Zoo Tycoon Preview
We take a long look at Microsoft's upcoming zoo-management strategy game.
Tycoon simulation-style games, such as Railroad Tycoon, Airline Tycoon, Golf Resort Tycoon, and RollerCoaster Tycoon, test your mettle for juggling a great deal of items and situations, finding you manufacturing, managing, and delegating with the best of them, running transportation organizations and operating theme parks. But seldom do these mock-world scenarios put you in charge of all those details, plus give you the added responsibility of tending to living creatures (besides humans). All good ideas have their day, and Blue Fang Games has taken the simulation principle one step further and tossed animals in the mix in Zoo Tycoon.
Zoo Tycoon's premise is straightforward enough: A zoo-themed strategy game in which you balance the delicate weights of profit with the well being of living creatures to meet your end goal of building and maintaining a successful zoo. But you'll realize how easy you had it building trains, airlines, roller coasters, and theme parks once you face the task of tending to a giraffe who doesn't like his mate or making saltwater crocodile number two--who doesn't like his water lily--happy, and all the while, patrons are screaming for more trash cans and complaining about the admission price.
GameSpot got a chance to take a mid-development version of Zoo Tycoon for a test drive and realized pretty quickly that it's turning out to be a clever, good-looking product that is not so much the niche game we thought it might be when we first heard about it. We asked Blue Fang's president, Hank Howie, what type of gamer would play this game. "We've found that Zoo Tycoon appeals to both fans of tycoon-style games as well as those who simply love animals," said Howie. "Tycoon fans will enjoy the aspects of building, managing, and maintaining their zoos while making decisions that result in economic profit. However, Zoo Tycoon offers a new aspect of tycoon gaming, as players must anticipate how animals will respond to individual actions. We've also seen players with no tycoon game experience appreciate Zoo Tycoon because of their love for animals...The overall variety, ease of use, and flexible nature of Zoo Tycoon make it appealing to a very broad audience."
There are two ways to play Zoo Tycoon: free play and scenario. Both of these modes seem to offer an enormous amount of gameplay, even at this early stage. Scenarios are a smart way to start, as the first few levels in this mode offer quick and painless tutorials that launch you into what is fairly intuitive gameplay to begin with. From the basic skills you learn in the Smallsville Zoos 1 and 2 tutorials, you can go directly into free play with little or no problem. Free play is a whole other ballpark, giving you free range over small to large zoos and the freedom to set your starting budget accordingly, up to $500,000. This mode has very few rules. We took the path of least resistance and most guidance and started with the scenarios.
Zoo Tycoon Quick Links
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- Microsoft Game Studios
- Blue Fang Games
- Business Strategy
- Release: Oct 17, 2001 »
- ESRB: Everyone
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