I can't really say Jurassic World Evolution 2 is an entirely inferior game to its predecessor, as it is largely the same experience with additional content, but I can say that it didn't really scratch the same dino park creating itch the first game did with me. JWE2 is less of a park builder than it is a dino-scenario simulator. Don't get me wrong, you can absolutely build a dinosaur theme park just as easily as you could in the first game, but it doesn't feel as much the primary focus in this one.
If you're someone like me that just wants a simple, straight-forward game that lets you easily build a Jurassic Park on a tropical paradise, the first Jurassic World Evolution nailed that. You're thrown in, given some tutorials, and then the game asks you to construct a park on five different islands that each tests your ability to maximize a park's effectiveness to different degrees. Evolution 2, however, splits its content over three different main modes, the first of which (denoted as the actual Campaign mode) is nothing but a glorified tutorial, where you wrangle wayward dinos into pens and learn the game's ropes. It's over quick yet still feels overly drawn out and doesn't really offer much except to go "Isn't it cool to see these dinosaurs against the backdrop of rural America?" Which, hey, maybe the answer is yes to you, but that aesthetic wasn't what I was personally looking for.
The Chaos Theory and Challenge modes are the real meat of the game, more akin to what the first Evolution offered, but again, outside of the maps that put you on the original islands from the movies, it still leans too far into this new direction. Which, from a marketing standpoint, I get, you want to have the sequel possess its own identity, but to me it really drove home how little new this game had to offer and that I pretty much got everything I wanted out of the first game already. Further cementing this was one of the game's biggest changes from a gameplay standpoint, in which you're required to recruit and micromanage scientists to run your park. This added little more than tedium to the formula, especially when they are required to do everything you could already do in the first game without them. Simplicity was key here and I feel like this change robbed the game of some of that.
Overall this isn't a bad game by any means but I'm glad I held off until it came to Game Pass because as a package, it did not do enough to really justify its existence as a full priced product. A lot of what you get here is just a repackaged version of the first Jurassic World Evolution, and if you were like me and spent dozens of hours in that game already, you probably won't find much in 2 that you didn't already get there.
If you're someone like me that just wants a simple, straight-forward game that lets you easily build a Jurassic Park on a tropical paradise, the first Jurassic World Evolution nailed that. You're thrown in, given some tutorials, and then the game asks you to construct a park on five different islands that each tests your ability to maximize a park's effectiveness to different degrees. Evolution 2, however, splits its content over three different main modes, the first of which (denoted as the actual Campaign mode) is nothing but a glorified tutorial, where you wrangle wayward dinos into pens and learn the game's ropes. It's over quick yet still feels overly drawn out and doesn't really offer much except to go "Isn't it cool to see these dinosaurs against the backdrop of rural America?" Which, hey, maybe the answer is yes to you, but that aesthetic wasn't what I was personally looking for.
The Chaos Theory and Challenge modes are the real meat of the game, more akin to what the first Evolution offered, but again, outside of the maps that put you on the original islands from the movies, it still leans too far into this new direction. Which, from a marketing standpoint, I get, you want to have the sequel possess its own identity, but to me it really drove home how little new this game had to offer and that I pretty much got everything I wanted out of the first game already. Further cementing this was one of the game's biggest changes from a gameplay standpoint, in which you're required to recruit and micromanage scientists to run your park. This added little more than tedium to the formula, especially when they are required to do everything you could already do in the first game without them. Simplicity was key here and I feel like this change robbed the game of some of that.
Overall this isn't a bad game by any means but I'm glad I held off until it came to Game Pass because as a package, it did not do enough to really justify its existence as a full priced product. A lot of what you get here is just a repackaged version of the first Jurassic World Evolution, and if you were like me and spent dozens of hours in that game already, you probably won't find much in 2 that you didn't already get there.