▷Planet Zoo review: let's build our own zoo 🥇

The management video games have known a period of great success in the early 2000s with the various Tycoon which allowed us to manage schools, playgrounds, shopping centers and so on and so forth. In the contemporary videogame scenario in which Open World, FPS e Battle Royale are the masters, is there still room for management? Let's find out in ours Planet Zoo review.

Planet Zoo it's a management "Old fashioned", spiritual heir of Zoo Tycoon. The game features classic gameplay but adapted to the needs of modern gamers. In fact, the game offers various modes ranging from classic scenarios with objectives to the version sandbox with infinite possibilities without neglecting the online component.

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Planet Zoo Review

La Career mode is the classic single player campaign that, in addition to teaching the basics of the game with a well-detailed tutorial, will allow us to face increasingly difficult challenges. Our career will begin at Goodwin House, a small zoo owned by Bernard Goodwin, an animalist tycoon and philanthropist who will guide us on our journey to become the best zoo managers.

The missions available are not many but they guarantee several hours of gameplay and a considerable degree of challenge. It must be said that compared to the old management systems or the same Zoo Tycoon, the goals to be achieved are not particularly innovative and stimulating. The missions in fact, they ask to reach a certain number of animals in the zoo, to satisfy the happiness of the same or of the visitors, to procreate endangered species and so on. All missions that we have already seen several times.

We point out, however, that each level contains within it three mini-milestones to be achieved which, although it is not necessary to complete them all to move on to the next zoo, represent a valid challenge for perfectionist managers. In all this, we are accompanied by the various characters of the game who will show us the criticalities of each mission with the classic British humor that never hurts.

Pets

Needless to say, the real stars in Planet Zoo are obviously the animals. It will be necessary to take care of all those species on the market that can be purchased through money o Credits safeguard, which we will talk about later. Each animal presents a threshold of well-being that must be satisfied to keep it happy, thus demonstrating to visitors, to take care of their animals and avoid repercussions. Well-being depends on various factors such as: Nourishment, Sociality, Habitat and Equipment. Fulfilling these elements is the player's goal and will not be easy at all.

Unlike other management systems of this type, in fact, the four primary needs of animals are in turn divided into other sub-categories which must all be satisfied. The nourishment, for example, does not just indicate the degree of satiety of the animal but also his hydration,to food quality and water purity to which he has access. Sociability concerns the number of animals in the enclosure but also the size of the enclosure and the stress caused by too many visitors crowded around the perimeter. Each element must be carefully planned even before acquiring an animal, to avoid encountering difficulties in the later stages of the game.

The management ofhabitat it is the element, among these, that most struck us. In addition to selecting the biome suitable for the animal, with the trees of its region and the slopes of the terrain, we would also have to deal with elements such as the cleaning of the fence or the temperature. The game is in fact conditioned by phenomenon weather such as rain or snow that actively affect the biome of a fence. Without the right number of stoves it could indeed snow in the lions' enclosure, covering its habitat with snow and drastically lowering their well-being.

Management is not a simple thing

Likewise provide allocations to animals as games or spaces to climb on is not a conclusive solution. Animals can indeed get tired of the entertainment present in the enclosure and it will be necessary to offer him always new stimuli. New objects and medical treatments can in fact be discovered through an elementary system of search. In Planet Zoo the research is carried out by the veterinarians present in your complex who, beyond the diseases, will only be able to try their hand at researching the animals in your zoo. The more time you spend analyzing a species, the better your chances are of making them feel good, providing them with better food and treating their diseases. Considering that there are about 80 species available, there will be a lot of work to be done!

Another interesting variation in Planet Zoo is represented by show animals. These are small animals such as spiders, frogs and snakes that can be displayed in small display cases. Despite this difference, they are still full-fledged zoo animals with needs and wants to satisfy. Some missions will explicitly require exhibits to be completed.

All animals in the game can be purchased with the money or acquired with the Safeguard credits. It is a "coin" generated by your behavior towards animals or other players. These credits are accumulated by releasing the animals born in your zoo, visiting the parks of other players or satisfying the community challenges.

Download QR-Code Planet Zoo Developer: Frontier Developments Price: 44,99 €

Common goals

As we have already mentioned, the online component is very present in Planet Zoo. In addition to the career mode, which we have analyzed, there is in fact the Franchise mode which will allow you to manage one or more zoos online. Here it will be possible to satisfy challenges area of community shared with all players in the world. These challenges vary from week to week and guarantee attractive rewards for all participants. The global challenge at the time of writing this Planet Zoo review was that of free 90.000 Lowland Gorillas in the wild. Another feature of the Franchise mode is represented by the market of animals available that will no longer be generated in a causal manner or according to the objectives, but based on the offers that the other players on the network will make.

Undoubtedly this feature represents a notable variant to the classic management system as well as the strong possibility of customization that the game guarantees. Beyond the creation of a avatar at the beginning of the game (who will be your character visiting the other zoos), in Planet Zoo you can customize every element and structure of the zoo. In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of decorations and geometric elements that can be combined as you like to create the zoo of your dreams and show it to everyone online.

The beauty of nature

Planet Zoo raises a graphic engine spectacular that manages to give incredible details to the environment and to the animals made with extreme care. The fantastic light and shadow effects they make every transition from day to night special as well as any climate change in the game. Obviously the downside concerns the underperforming computers that could struggle a lot during the later stages of the game when the number of visitors and animals increases.

Perhaps for this reason, human characters are represented with a completely different graphic style compared to that of animals with simpler and more cartoony traits. To give greater prominence to the game there is also a well-made soundtrack although not so full of tracks.

The graphics sector, however, fails to counterbalance the large number of bugs present in the game. We have very often had to free our employees stuck in the most disparate points or see our guardians enter the enclosures without carrying out any work and then go back for a walk. Equally annoying were numerous crash of the game that we hope will be resolved with any patches.

Planet Zoo review: buy it or not?

Planet Zoo features innovative elements for a video game genre that has been rocked on seemingly solid foundations for too long. The English team of Frontier Developments has managed to give new life to the genre by adapting it to the tastes and needs of the modern market. What bodes well for this chapter is its future in terms of online challenges, updates and new DLCs that, we hope, can introduce many new animal species and gameplay variations.

Planet Zoo is the worthy heir of Zoo Tycoon and the management software that fans of the genre have been waiting for.