Evolution of Zoo Tycoon 2001-2017 - What happened to Zoo Tycoon?

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back in the day zoo tycoon was one of my favorite games to play on the computer sure it was a kids game it was a game intended for kids and you know what I was a kid and I thoroughly enjoyed it I really loved the creative freedom that the game gave you in getting to choose where you put your enclosures how you manage the financials of your zoo you had to put a lot of thought as to which animals could get along with other animals and you had complete control over how well or terribly wrong your zoo could go and while during this era these type of simulation games like Sims and roller coaster tycoon were really popular Zoo Tycoon was really unique because the expansions that went with this franchise were always completely interesting they did one for marine animals and another expansion for dinosaurs which was really awesome by the time Zoo Tycoon 2 rolled around there were a ton of technical enhancements in that game that made it even feel more alive and the creativity and freedom to do whatever you want was so amazing there were different ways to play where you could go through a campaign mode or you could just have the free space to do whatever you wanted and just make the ultimate zoo that you wanted to make there really were no limitations and that's what kind of made these games special I mean there were just a ton of options of things you could do for instance if someone was complaining about your zoo you could just delete the fence on the Lions and let them take care of your terrible visitor if you got bored you could mix the lines with the zebras and just see what happened and let's be honest no one bought any of the dinosaur expansions that were for either Zoo Tycoon game without the eventual plan to release the dinosaurs amongst your Park and kind of recreate their own Jurassic Park in a video game it was it was pretty awesome after the releases of these initial Zoo Tycoon games things kind of slowed down a little bit there were a few DS releases of Zoo Tycoon which weren't really that good I had the first one and honestly don't know much of it other than I got bored with it so let's fast forward to 2013 the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were coming to the end of their life cycles and it was time for both Microsoft and Sony to announce the next generation of consoles Sony did their reveal first with the announcement of the PlayStation 4 which really looked like an amazing piece of hardware by 2013 standards in contrast however the Xbox announcement was not very well received it really seemed like Xbox one was de-emphasizing gaming as a whole by introducing more of the just general media player the Kinect would be required making the Xbox one even more expensive than the PlayStation 4 and the announcement of exclusive games that would be coming to the Xbox one in 2013 seemed really limited there was no real hard hitters on the list of games like you would expect we didn't see any announcements from games like Halo Gears of War or even rare titles that people have been waiting for a new game from for a very long time however Microsoft had an ace up their sleeve and they announced that zoo tycoon would be coming out on the Xbox one and Xbox 360 in November of 2013 and while I was a pretty diehard a Halo fan and I knew eventually I would have to pick up an Xbox one I think my decision to pick it up on launched in 2013 was definitely swayed by the possibility of me getting to relive my childhood through Zoo Tycoon on the Xbox one and upon picking up Zoo Tycoon for the Xbox one I soon realized the game was pretty bad while on the surface it looks like it's a typical Zoo Tycoon game where you have your park that you can create and put your animals wherever you want them in the park a lot of the awesome features that were present in the original Zoo Tycoon game were completely neutered by this versions limitations as to what you could actually do in the game instead of being able to completely customize your own enclosures they're kind of just there for you there's a ton of limitations in place as to what animals you can have and how you can obtain them and even what animals can go with other animals in the promotional material for Zoo Tycoon and all the behind-the-scenes stuff they talked about how revolutionary the graphics would be and how much time they spent on making these animals look realistic and honestly the graphics aren't that great even by 2013 standards I mean tomb raider came out and that game looks a hundred times better than this and while it is cool that yeah you can walk around your zoo and interact with the animals it felt like they almost took out the entire tycoon element of the game the financial side of the game isn't nearly as in-depth as the original Zoo Tycoon games it almost felt like money was more of just an experience point system rather than something that you actually have to consider and worry about overhead costs in the original Zoo Tycoon games I remember having to always leverage how much my entry cost for my zoo would be to make sure that I was getting enough customers to pay for my employees and the animal care that I needed where in this game it's not really that much of an issue I mean yeah there is a money system to the game but it's not nearly as in-depth and it really feels like the game holds your hand the entire way through worst of all the limitations of the game sets up makes it where eventually you just can't continue to expand on your zoo without having to delete other sections or other exhibits in your zoo to fit in the new stuff well I get that there's probably technical restrictions as to how far they can let you have a zoo but one of the biggest rewards of playing Zoo Tycoon was the fact that if you put enough time in and you major zoo great you could have this awesomely huge zoo that light you could show off to your friends and be like hey come over to my house and look at my computer look at this awesome zoo that I have let's save the game and then open up all the cages and let the animals run wild and kill all the people visiting they did add a co-op mode which was a really cool idea on paper because now all of a sudden you can get with your buddy and you can work on a zoo together I actually tried out the system with a friend when the game came out and honestly it almost made the game worse while you're playing through the game you're so limited as to what you can do about having someone else there sharing the responsibilities with you makes the game even more easy or less interactive honestly it would have been cooler if there was a feature where you could just visit other people's zoos rather than working on the same zoo together but with there being no point to customization or no ability to customize the way that the zoo enclosures look or the way that your zoo looks as a whole for the most part all zoos across the board look identical there's nothing really cool about sitting down with your friend and working on a zoo together because at the end of the day it just looks like anyone else's zoo who played the game one of big new features they showed off was you can interact with the animals one-on-one and use your connect to have your face make expressions at the monkeys honestly I feel like they rehashed a lot of the technology and ideas that they used from the Kinect game kinectimals into Zoo Tycoon to try to repackage that technology and use it here but it didn't even work that well and there's voice commands but who cares you can try to play with the animals or wash the animals and that's kind of cool I guess if you're a little kid and you just like looking at the animals on your screen but from a video game perspective it's not really that impressive maybe I'm looking at this from rose tinted glasses and the original Zoo Tycoon games yeah they were for kids and the new game clearly is directed for children to play but I feel like even adults could go back and play the older Zoo Tycoon games and have a decent time where I feel like if you're anyone older than the age of 7 zoo tycoon will be a game that you kind of shelve and go play something better I guess one of my biggest complaints is that they took out a lot of the freedom and creativity that you had from these original to great Zoo Tycoon games in lieu of just making a look at the animals type game for the Xbox one the earlier games had strategy and how you did things to best make the awesomest zoo and most successful zoo possible and a lot of those features just aren't present on the Xbox one version of this game it's really a shame too because typically tycoon games when done right have a ton of replay value and people find themselves playing these types of games for a long time and honestly just right now there's better simulation games out there especially on computer than what the Xbox one has to offer I mean Parker source which is still an early access game lets you have a dinosaur park and the dinosaurs look awesome and you can make their enclosures or let them out and wreak havoc at least there's something fun and chaotic you can do while also having the ability to do some really creative things with this game we're just Zoo Tycoon on the Xbox one is really just not worth the money especially that they're trying to sell it on Steam and on Xbox play anywhere for a high price I mean if you're considering getting it for a little kid or something the games ok I guess because you can look at the animals but if you're looking for an actual Tycoon game like what you might remember from your childhood this game is a definite pass it's not worth the money at all it just feels like one of those really weird turns that doesn't quite make sense for a franchise we're seeing this more and more in the gaming industry where a publisher developer just kind of disconnects from what initially made a brand popular we even see this with games like Diablo and what they're doing in the mobile market completely ignoring what fans actually wanted that's kind of a cash grab and in this manner it's kind of like they're doing the same thing that they kind of just took a popular brand name and repackaged it as honestly kinectimals 2.0 with some zoo elements and tried to make a quick buck off of honestly not even the same game it's just a real disappointment because Zoo Tycoon could have really used a new update or a Zoo Tycoon 3 but instead they went the other route with it and that's super disappointing but what did you think about Zoo Tycoon are you a fan of the series did you maybe like the Xbox one version let us know what you think in the comment section down below hit the like button if you enjoyed these retrospectives on Xbox games and if you're new be sure to subscribe and turn notifications on so you don't miss an episode of whatever we put out because you're not gonna want to miss it alright guys that's it for today and we'll see you all next time with a brand new video 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Channel: Rocket Sloth
Views: 626,887
Rating: 4.8252859 out of 5
Keywords: rocket sloth, zoo tycoon, zoo tycoon 1, zoo tycoon 2, what happened to zoo tycoon, zoo tycoon evolution, evolution of zoo tycoon, evolution of zoo tycoon games 2001-2017, zoo tycoon xbox, zoo tycoon 2013, zoo tycoon games, all zoo tycoon games, game evolution, evolution, is zoo tycoon worth it, zoo tycoon review, is zoo tycoon coop, which zoo tycoon is the best, zoo tycoon 2001-2017, new zoo tycoon 2019, will there be a zoo tycoon 3
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Length: 10min 18sec (618 seconds)
Published: Fri Mar 08 2019
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