Wildlife Zoo Deluxe Edition

I'm a fan of the Zoo Tycoon games, so this seemed like a good purchase. And the price was fair, so I brought it on a whim.

First, the pros. The graphics are stunning. The game is almost three years old, and still I'm taken away by how realistic the animals look. (Although the people look rather crapy) The animals are much easier to please than in Zoo Tycoon, and the neat addition of weather makes this game seem a lot more realistic. Unlike Zoo Tycoon, you're not limited to a grid system, so you can rotate items 360 degrees and plop them down wherever you'd like.

Now the cons. The game is a lot more complicated than it really needs to be. You have to grow your own food for the animals, for one. For two, the game controls are cumbersome and confusing. A tutorial would have been greatly appreciated, but the only clues you get when stumped come from a vague digital manual (in .pdf format) that installs with the game. I spent almost a half an hour trying to figure out what to get for my camels, when they wanted to scratch up against something, before finally stumbling on the correct item. The animal selection is rather random, as well -- I would have liked to have had wolves, my favorite animals, but there are none in the game, despite the fact that there are groupers (a type of fish) and saurian (some sort of reptile?), neither of which are what I'd consider "popular" animals. All animal items, and there are a ton, are grouped together -- items for feeding, for play, for training, etc as well as items for aquatic animals, for savannah, for jungle, etc. The animals and guests are also not very "smart" -- guests to the zoo were complaining about there not being anything to drink, standing about 30 feet from the drink stand; and my zebras were complaining about needing to forage even though the food container on the other side of the pen was full.

All in all, the game is strikingly similar to Zoo Tycoon, right down to similar buildings (drink stand, snack stand, ice cream stand, etc), staff (animal caretaker, "handyman", etc), even displays (smiley faces above animals to show how they're doing, similar controls, etc.) The whole thing just feels like a low-budget ripoff of Zoo Tycoon 2.

In general I like this game. It's fun and entertaining. It took me a while to figure out how to play. It did come with a PDF format guide, but you could not read the manual and play the game at the same time(at least I couldn't)I had to close the game then look up what I needed. I wish there was a help section as part of the actual game or a printed manual. my other complaint on this game is the people and the animals are not very smart. I had animal starve to death while standing next to their food. Once I learned how to play, I showed my 9year old how to play and she loves it. I still have not learned how to make money yet.

If you play Zoo Empire this game will be alot more complex and that I don't like. It hurts me to think lol. But this game have alot more animals to chose from.

I bought this game on a whim, hoping it would be good. I was right. the graphics are very good, and the layout is straightforward. despite the high graphics, it does not run nearly as slow as Zoo Tycoon 2 does, so it makes a good alternative. the economics engine is a dream, and easy to understand.
if there was anything I didn't like about the game, it is the lack of animals. I would have preferred to see a few more species, wolves, more big cats, and some sea turtles. While it is sort of realistic to only have a few Tertiary and Quaternary era species available to be cloned, I would have far more preferred to see some dinosaurs.
overall, this is an excellent game, well worth the purchase price.

I can't compare this to other similar games, but if you are looking for a fun virtual "zoo" experience, I highly recommend this. The graphics are great, the play options are many, and it is very user-friendly -- prompts help you figure out what to do when necessary -- without being overly simplistic or childish. You design and create the zoo, purchase and care for the animals (and track their progress, which is a lot of fun), balance your budget, and more. My husband and I enjoy playing this together and find it a relaxing way to spend some time and unwind. The only downside (minor) is that the interface seems a little buggy at times, hence 4 stars instead of 5.