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1 This week has been all about simulation games for me. Today’s is another new release from publishers PlayWays S.A. and developed by Game Incubators. This time around, I’m taking on the role of a zoo owner in Zoo Simulator. Although the actual zoo doesn’t start off as much, hopefully I can make it a place Steve Irwin would have been proud of! You can pick up Zoo Simulator right now on Steam for £15.49.
An animal kingdom to be proud of
Gameplay
Upon starting the game your zoo is rundown. Which means you have to start by renovating enclosures. We do this in a variety of ways, such as fixing faucets, so that the animals can drink, and removing old broken habitats, to keep the same animals safe. You can buy all the necessary tools via the computer in the main office and later on via a tablet. Using a hammer enables us to destroy those old habitats, whilst our trusty shovel is used to remove the debris then place it into a skip.
You can also sell old decorations found around old enclosures to earn some small change. We can’t have the animals living in a dirty home either. This is where the pressure washer comes in handy, to help clean up the place. Once you’ve cleaned and prepped the now ready home, we can select which animal species we think would best suit it.
Selecting animals and sorting needs.
We can see from the encyclopaedia section of the computer what food and favourite toys each species prefers. You can check animals’ thirst, hunger, and well-being by looking at the nearby info board located near the habitat or by using the computer/tablet. Another neat detail the game has including what the preferred social behaviour is for each animal. Although I am not sure if not fulfilling this correctly has consequences.
When choosing to adopt an animal, you can see their gender, age and price. After purchasing them, they will appear in a cage in the enclosure you picked ready to be named and released. In Zoo Simulator, the tablet does everything the computer does aside allowing you to adopt animals. Which I did find a bit silly really.
Building your zoo up.
Besides adopting animals and looking after them in Zoo Simulator, we can renovate and construct various buildings. These will help bring in passive income to help further improve the zoo. One of the earliest upgrades is the Hotdog Stand. I upgraded the stand to make 15% more revenue. Tools are also upgradable and will help them work more efficiently, like when using the shovel, we can collect three loads or debris before it needs emptying.
You must employ people, but from what I could work out this is only a onetime purchase. Employing people does help ease the overall burden of running the zoo. You can also use your in game tablet or computer to find out what the people visiting your zoo think of it. This will lead you to better know how to improve your zoo.
Longevity
I’d been playing Zoo Simulator for a couple of hours before starting this review. I found the largest amount of my time was spent waiting for the income to come in. In fact I had only just gotten my first rep star after 3 hours. I feel the game is a little slow to progress.
Final Thoughts
Zoo Simulator is okay, but nothing particularly stands out. Players can choose from a nice variety of animals and features a moderately sized map. Making a profit is a bit tedious at the start when you are constantly fixing water pipes and gates. The passive income is slow to come in but you can build a donation box to help with this. I do wish we could hire an assistant to help with the zoo repairs after a while because things break way too frequently.
Some changes/tweaks I’d suggest are:
- Let the player pick how frequently the animals get fed (Similar to Slime Rancher).
- Lower how often a break can appear on gates and water dispensers (or make them upgradable).
- Hire an assistant to do repairs.
In the end, Zoo Simulator is a fairly standard sim. Pick it up if you do enjoy animals, but I do think there are also some more interesting simulators out there. With all things considered I am awarding Zoo Simulator the Thumb Culture Silver Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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