Jurassic World Evolution 3

Jurassic World Evolution 3 has been released four months after the seventh movie in the franchise, Jurassic World: Rebirth, which revealed that almost all dinosaurs that escaped from the island in the previous movies are dying, except those in some remote locations. Thankfully, sim game expert Frontier Developments ignored the depressing premise of the Scarlett Johansson film, and in their game dinosaurs are thriving all around the world: from North America to Japan, Italy and Malta, to China and Indonesia. In the campaign mode, you will visit all those locations and more, once again reuniting with the same characters from the previous games, like Cabot Finch, giving you orders and chatting on the radio, including Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm (the only character from the movies).

If you've played the former games in the trilogy, everything will feel familiar, and it will take you no time remembering the controls and UI, which remain very intuitive and comfortable for a controller, as the game releases at the same time on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. If you didn't play them, the campaign mode still takes time to explain everything, but it's much more than a tutorial, and even veterans won't get bored as they'll be quickly introduced to the main novelty of the game. If Evolution 2 introduced flying and sea creatures, with their own enclosures, Evolution 3 introduces the option to breed almost all dinosaurs and extinct creatures.

It may not sound like too much beyond seeing cute baby dinosaurs unrealistically walk out of tiny eggs, but in reality it adds plenty of depth to the game: it's another factor to consider when creating and maintaining enclosures for your animals, ensuring they are comfortable enough to procreate and that their babies, sometimes with different personalities, are also happy among other species. All of that, while making sure that they are visible for your tourists, which remain the ones that pay for everything... even if the characters are always talking about the importance of preserving animals instead of exploiting.

Following the events of the first Jurassic World movie ten years ago, the franchise has not been about dinosaurs escaping from a zoo or a theme park, as dinosaurs had already, well, escaped. This is unfortunate as Frontier makes all those theme park tycoon games (Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo), and while they've updated the premise by having the player work for the Dinosaur Integration Network (DIN), an organisation that builds conservation facilities to rescue and take care of stranded and exploited dinosaurs, this rarely has much implication in gameplay, as even a medical research centre will eventually open for visitors, and you will be encouraged to build safari rides, even hot air balloons this time, to increase you profits and continue your investigations.

This makes Evolution 3 feel exactly the same as the other games, which is obviously not a bad thing, as it wouldn't make sense for any developer to change a proven formula, one that has thousands of fans who will keep demanding more and more. The baby dinosaurs are not revolutionary, but they add more depth in management, which is something Evolution fans have always been asking for, while also being irresistible for players who don't like to be too stressed out, but will put an effort to see and protect those cute dinos. It adds complexity and fun at the same time.

In fact, Frontier has streamlined some parts of the game, adding automation of maintenance or care tasks that your park rangers can automatically fulfil if you assign them to specific posts. There are even security cameras that will automatically send capture teams when they see that a dinosaur has escaped. Of course, those dinos can still attack and eat visitors: nothing too gory, but it can happen... although the visitors will forgive it (or forget it) the following day.

As always, the game suits any playstyle: the campaign mode, far from being a simple tutorial, is the main part of the game: long and surprisingly varied, as each map focuses on different aspects of building and management, including some moments that deliver more direct implications and real time strategy (moments where you're forced to drive vehicles, including herding dinosaurs, or reacting to storms or sabotages). If it gets too challenging or you mess up so much that you're forced to restart the map (always convenient to create new and different save files frequently) you can always go to other maps and continue playing there, as well as "farming" in the investigation trees, fossil expeditions, and DNA extractions.

In Sandbox Mode, you can create with no restriction, and all dinosaurs are available (86 initially). Only some colour variants are missing and unlockable through the story. The Chaos Theory Mode from Evolution 2 is missing, but with the expanded Story Mode and Challenges, that are shorter and more focussed, we don't really miss it.

The list of species is bigger than Evolution 2 offered at launch, and it includes some of the coolest species that were added via DLC in Evolution 2, like the Scorpios Rex from the Netflix series Camp Cretaceous, the Dominion DLC dinos like Therizinosaurus or Dimetrodon, the weird hybrids like Stegoceratops or Spinoraptor, or even the giant shark Megalodon, which has never appeared in the films. Many are still missing from the base game (Evolution 2 had 75 species in the base game and added 43 more in eight DLC packs), which has angered fans, but I'd say that the full list is very solid and varied, and for many Evolution 1 and 2 users who didn't pay for DLCs, many will be brand new. That said, it is a bit dirty that they have already locked four dinosaurs in the Deluxe Edition, including the lovely Concavenator...

Movie fans will also miss more connection with movies, as in its current launch state, there are actually no connection at all with Rebirth (what's more, Jurassic World Evolution 3's story is actually a complete contradiction from the current canon of the movies). We bet the dinosaurs from the Gareth Edwards movie, like Titanosaurus, Aquilops, or the mutants will be added in DLC. The Spinosaur in the game has the JP3 look, by the way: it will be interesting to see how they add the scientifically accurate Spinosaur from Rebirth, which looked like a completely different animal...

Graphically, it looks stunning, even if there's little difference with the previous games. If you look up close, you may find some ugly details and popping, but the dinosaurs truly look stunning and move and sound accordingly spectacular, and there are so many of them you won't get tired of seeing them, even if their animations and behaviours have not evolved (and you don't actually see the "breeding" process, if you were wondering).

Jurassic World Evolution 3 is exactly what you'd expect: Frontier taking note of fan feedback (longer and deeper story mode, deeper management options, introduction of full customisation of buildings and terrains) and surprising us with baby dinosaurs, which is a very cute and well thought-out addition, even if it doesn't change much about the way we play the game. Naturally, it lacks the element of surprise and innovation, and some would argue that this is little more than an update on what was before, which is also what we said about Evolution 2.

However, compared to the first Evolution game from 2018, the improvements are clear, and it would be hard to go back to that game now, which only had land dinosaurs, only one type of terrain, and didn't even have time speed options. Jurassic World Evolution 3 is not an essential purchase if you own Evolution 2, but if you're a fan, you won't be disappointed by all that's new.