release promises over 500 animals, with 300,000 different ways to squish them together into new, heinous creations.

Mollie Taylor
Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.