Reviewed: April 5, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Universal Interactive

Developer
BlueTongue

Released: March 25, 2003
Genre: Simulation
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen

7
7
7
7
7.3

System Requirements

Universal Interactive was most ambitious in this most recent “tycoon-style” game. Not only is Operation Genesis much more complex and detailed than your average theme park sim, the game was also released on the PS2 and PC at the same time. While the game certainly plays to each of the systems’ strengths (and succumbs to their weaknesses) all three versions share a very intuitive interface and a surprisingly simple gameplay model.

Genesis uses the likenesses of the stars from the movie (sorry, no professional voice talent), which does a good job of tying the movie and the game together. You have Dr. Alan Grant who is in charge of your DNA digs around the world. Once you have the DNA you go to the genetics lab where Dr. Henry Wu handles the extraction. Once you have enough unique DNA you can breed your dinos. Any extra DNA or fossils can be sold off for spare cash.

Before you start hatching your attractions you will need to prepare your island by building containment areas, usually electrified reinforced fencing, then filling those areas with ponds and wildlife. The Dinosaur Encyclopedia is built right into the game and will give you excellent info on each of the 25 species of dinosaurs, what kind of environment they need, and also how popular they are with the guests. Each pen requires a food dispense whether is it dispensing bales of veggies or goats and cows.

Once you have a few attractions you can build a helipad and open the park to the public. Operation Genesis does a good job of maintaining a steady flow of incremental gameplay. You start off with limited funds at first and only by slowly and carefully building up your park can you builds a good reputation and earn the big bucks.

The dinosaurs will easily bring in the customers who are willing to pay $200 per ticket, or whatever you would like to charge based on how good your park is. Once they are on your island it’s your responsibility to bleed them dry of all their cash through clever placement of souvenir and concession stands. Much like all the other theme park management games, you can view the little thought-bubbles over each of your guests to find out how they are enjoying their stay and if they require something you aren’t providing.

Once you get your park up to speed you then need to finesse the design by adding extra attractions like balloon rides or jeep expeditions. You also need to weight all these decisions while keeping the safety of your customers in mind. While it is delightfully fun to erase a section of fence and watch your T-Rex eat the customers, your park and approval rating will both plummet.

Even more important than tweaking your park is maintaining a careful balance of what is admittedly a very fragile ecosystem. Many dinosaurs have limited life spans, but these can be extended by increasing the level of original DNA during the creative process and surrounding your creations with suitable landscape. The complexity of this simulation really hits home when Dr. Elle Sattler instructs you to create extra vegetation to ease the stress level of certain dinosaurs. Other dinosaurs require paleo trees because the more modern vegetation can cause disease that can spread through a herd and wipe them out faster than the buffalo.

Robert Muldoon is back as your head park ranger (didn’t a raptor eat him in the first movie?) and he gives you good advice on how to fly around the park in your chopper and shoot tranq darts into dinos or rescue stranded guests in distress. These little diversions make for some of the most (if not only) exciting portions of the game. Occasionally the game will toss a natural disaster your way that will threaten some part of your park. You may lose power and a dino will smash through a fence. You’ll need to coral the escapee and repair the fence.

While you are generally responsible to micromanage every aspect of your park, often at the same time, you are always kept well informed with an abundance of email and a few of your department heads will take care of a few things automatically. Example: Dr. Wu still start selling off your excess DNA after you have collected 100% of any given species. It’s not much but it is one less thing you have to worry about.

Control is quite simple with the analog sticks moving your view and your target cursor around the screen. It's a bit clunkier than the PC in some ways but the chopper and jeep action modes control much better with the gamepad. The icon menu of the PC has been replaced with a simple menu with each item assigned to a face button. These give you access to the various departments used to run your island paradise.

The only other “action” or “activity” portions of the game aside from flying the chopper is the ability to drive the JP Land Cruiser and take photos. It’s mildly amusing but it takes a definitely backseat in what is otherwise a very serious and complicated simulation.

There is still a bit or jerkiness when rapidly moving or panning the camera but nothing as bad as the PC. There are some truly amazing graphics hidden in this title. The dinosaurs are meticulously modeled and textured with bump-mapped skins that look like real dino-flesh. The first time you see the T-Rex stalk, kill, and eat his prey, throwing back his head and choking down the carcass, you will be in awe.

Trees, bushes, and grass are all excellent, albeit a bit repetitive and the reflective bodies of water are stunning, mirroring the terrain and the dinos that splash through them. The building components are all very nice with fun attention to detail. There are no building animations; you simply click a structure and place it on the map and it instantly appears and is ready for action. The structures themselves are animated whether it be a food dispenser kicking out bales of veggies or a breeding pen with mechanical arm dropping food into a raptor pit.

The interface is quite nice with an button menu that in the bottom-left corner and informative windows that pop-up throughout the game. Each window is accompanied by a portrait of the character in charge of that department, and there are plenty of easy-to-read graphs and resource indicators for every aspect of the simulation. You can look at any dinosaur and instantly see if they are hungry, thirsty, or tired, and you can look at any visitor and immediately assess their needs. Considering this is one of the first tycoon-type games to release for a console, the designers have done an amazing job of giving it a functional control scheme.

Sound effects are all very nice including various dino sounds for all the species, engine noise for choppers and jeeps, and the sounds of changing weather conditions. Did I mention that it rains a LOT on your island? The voices are all very nice but there seems to be no logic in when somebody talks and when you must read the pop-ups. Voices will kick in at random and perhaps even startle you in what is otherwise a quiet game with a lot of reading. All of this is presented in a wonderfully spatial 3D Dolby Digital mix.

There is also a freeform construction mode that allows you to terraform your island then build the perfect dino park. This is your typical “sandbox” mode that offers unlimited gameplay potential for as long as you find the game enjoyable.

If you love dinosaurs (and who doesn’t) and enjoy all the complexities of managing a major theme park then you will certainly want to check this game out. It offers an experience that is truly original and like no other you can currently find on a non-PC platform.