Zoo Tycoon is a business-strategy game truly worth playing.
It is noticeable, that your animals will be happy only when you place them into the right environment to live in, for example you cannot place a polar bear in a savannah, or a lion along with penguins. Of course you can place different animals in the same cage, but this will result to a good feast for the lions or tigers.
The game provides special menus and statistics which will help you understand what is missing from your zoo, or what your animals would like. So, when your zoo is ready, guests will come to visit it, paying not only entrance fee, but also spending their money to buy hot dogs, cool drinks or souvenirs. To grow up your bussiness, you will have to hire staff who will work as visitors guides, cleaners or scientist researching on the animals and their behaviour.
Earning money will allow you to bring in more animals, better facilities and new things for the visitors to do and see. There are certain zoos you play in, which play the role of scenarios, a typical mode in tycoon games. These scenarios have a progressive difficulty, which is not visible at all. To be honest, the fact that difficult scenarios won't give you much time or money is not enough to make a scenario tough, at least for the keen players. Success in these scenarios is not something that will take time, as they are quite easy to accomplish. But sometimes some things are really simple to achieve, making some of the scenarios too easy and boring. But apart from the scenarios, you can play in a free mode, which is the real fun of the game.
Of course, sometime in the game, some animals may escape their exhibits, by climbing trees and jumping out, or by breaking the fences which hold them. In that case, you are able to call an emergency in the zoo and bring in specialists to get them back. Though it is not necessary by the time the escaping animal cannot harm your guests.
The game is detailed enough so you can check out the status not only of your animals, but also the status of your hired staff and of the visitors. Nevertheless, it is not necessary, except from the happiness of the staff and most important, the animals.
The visuals of the game are both responding and effective, but otherwise they have not something amazing to show. And the sound is also good, taking into consideration that your animals and visitors wil respond you if you are about to check their status. On the one hand, the game is not visually good, but on the other hand, there is no such necessity. It is still great fun. But it is a real pity that the camera can't zoom close enough to see the environment from a first-person view, or at least from a close-up. And the sound may be not stunning, still it is exactly what the game needs.
Zoo Tycoon is a game which you will enjoy very much, on condition that you have a bussiness mind. But even if you haven't, Zoo Tycoon is a perfect game for little children, or for those who feel alike.