Jurassic World: Evolution 2 is a business simulator based on the Jurassic Park franchise and a sequel to 2018's Jurassic World: Evolution, again developed and published by Frontier Developments. It was released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox ONE, and Xbox Series X and S on November 9, 2021.
Welcome back! So have you seen all those news reports about dinosaurs now on the mainland after Isla Nublar went up in smoke? Guess what? You're going to be doing something about it! Your job is quite simple, really: across the country, you will be capturing and preserving the dinosaurs now running loose, or the ones who were sold off at the Lockwood Estate auction. Like before, you're going to be keeping them happy and content as you save them - and the rest of the country - from any further, hehe, mishaps. You'll be teaming up with the federal government and also maintaining your staff, who have plenty of needs of their own. Oh, and while you're at it, think you can rustle up some extra cash to line the pockets of your old pal Cabot Finch? No pressure!
You'll be fine.
Jurassic World Evolution 2 sees a campaign that takes place after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, when dinosaurs were set free in North America. Now the player must conserve the animals before they wreak any further havoc. The game also features the return of Sandbox and Challenge Mode; as well as the addition of a new mode called Chaos Theory, in which players must complete objectives in "what if" scenarios set in Broad Strokes versions of each of the five films.
The game has released the following paid DLC's to date:
- The Early Cretaceous pack (December 9th, 2021): Contains the Kronosaurus, Minmi, Wuerhosaurus, and Dsungaripterus.
- The Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Pack (March 8th, 2022): Contains the Scorpios rex and Monolophosaurus, along with variants of dinosaurs representing characters from the series such as Bumpy the Ankylosaurus, Toro the Carnotaurus, and the three Baryonyx Chaos, Grim, and Limbo.
- The Biosyn Expansion Pack (June 14th, 2022): tying in with the release of Jurassic World Dominion, the Expansion Pack contains a new Biosyn-exclusive set of building and mechanics; many of the species introduced in Dominion such as Giganotosaurus and Therizinosaurus; two new biomes; and new Challenge and Chaos Theory scenarios.
- The Late Cretaceous Pack (September 15, 2022): Contains the Styxosaurus, Barbaridactylus, Alamosaurus, and Australovenator.
- The Malta Expansion Pack (December 8, 2022): The second Expansion Pack tying in with Jurassic World Dominion, containing a campaign inspired by the Malta black market sequence, a new biome, and several other species and variants from Dominion such as the Atrociraptor pack, Lystrosaurus, and Moros intrepidens.
- The Feathered Species Pack (March 30, 2023): Contains the Deinocheirus, Sinosauropteryx, Yutyrannus, and Jeholopterus.
- The Marine Species Pack (August 10, 2023): Contains the Archelon, Dunkleosteus, Nothosaurus, and Shonisaurus.
- The Cretaceous Predator Pack (November 30, 2023): Contains the Tarbosaurus from Camp Cretaceous: The Hidden Adventure, as well as new species Concavenator, Utahraptor, and Gigantoraptor.
- The Secret Species Pack (March 13, 2024): Contains the hybrids from the previous game’s "Secrets of Dr. Wu" DLC, the Spinoraptor, Stegoceratops, and the Ankylodocus sporting a redesign; they are joined by an adult version of the Spinoceratops introduced in Camp Cretaceous.
This game provides examples of:
- Adaptational Jerkass: The Chaos Theory's incarnation of the younger Simon Masrani is far more boastful and smug than his seemingly more humble, friendlier movie counterpart.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the first game, sauropods were impervious to attack by any predator save the Indominus rex, whereas in this game they're canon fodder for even smaller predators with relatively little in the way of defensive capabilities.
- Alternate Continuity: The basic premise of Chaos Theory mode, wherein you play in an alternate version of each of the five films.
- Jurassic Park (1993): Create a functional Jurassic Park in a setting where Dennis Nedry never sabotaged the park.
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park: Create Jurassic Park: San Diego in an effort to succeed where Ludlow failed.
- Jurassic Park III: Subverted, but with Broad Strokes to canon. The objective is to capture and conserve the animals of Isla Sorna in preparation for the upcoming Jurassic World, set after the events of the third film in what is essentially an interquel. However, some details do differ.note
- Jurassic World: Keep Jurassic World running with Indominus rex as an attraction, doing better with it than Claire Dearing and Dr. Wu managed.
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: Without the threat of Mount Sibo and of Eli Mills's poaching, conserve and free some of the surviving dinosaurs, dissemble the park and recapture Blue and Rexy to ensure they receive medical treatment.
- Jurassic World Dominion: Owen, Claire, Cabot, Alan, and Ellie work together to protect dinosaurs from being poached at Owen's ranch, and later are forced to open the ranch as a wildlife preserve when the DFW's funding runs out.
- All or Nothing: The new invisible fence that comes with the Dominion DLC. It prevents any and all escapes as long as it has power. If the power goes out, there's nothing to stop the animals from walking out of their enclosures.
- Anachronism Stew: The species roster for the Jurassic Park (1993) Chaos Theory scenario includes Suchomimus, which hadn't yet been discovered in 1993 when the original film is meant to take place.
- Animal Gender-Bender: Despite being meant to be female, almost all of the crested pterosaurs have big crests known only in males. The only exception is Pteranodon, which has a small crest carried over from Jurassic World as well as the male design from Jurassic Park III.
- Animals Not to Scale: Averted for many species. In the previous game the stegosaurids, ankylosaurids, and ceratopsians not named Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Triceratops, respectively, were all much larger than the real animals. In this game they've all been shrunk down and made similar in size to their real-life counterparts, which may catch people off-guard at just how small many of them were. The new animals aside from Mosasaurus and Dimorphodon are also at their realistic sizes. The original theropods who were incorrectly sized still retain those sizes, however.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- Almost none of the pterosaurs in the game have pycnofibres. Not even the basic Dimorphodon, which is jarring since its film counterpart had a partial covering at least. (The Malta Expansion Pack features a 2022 variant of Dimorphodon that possesses the pycnofibres from the film, though.) The exceptions are Quetzalcoatlus from the Biosyn pack, the first pterosaur to have them, and Jeholopterus from the Feathered Species pack.
- Most of the marine reptiles are stylized with features unknown in the real animals. The Mosasaurus remains as oversized and crocodile-like as it was in the films, with the Liopleurodon similarly being given crocodile-like armour, a long tail, and even claws on its flippers (though it's at least correctly-sized this time around). The Plesiosaurus has an inexplicably cobra-like scaly headnote , and the Elasmosaurus's head is the wrong shape and covered in spikes, both of which heavily contrast the Attenborosaurus, which is mostly accurate.
- The new cohabitation mechanic means that certain dinosaurs are hardwired to dislike one another and will lose comfort if they share the same enclosure. While some of these make sense-for instance, it's difficult to imagine that a Tyrannosaurus would want to share its food with another large carnivore like Giganotosaurus-several cohabitation decisions are somewhat dubious. Most glaring of all is the fact that every single sauropod hates every other sauropod, which flies directly in the face of the fossil record: Morrison Formation sauropods from the Jurassic period like Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, and Camarasaurus appear to have all coexisted in the same environment quite happily. A later patch amended this so that some Morrison Formation sauropods can coexist, but still dislike sharing space with dinosaurs like Mamenchisaurus and Dreadnoughtus.
- All pterosaurs require piscivore feeders, even though Tapejara was a frugivore and Dsungaripterus ate shellfish. The latter example falls under Gameplay and Story Segregation, as Isaac explicitly notes that Dsungaripterus is a shellfish eater.
- The Barbaridactylus is depicted with normal clawed hands (as a nyctosaurid, it shouldn't have hands) and has a membrane stretching between the prongs of its crest, but there's no evidence nyctosaurids possessed a sail.
- The Gigantoraptor is commendably depicted with feathers, except it has too much of a body covering for its large size. Its undersides would have at least been naked.
- Ascended Extra: Every animal from the first game is included in the base game (minus the hybrids from Secrets of Dr. Wu, which have been removed and Huayangosaurus, which is the only returning animal from the first game to be made a DLC species in this game), including species that were previously only DLC additions like Carnotaurus and Allosaurus. Pterosaurs are more prominent as they are now fully functioning animals as opposed to operating in a loop animation in their aviary as they did in the previous game, with several species besides just Pteranodon.
- Back for the Dead: In the Jurassic Park III scenario in Chaos Theory, what is all but stated to be the Spinosaurus from that film returns only to be immediately killed by the raptor pack. Masrani orders its corpse to be collected for an idea he has, strongly implying that the skeleton on Main Street in the fourth film is in fact the same specimen.
- Bad Boss / Benevolent Boss: If the player feels inclined, they can force their employees to pay their own medical bills, deny them funding for a pet project, and overwork their scientists among many other things. Alternatively, the player can cover their employees' medical bills, fund their scientists' side projects, grant a pay raise among other rewards for their employees' hard work. Both come with benefits and downsides, although the game tends to penalize Bad Boss behavior more harshly.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: Two bioluminescent skins for the Parasaurolophus are featured in the game as part of the Camp Cretaceous DLC dinosaur pack. Several patterns for the Styxosaurus also have similar bioluminescence, as do two skins for the Nothosaurus. Indominus rex and Indoraptor received Lux skins in the "Secret Species Pack", and the four dinosaurs in the pack also have Lux skins.
- Black Market: The Dinosaur Exchange in the Malta DLC has one, opposite a more legitimate market backed by local authorities and authority-sponsored avenues. Dinosaurs purchased from authorities are safe to buy, but tend to be more expensive. Dinosaurs purchased from more dubious sources tend to be cheaper and more popular with guests, but also carry a chance of having unwanted traits or illnesses (or even being a completely different species), and the game will tell the player just how likely the odds are that something’s fishy. Moreover, taking certain sales will actually lower the player’s favor with either the authorities or the black market (and make them much more popular with the opposing faction in the process), with some of the dinosaurs’ flavor text about their origins hinting at ominous stuff going on behind the scenes. Of course, the player can potentially be a major part of that "ominous stuff" too, since they can sell dinosaurs to interested parties.
- Breakout Character:
- Cabot Finch has a larger role in this game than the other Evolution original characters who also return, as a response to his popularity with the fanbase.
- This also applies to game modes, since Chaos Theory mode essentially takes the well-received concept of Return to Jurassic Park and runs with it for all six films.
- Broad Strokes: While following the general plot of the films as of Fallen Kingdom, even the campaign doesn't strictly adhere to the film's canon. This is also especially the case for any of the Chaos Theory levels.
- Call-Forward: In the Jurassic Park III scenario of Chaos Theory, the Spinosaurus is shown being killed by the raptor pack. DPG marketing for Fallen Kingdom confirmed the species is extinct by the events of that film. Furthermore, it’s strongly implied that the skeleton on Main Street was collected from the corpse of the same animal.
- Celebrity Paradox: Michael Crichton is not only openly acknowledged as the namesake of the Crichtonasaurus, but Wu even lists some of his novels he wrote, including one on "ancient life", suggesting the original Jurassic Park novel existed in some form in this game's continuity. Claire also alludes to Sir Richard Attenborough, who played John Hammond, when describing Attenborosaurus.
- Continuity Nod:
- During the Arizona level, Claire mentions how she was trapped in a room with a hungry Baryonyx during the events of Fallen Kingdom.
- The Chaos Theory level for III features the landing strip that the Kirbys' party landed on towards the start of the film, as well as the worker's village where they were attacked by raptors. The aviary can also be seen in the distance. All three features are inaccessible to the player.
- Continuity Snarl: The Spinosaurus from III returns in Chaos Theory, but inexplicably still has the search party's satellite phone with the Kirby Paint and Tile Plus ringtone going off from inside its' stomach and shortly after being killed by a pack of raptors as a nod to the original ending for the film. This is despite the fact that the film was showed the phone being taken from the droppings of the Spinosaurus and later seemingly the same specimen showing up alive in Camp Cretaceous.
- Developer's Foresight: If you include any of the hybrids in the Secret Species Pack with their component creatures and they happen to be compatible (so no Spinosaurus with either Spinoceratops or Spinoraptor), they have unique social animations - the Spinoraptor, for example, will spook a ‘’Velociraptor'', resulting in a brief stand off until the larger dinosaur imitates a raptor call, convincing the latter to back off.
- Early-Bird Cameo: As the release of Jurassic World: Dominion would reveal, the Pennsylvania map in the campaign is actually based on a location that Alan and Ellie visit in the film.
- Gentle Giant Sauropod: Exaggerated, as sauropods can now be hunted by most carnivores, even one hundreds of times smaller than they are and are incapable of fighting back at all.
- Giant Equals Invincible: Averted, as now all of the sauropods can be hunted and killed by (depending on their size) the medium and large theropods and the pack-hunting small theropods (Velociraptor, Pyroraptor, Atrociraptor, Dilophosaurus, and Proceratosaurus). Since the game launched there have been several nerfs to pack-hunting and buffs for the sauropods, including pack hunters doing less damage overall, the number of individuals needed to start and maintain a hunt being increased, increased damage to the pack hunters when the sauropods stomps them off, and the Defensive gene granting sauropods greatly increased defense against pack hunters and preventing them from incurring bleeding damage from larger theropods until their health becomes low. The sauropods still cannot directly defend themselves, though.
- Hidden Depths: Masrani in the Jurassic Park III chaos theory story mode is more entitled and seemingly less benevolent than his movie counterpart.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- When introducing the Crichtonsaurus, Wu notes that it was named after Michael Crichton, who wrote works based on nanotechnology and other subjects - as well as one on “ancient life”, which he quite enjoyed. It’s so tongue-in-cheek you can hear B.D. Wong smirk a little.
- When introducing the Attenborosaurus, Claire notes it was named after David Attenborough, and says that dinosaurs really run in his family, referencing his late brother Richard.
- Logical Weakness: Owning to their adaptations for aquatic life, marine reptiles are the only creatures who cannot break out of their exhibits. Instead, they injure themselves trying to escape when distressed.
- Loophole Abuse:
- Unlike the first game, 2's fame mechanic is solely calculated by raw income. Even if you have no dinosaurs in your park, the Innovation Center and the various customizable attractions will still draw in guests, who will in turn pay admission fees and visit amenities in your park... meaning that it's entirely possible to brute-force your way to five stars by placing nothing but attractions.
This was later removed in update 1.3 by giving Innovation Centers a duplicate penalty if more than 1 is built in the park. As a result, while one cannot 5 star a park like this anymore, it can still be used to (albeit much more slowly) draw in passive income. The Guest Attraction building can still be used this way, however, since it has many different options for drawing in guests (bowling, rock-climbing, aquarium, laboratory tour, VR, to list a few) and each one is counted as a different building, meaning you can build a Guest Attraction for each module and rack up the cash. - The second challenge requires you to build a herbivore-only park, without any carnivores on difficulties above easy. However, "no carnivores" only refers to dinosaurs that use the meat and live prey feeders... meaning that it's possible to just go crazy with lagoons and aviaries instead, as those animals can still use the piscivore feeders.
- Prior to an update that allowed multiple Arrival Points to be built on a single map, sandbox mode for Isla Nublar 2015 allowed for two Arrival Points, and therefore a disjointed park layout without monorails, because the Jurassic World buildings set causes the park to begin with a monorail station in a set location without counting as an actual Arrival Point, allowing you to have that starting Arrival Point and then build another wherever you like.
- Unlike the first game, 2's fame mechanic is solely calculated by raw income. Even if you have no dinosaurs in your park, the Innovation Center and the various customizable attractions will still draw in guests, who will in turn pay admission fees and visit amenities in your park... meaning that it's entirely possible to brute-force your way to five stars by placing nothing but attractions.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Deluxe Edition includes the Attenborosaurus, which was named for David Attenborough, the younger brother of the late Richard Attenborough, who played John Hammond in the films. This itself is a Call-Back to the first game, which similarly had Crichtonsaurus—named for the original author Michael Crichton—in its Deluxe Edition.
- The Tyrannosaurus rex species profile features a pair of the beasts approaching a vehicle from behind, just as they did in The Lost World when they approached Eddie's car from behind on each side. Similarly, one of their feeding animations has two rexes bite apart a single piece of meat as what happened to the unfortunate Eddie.
- In the Chaos Theory scenario for Jurassic Park, Hammond suggests celebrating the successful opening of the park with ice cream, referring to one of the more somber moments in the film where he has some as he reflects on his mistakes and the danger he's put everyone in.
- In the Chaos Theory scenario for the third film, the Spinosaurus is killed by the raptor pack. This was the original planned death for the animal before it was changed.
- The Chaos Theory map for Jurassic Park III is actually full of little references, moreso than the others, and these are even visible in Sandbox Mode. Particularly, the airstrip from the movie is just past the boundaries of the map and the parasail can be seen stuck in a tree at the far end of the map from where you build your facilities in Chaos Theory. Further outside the boundaries—so far that you need to glitch past them using camera mode on the helicopter to get a good look—you can see less-detailed models of the Embryonics Administration (where the raptors first ambushed the characters) and the Bird Cage.
- Like in the first game, several of the animals chosen were almost certainly as references to their appearances elsewhere in the franchise: Cearadactylus appeared in the original novel, Geosternbergia is the modern perception of the Pteranodon sternbergi that was sometimes used in earlier parts of the series both along with and instead of Pteranodon longiceps, Ichthyosaurus was previously in the first arcade game, Plesiosaurus was mentioned on some promotional images for Jurassic World, and Tylosaurus featured prominently in Telltale's Jurassic Park: The Game.
- Out of Focus: Since the game is set after the events of Fallen Kingdom, the Five Deaths take a backseat, with only Isla Nublar and Sorna representing the classic tropical biome.
- Put on a Bus: Ankylodocus, Spinoraptor, and Stegoceratops are the only dinosaurs to not return from the first game. Averted with the Secret Species Pack, which brought them back along with newcomer Spinoceratops from Camp Cretaceous.
- Sea Monster: The game sees the addition of marine reptiles, most notably the Mosasaurus who was confirmed during the announcement trailer.
- Shown Their Work:
- In contrast to the previous game, Muttaburrasaurus is now wholly bipedal and has proper hands like its real-life counterpart.
- Amargasaurus has its neck spines as individual structures as opposed to being made into sails. But alas, this becomes subverted in March 2022 when a new paper proposed that sails are more likely.
- Continuing from the previous game, the pterosaurs take off by vaulting (from the ground at least, they'll use a bipedal launch when perching).
- Compared to how heavily stylized most of the marine reptiles are, the Tylosaurus is (aside from a malformed jaw) relatively close to the scientific consensus on real mosasaur life appearance (complete with tail fluke and small overlapping scales), even if its proportions are a bit off for a depiction of Tylosaurus specifically.
- Long-necked plesiosaurs all possess fairly stiff necks and tail flukes like in real life.
- While Liopleurodon is extremely stylized, it is at least in the correct size range of 6-6.5 meters as opposed to the 25-meter-long Kaiju from Walking with Dinosaurs.
- Most of the new theropods have non-pronated hands, continuing the trend the first game started with Albertosaurus. Many of the previously-featured theropods are also given non-pronated hands, including Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus.
- In response to complaints of widespread use of Animals Not to Scale in the first game, most of the animals in this game have been updated to more realistic sizes (aside from Grandfather Clause examples from the films like Velociraptor, Dilophosaurus, and Mosasaurus).
- Wuerhosaurus is depicted with proper backplates, instead of the outdated rectangular ones which were actually based on a broken fossil plate.
- Owen correctly notes that sea creatures like Ichthyosaurus aren't dinosaurs.
- While Quetzalcoatlus requires a fish-feeder like the other pterosaurs, it will also hunt small animals on the ground just like the real animal.
- The Dominion Expansion adds feathered dinosaurs to the game, along with Quetzalcoatlus possessing pycnofibres. This is continued by the Dominion Malta Expansion, which also includes a variant Dimorphodon with the pycnofibres it is shown with in the films, then by the Feathered Species Pack and Cretaceous Predator Pack.
- Issac Clement correctly notes that Oviraptor was mistakenly branded as an egg thief when it was actually looking after its own eggs.
- Sinosauropteryx, being one of the dinosaurs whose color patterns can be determined due to preserved melanosomes, has bands around its tail.
- Concavenator has quills on its arms, based on the fact its ulna possesses quill knobs albeit ones that support quill-like structures rather than feathers.
- Take That!: The Atrociraptor kill animation depicts it briefly stopping when the victim holds up their hand... then lunging forward to attack anyway, which seems like a jab at the much critiqued "open hand pose" Owen employs against dinosaurs (though it may also be a Continuity Nod to Hoskins's death in Jurassic World).
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despite the fact that some small carnivores will now hunt in packs, all of these species have social animations which involve them getting into fights, and many fight amongst themselves very frequently.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Large theropods besides the Indominus rex will now hunt large sauropods after not having done so in the previous game.
- Pack-hunting theropods like the Velociraptor and Deinonychus can now attack every other dinosaur in the game and in a group of four or more, can almost always bring down even an apex predator.
- In Evolution, Triceratops was a rather unimpressive early-game animal. The one in Evolution 2 has buffed stats and is now the largest, strongest, and the 2nd most popular ceratopsian available (after Sinoceratops), in fitting with the real animal's formidable size and iconic reputation. Stegosaurus also received this treatment, to the point where it can square off against the Indoraptor and have a good chance of winning.
- In Evolution, Iguanodon can only fight and defeat small to medium-sized theropods. In Evolution 2, it can take on large theropods and win.
- Video Game Caring Potential:
- Somewhat enforced, as each species has certain environmental needs that must be met for the animal in question to remain in the "Comfortable" threshold. That being said, players are generally encouraged to house their animals in spacious exhibits where the animal's needs are not only met and then some, but they can live alongside other species that they actually like living with. There are also a number of vaccinations the player can research so as to cure their animals of disease, and they can even research some inoculations to ensure that any future generations of their animals will, at hatching, be completely immune to some diseases.
- For fans of the three canon hybrid dinosaurs, being able to adjust their genes so that they can live peacefully and happily with other members of their kind is especially heartwarming, considering the horrible conditions they were created and raised in in the canon, leading to the Indominus rex and Indoraptor murdering their nestmates and Scorpios rex being incredibly aggressive to its offspring and vice versa. Now you can have a pack/family unit of each species in beautiful spacious enclosures, giving them peace and companionship. Also involving the Indominus rex, the second patch adjusted it so that it forms a single pack when housed with Velociraptor, and they even have a new inter-species social interaction that resembles the ones in the film.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential:
- Thanks to the security rating, it's outright impossible for many species to escape their enclosures if the fence has a higher security rating than the dinosaur in question, while the marine reptiles can't breakout at all, so the player can build an abysmally small enclosure if they so desire. On top of that, there are a number of contracts that require a dinosaur to emerge victorious from a certain number of fights, many of which can result in injuries that will kill one of the animals if they aren't treated in time.
- There's also the chance that a mini-event will pop up saying criminals are offering the player a large sum of money for a newly hatched dinosaur/marine reptile/pterosaur, with the intention of killing the specimen in question and selling it's meat on the black market.
- Enforced in the Northwest USA Challenge Park. The only dinosaurs the player can hatch are the species of small, medium, and large predatory theropods alongside four species of small herbivores. However, the feeders for the predatory dinosaurs do not get unlocked until the park rating reaches 1.5 stars, meaning the only way to feed your theropods is with the small herbivores that are available. note
