Frontier has partnered with Universal to create a licensed simulation game where players can step into the shoes of John Hammond (or Masrani if you prefer modern Ingen), and create their own Jurassic World. The game is set to release alongside the next entry in the Jurassic World franchise, Forgotten Kingdom, next summer! So far, it has been confirmed that players will be able to create their own cross-breeds of dinosaurs, construct attractions, contain escaped dinosaurs, and conduct research. With those details in mind, here’s our wishlist of other features we’d like to see in this game from realistic to outlandish.
1. Dino Boredom Meter
One of my favorite parts of the new Jurassic World movie was the idea that eventually guests would get bored of seeing a T-Rex. It would be fun to see a mechanic in-game where visitors are initially excited by seeing extinct giants brought to life, but eventually require more to entertain them. This could lead to increasingly dangerous hybrids, much like the movie, and plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong…
2. Dinos from Different Eras
The dinosaurs that have been featured in Jurassic park films are actually mostly from the Cretaceous Period, and it would be interesting to see some that may have actually lived during the Jurassic! Seeing how the game is based on the more recent films, it’s a fair bet that we’ll see some aquatic and avian dinosaurs as well as the more traditional land exhibits. I’ll be curious to see what the final roster frontier comes up with looks like (please give me a dimetrodon).
3. A Variety of Attractions
The original Jurassic park was slated to have a variety of ways for guests to see the dinosaurs in the park. Some of these were shown briefly in Jurassic World, so I think my hopes may be realistic here. Specifically, it’d be fun to have exhibits that guests can walk to, as well as the traditional jeep, boat, monorail rides to tour the park. A few of these were also showcased in the trailer, so fingers crossed. I’m sure there’s more than a few Planet Coaster fans who would be excited to work with new ride systems.
4. Consequences for Park Failure
I would love to have a mechanic that involves humorous lawsuits from the guests when things inevitably go wrong in the park. The game’s trailer centers around a T-Rex breakout, and a poor engineer getting eaten, meaning that these ‘accidents’ (oh no, how’d that fence get deleted?), will be a part of core gameplay. Even something so small as having to hire lawyers to fight your legal battles and PR agents to smooth over such incidents would be very entertaining, and a nice nod to the films.
5. First Person Modes
Looking back at Zoo Tycoon 2, over 10 years ago now, there were some really fun first-person mechanics that would be interesting to implement for this new game. Specifically, going around and performing exhibit maintenance, feeding dinosaurs, riding the various attractions, and hunting escaped dinos are all features I would love to see. Frontier’s other theme park game, Planet Coaster supports riding rides in first person, but currently has no official way (there is a cheat code) to experience the park as a guest. Hopefully this feature makes it in to JWE, and then they can just re-use the code for Planet Coaster… Wink, wink.
6. Planet Coaster Tie-In
I would peg this wishlist item as unlikely, but who knows? Planet Coaster already has a theme park building engine, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that it and JWE end up being similar. Even if JWE can’t function as an expansion (that would be my dream), it would be cool if Planet Coaster gets a theme or something to celebrate the new game’s launch. Frontier has a partnership with Universal for Planet Coaster as well, so this might actually happen. Please Frontier, I’m sorely lacking in dinosaur animatronics.
We’ll have more information as well as some early gameplay of JWE leading up to its release next summer, so keep checking back! In the meantime, follow us on Twitter/Facebook for updates and more articles.
