Zoo Tycoon 2 is a mixed bag of goodness and bad design. It is very obvious that this new 3D version of Zoo Tycoon is mostly targetted at kids rather than adult strategy gamers, as the word "streamlined" (in regards to both the interface and game itself) takes its full and rather negative meaning here. Without this, the game would have been excellent.
The most visible change in Zoo Tycoon 2 compared to its predecessor is that it is in 3D. While the graphics are good - but not amazing - the 3D animals are actually very detailed and nicely done, even up close. Their animations are also varied and entertaining.
There are 3 modes of play: overhead view, 1st person, and Photo Safari. The overhead view mode is used to build your zoo, adopt animals, and manage the park in general. In the 1st person mode, you jump into the shoes of a zoo guest or zoo keeper - you can walk the paths and view the exhibits, or enter them and help take care of the animals (even cleaning out poop!) The Photo Safari mode allows you to visit the park with a camera in hand, and take pictures as you go to include in your Photo Album. There is even an option to create a web page out of your Photo Albums.
All three modes work well, without any significant slow downs or problems.
A totally new feature in Zoo Tycoon 2 is the "Biome Brush". Using this, you can easily create the ideal exhibit for any type of animal, simply by "painting" the terrain - including trees, flowers, rocks, etc - into the exhibit. This takes the guesswork out of what each animal needs to be happiest, and makes the game totally accessible to kids or adults who don't like to fuss with this type of things. Even though the Biome Brush is available to create exhibits in a flash, you can still do it by manually by selecting each type of terrain and vegetation you want, or even touch up your biome-brushed exhibit afterward.
The interface is very easy to use and, except for something I will mention below, very well thought of. Clicking on any animal, visitor or employee brings up their individual window, where you can view their status, thoughts and needs. Most windows in the game can be quickly closed with a right-click of the mouse outside the window - a very appreciated feature!
The Zoo Keeper recommendations for each animal has also been made easier and more useful, as each appropriate item (exhibit-related, foods, toys, shelters...) for any animal are now displayed as icons and can be accessed directly from that same window to place in your exhibits.
And now for the bad:
The sad part of Zoo Tycoon 2 comes from the fact that exhibits are no longer viewed as separate entities. You cannot click on an exhibit's gate to view all the animals it contains, or view its popularity. The only way to see how many animals of a type you have is to open the "Zoo Quick Stats" window (a very badly named window, because it takes *forever* to open!), which shows ALL of the animals you have in your zoo in a single list - with no regards to which exhibits they are in, their popularity, or how many of each type you have - as well as all your guests and employees. As if this wasn't enough, the Quick Stats window is a Modal window: this means that you cannot access anything outside this window until it is closed! So, for instance, if you want to deal with a few problematic animals, you can click on them from the long list to bring up their individual window, but you will have to close the Quick Stats window in order to be able to perform any tasks with the animal in question. You will then have to re-open the Quick Stats window (which, again, takes a long time to open) search for the next animal you want to look at in the list, click on it and close the Quick Stats window again. The same is true for finding employees or angry guests. This makes the process of finding and accessing existing animals/employees/guests unnecessarily laborious and very irritating.
Furthermore, when assigning a Zoo Keeper to a particular exhibit (or to several,) all that is shown both in the individual employee's window and the Quick Stats window are flags labelled "Assignment 1", "Assignment 2", etc. This means that you will have no idea what exhibits those Zoo Keepers are assigned to until you click on the fags in their tasks list, which highlights a grid in the selected exhibit. Horrible design! I've eventually had to manually change the names of all my Zoo Keepers to the exhibits I assigned them to in order to make this less of a challenge, especially in larger zoos.
Another disappointing thing about the game is that it comes with only 30 animals, and a rather small amount of buildings and items (compared to the first Zoo Tycoon, which included close to 60 animals right out of the box, and quite a few extra items.) Still, they promise many free downloads to be available on the web site, so that should make up for it.
All in all, Zoo Tycoon 2 is fun and entertaining to a point, and would be great without the flaws outlined above, but I would not recommend it to true strategy gamers. It will surely please kids a lot though, and even adults who want a somewhat relaxing game to play.
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