Jurassic World Evolutions – First Impressions on Xbox One

Jurassic World has just launched in theatres, and the game based on the franchise has just launched on console. Jurassic World Evolutions is the Rollercoaster Tycoon of dinosaur games, allowing players to build structures, create dinosaurs, and establish a park that will make them a tidy profit. While these types of games always work great on PC, the transfer over to the Xbox One or PS4 is never as smooth.

This review was carried out using a code provided to us by the developer, on an Xbox One X provided to us by Xbox Canada.

Some how, though, Focus Home Entertainment figured out how to perfectly map all the controls over to the Xbox One – our review console for this title – and it works flawlessly. Perhaps it is because Jurassic World Evolutions doesn’t have a lot of major commands, but even with a minimal commands, the developers did a phenomenal job. The biggest detractor for me when playing simulation games online are the controls. Thankfully, any fault in Jurassic World Evolutions does not stem from poor controller mapping.

I’ve only played a few hours, welcomed only a few dinosaurs, and have limited people visiting my park. But one thing is for sure – the whole experience has been fun so far. From sending teams out on digs, to mining the DNA out of fossils, to welcoming your first dinosaur, everything in Evolutions seems to have a purpose, and it’s fairly simple to understand and follow. Find fossils, extract the genome, increase the genome percentage to at least 50 to welcome your first dinosaur, and then voila! You have a dinosaur roaming your enclosure. Plop down a few feeding areas and make sure there is plenty of water, and you are well on your way to constructing a fantastic park for people to visit.

Of course, there is a tad more depth when utilizing the research stations and ranger stations. Researching disease antibiotics will help keep your dinosaurs healthy and happy, and having rangers around to control the dinosaurs will also go a long way to creating a successful park. You can even take control of the rangers yourself, driving the jeep around the property, and taking down dinosaurs with a tranquilizer dart when necessary. It is all well thought out, and works flawlessly.

There is a lot more for me to experience, and that will take a few weeks. But for the present, Jurassic World Evolutions is definitely a game you’ll want to pick up sooner rather than latter, especially if you are a huge Jurassic Park or dinosaur fan!

As an aside, this game looks fantastic on Xbox One X! We are playing Jurassic World Evolutions using a code provided by the publisher, on an Xbox One X provided by Xbox Canada!