The tycoon games must have been a success because we now have loads of the things. You can run everything from roller coaster theme parks to cruise ships, railroad companies to zoos. Some of them are absolute rubbish but some have been enjoyed enough to warrant a sequel or two, and zoo tycoon is one of them.
As the name suggests, the idea in this game is to build and run a successful zoo. You start off with an empty patch of land or an old run down zoo and, with careful planning and good business sense place animal exhibits and buildings for the eager public to wow over and spend their money in. But you can't just plonk everything there and leave it to operate itself. Just like in real life, animals need to be fed and cared for, and the public need to enjoy what they are looking at. If the animals are hungry they might get sick; if they are bored they might not eat, and then get sick. Also, they won't be happy unless they are in the correct environment. A zebra isn't going to be happy roaming around an icy tundra setting. Likewise, a penguin doesn't want to waddle around an arid Australian bush type enclosure. If they are happy though, they will do what animals seem to do every time a TV camera is nearby… they breed. This is good because baby animals keep the public happy, and you don't have to buy them.
As you get more and more animals you will struggle to keep up with them all. Luckily, some people like working in zoos, so you can hire zookeepers who will feed and clean things, educators who will teach the public, and maintenance men to tidy up. But it's no good just having a load of animals. They're not going to earn your zoo much money. Shops, however, will. You also need to strategically place cash points so that people can spend lots of money in places like shops, burger stalls, drinks stands and donation boxes. These stalls/shops profitable as is usual in the 'tycoon' games, so you can set prices or even move some stalls to a better area. Recycling also saves you money. A composting building, (away from food services), will recycle animal poop and dustbin waste.
In it's second outing zoo tycoon has been updated a lot. The main change is the switch over to proper 3D graphics instead of the old isometric view. This allows for all sorts of improvements. You can create some spectacular animal enclosures. The zookeeper will assist you in selecting the correct items for an enclosure, and the rest is down to your imagination. Various tools allow alterations to be made to the land, including adding trenches, hills, ponds, plants, trees, and even waterfalls. The 'biome' tool allows you to change the type of environment. All these are very easy to do and quite rewarding when you see the finished result.
The whole view can be rotated and zoomed into, and you can even walk around your zoo in first person mode, doing jobs as you walk around such as picking up rubbish or brushing animals. Unfortunately, even on a PC that is well above the minimum requirements, the scrolling is not very smooth. The view jerks around sometimes and can be frustrating.
The only downsides to this game are the poor scrolling and the fact that it is a zoo. A roller coaster park feels more exciting and there are more noises, whereas the zoo is quiet and pretty instead. There is not much excitement. The lions won't even eat the zebras if you put them in the same area. They must be very picky lions. A few more sounds would have made a big difference to this game. Updates are to be made available on the web site. These include more animals, buildings and scenery. Hopefully they might add extra sounds as well.
Overall this is a very enjoyable, good looking game with lots of building and plenty of graphs and statistics to keep most people happy. If you like the tycoon games you should like this.
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