Maxis seldom dissapoints game players, especially the ones who know Maxis games. Do not buy this game if you are looking for a quick action fix! If you want to try something a little more mellow but still engaging, you won't be terribly disappointed here. You can't help learning something either, true to the Maxis form. Sim Safari is an educational game which places you in the position of an African Safari Park Ranger. Your job managing a safari involves cleverly manipulating types of plants, animals and even native villagers, within an African setting, to keep a park running smoothly and profitably. If you're familiar with Sim Park -Maxis predecessor to this game- you pretty much know what you are getting into. This game might also be called Sim Park 2. But Sim Safari is the better of the two, more stuff to play with. Sim Safari has 3 different screens to run, instead of just a single park screen. There is the Park Screen; your actual safari park with all the plants and animals to manage, this is where they roam and live. The Camp Screen; this is where your safari tourists stay while they visit the park itself. You will fill this area with tents, bathrooms, ampitheatres and vehicles. Camp is where you make profits to expand your park. Finally, the Village Screen; Sim Safari being an eco friendly kind of game, here is where you hire nearby natives to work with the tourists in various jobs-drivers, scouts, guides and cooks, inside your Camp Screen. The villagers work in your safari camp so they can get money to improve their own village, and NOT poach park animals. Each of the 3 screens comes with its own Advisor to tell you what needs to be done within that screen, helping you to keep everything up and running. Nuts and bolts. Depending on which screen you are working within, there are different interfaces to use. Each screen is not a stand alone game, you have to get busy in all 3 of them to keep the safari park alive. You'll be jumping about quite a bit. Within the Park, you get to choose a map layout from randomly generated terrains, and pick fom an abundance of plants and animals to populate your little map. Over time you get to see them multiply and run amuck across the board. The plants are subdivided, like the animals; Shrubs, Trees and Grasses then Mammals, Reptiles/Amphibians and Birds. You want ostriches living under Banyan trees in the Saw Grass? Here's where you get to do that. There are also several Ranger tools- a Shovel for making roads/paths, a Net for getting rid of troublesome predators or choking weeds, and a Species Identification Book which is also a subgame. The most important tool here is your Population Chart. This will tell you if too many lions are eating your ostriches, or if your elephants are devouring and trampling too much plant life. This is the whole goal of Sim Safari- keep a homoginized blend of species so your park can run itself. The game will still throw a curve your way with natural disasters- Fires, draught, etc. I personally use the "Disasters Off" option. You'll learn it is not so easy being Mother Nature! The Camp Screen is closer to being a Sim City kind of game-it creates a little economic community outside the park, where you won't see the safari animals hanging around-just lots of human types and their campout 'stuff'. It is needed to get the money to keep the park filled. The Village Screen is almost more of the same, except you'll see the villagers huts/gardens get more healthy looking over time-provided you aren't a complete schlepp about keeping them employed. The interfaces on these screens; Village= hire villagers. Camp;= build more camping stuff for tourists. Sort of disappointing, but you can always go back to the action in the Park. The Look. Graphics are nice to look at, the plants even change color for Dry Season/Rainy Seasons. Your animals are detailed enough for you to learn what an Ibex looks like in the real world, and how to identify a Sausage Tree if you actually come across it somewhere in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the animals are just sprites which wander about randomly, and the plants will clutter up the veiw of your map when you want to find something specific. Both of them WILL multiply enough for eyestrain. Sounds include random animal grunts/peeps constantly eminating from your speakers, along with jungle drums and chanting native ditties. If you focus on it too much, the secret is to just turn it all off. Sim Safari is a MUST for any schoolkid studying The Dark Continent (that's Africa). I learned more about ecology sciences playing this game than many textbooks I read about the same thing! On the downside of Safari- it is extremely tedious after about 2 hours playing. You will definitely want to stop running Sim Safari before the 2 hour mark,you'll start hating it. Take a break, come back to it later is good advice here. Because Sim Safari will keep you busy for awhile --as long as you don't overdose on it. Safari can become a big game with Big Game, too.
hehehehe no its not much. but its just fun. not much to say about Sim Safari. There are few ways to play and it has a little bit of value lol but i like playing it to mess up the animals and watch them kill each... Read Full Review
SimSafari is a game that I couldn't figure out because it didn't have that much "Sim" in it. You just place buildings and animals in budget. The 2D graphics were pretty good, I have to say. The only sound I heard was som... Read Full Review
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