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Old Fossils, New Friends

Old Fossils, New Friends

The Emperor
August 10, 2023

Hello citizen readers! Welcome back to the nero gaming email newsletter.

We’re that clone of yourselves you can send ahead to make sure the roads aren’t dangerous and the games aren’t boring.

Here’s what we have for you today:

Profit + Dinos makes for a great time in Jurassic World Evolution 2 💲
YouTube creator Orbital Potato dropping some sick city builder vids 📺️
Rumors of black holes affecting time in Starfield ☄️

Fantastic Depth in Jurassic World Evolution 2

The Emperor once executed an advisor for failing to get to the point—let no man say that mistake was repeated here.

By Imperial Decree: Jurassic World Evolution 2 has a bumpy new player experience and can be a heavy investment for gamers limited on time… but offers an incredible sandbox experience that is highly customizable and has depth without painful micromanagement.

To where the game could do better, all that needs to be said is this: The starting campaign (which serves as the game’s tutorial) is thorough without being fun.

Then—when a player moves into sandbox—some of the default settings are bizarre: unlimited cash, all dinos unlocked, no dino escape attempts and many similar examples. In many ways what you learn in the tutorial doesn’t matter at all in sandbox by default—very odd but not game breaking as everything is heavily adjustable.

The Emperor’s Zoo at Night—So Pretty

Okay: Moving on to the good part! What does the game do well? Three things come off as exceptional:

First and most importantly, players can enjoy the park they build.

The real unlock for a lot of players is realizing all the exhibits you make and rides you build can be ridden as a player—you can even ride your own zipline.

Truthfully, the game does not really reward you for designing your exhibits to look particularly good. (Though technically there’s a “visibility” mechanic, your dinosaurs could be buried in the trees and still be “visible” if they’re within a radius of a viewing station).

Parasaurs on the gyroscope tour

Instead of implementing good park design for extrinsic reasons, the player wants a park that’s awesome because THEY THEMSELVES ARE THE GUEST. This means placing watering holes alongside safari routes. This means putting multiple dinos in one exhibit. This means gene editing dinos to be more social.

In general, this feature makes the game much more fun to play because you reap what you sow in some sense. (I’ve personally really enjoyed building routes and then having my kids take the tour—they love seeing dinos).

Second, the game does an wonderful job of adding depth without complexity.

In my playthrough, I’m mostly prioritizing herbivore exhibits.

Though I could if I wanted, I haven’t done hardly any research, exhibitions, dna extraction or incubation for most other dinosaur types.

Leaf-eaty gang rise up 🌿

If this was a city builder, the game would be constantly reminding me that my guests want to see marine animals. Instead, JWE 2 allows me to build at my own pace and go deep down each rabbit hole when I want.

Lastly, the sandbox settings are highly customizable

This may not seem like much, but it allows the game to be “many things to many men” so to speak. Many games like this have custom features, but I found JWE 2 to have more than usual and to have robust descriptions about what each option means.

All in all, JWE 2 was a game I had to force myself to play when I first got started—now I have to force myself to stop. I absolutely LOVE the “Do Research > Make Cool Thing > Profit” loop the game does so well… it’s the perfect blend of challenging and relaxing and I can’t wait to play more.

Creator Corner

New segment alert!

We’re going to take look at other creators showcasing the games we’re all here for: Those we can play by ourselves without any hand eye coordination.

This week the Emperor has been aggressively spying on enjoying YT creator Orbital Potato.

The videos from his channel include great let’s plays, compilations and game walkthroughs.

If you’re ever in need of some longer form content on laundry day, this is the spud that won’t disappoint.

Quick Hits

Starfield’s multiple ideas of time have fans asking about black holes

The game isn't some nitty-gritty work of realistic physics, a la Kerbal Space Program (sound travels in a vacuum in Starfield, and well, the game has space magic)… But Starfield does take some inspiration from "hard" science.

Civilization 7 Officially In Development

Exciting news for fans of the franchise, as the last game, Civilization 6, was released back in 2016.

Cities Skyline 2’s new seasons system is confusing but beautiful

The maps will now be based on real-world locations, meaning that their climate and weather will vary. Some will be hot, some will be cold, some will be dry, some will be rainy – it sounds incidental, but actually it can have a big impact on your economy.