In a time where Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes exist, it’s
easy to end up looking for the aggregate review scores rather than individual
reviews. This is especially true in gaming, when a major release drops and sees
over 100 reviews published, no one has time to read them all.
Review scores don’t always do the game justice and this
approach does mean that some releases end up slipping through the cracks, with critical praise ends up
being missed or that you simply didn’t have time to play them alongside a higher scoring game.
Sequels commonly fall foul of this, not living up to expectations set by their predecessors. Its proof that the best assessment of a title is playing it yourself and whilst numerous releases are delayed into late 2020, here’s some games we believe deserve a second
chance in the meantime.
Game adaptions of films have long had a murky history. Rare examples like Goldeneye 007 were critically acclaimed but others like Aliens: Colonial Marines and Star Trek (2013) were heavily criticised. It’s a low bar for adaptations but one title which got more criticism than perhaps deserved was Jurassic World Evolution.
Based around the Jurassic Park franchise, Evolution was developed by Frontier Developments, releasing in June 2018 with Jeff Goldblum, Bryce Dallas Howard and B.D Wong reprising their film roles in-game. Allowing players to build their own Jurassic World theme park, complete with attractions and facilities, it received criticism for its contracts system and lack of depth, with some reviews also focused on lack of tutorial guidance after establishing the basics.
For those who grew up with Jurassic Park however, there’s an undeniable joy at running your own park. Not only does it capture the essence of Zoo Tycoon, it also places a gradual difficulty curve that keeps gameplay interesting. Combined with park exploration, creating new dinosaurs through DNA splicing and the unlockable free play mode, it’s worth looking past the flaws. Plus, who doesn’t love hearing Jeff Goldblum’s voice.
