Zoo Tycoon 2 with Bonus Animal Pen (Monkey or Tiger)

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Design, build, and manage the ultimate zoo
• 30 detailed animals; enhanced 3D graphics; 300+ building objects
• Zoopedia details entertaining and interesting facts about animals
• New zoom feature; intuitive controls and fun tutorials
• Bonus animal pen of either a monkey or a tiger included

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000300HK0
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 9, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,104 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Featuring 30 incredibly detailed animals, a dazzling array of building tools and objects, a new zoom feature, and 3D graphics that allow players to keep a closer eye on the action and craft more creative zoos, Zoo Tycoon 2 is set to crank up the excitement, challenge, and fun of building the ultimate zoo. Easy to start and easy to play, Zoo Tycoon 2 gets you up close and interacting with the animals and zoo, offering intuitive controls and fun tutorials that allow players of all ages to enjoy the game right out of the box. From the start, you'll be immersed in the zoo experience with new features including the Zoo Guest mode, in which you can walk around and enjoy the game like visitors on a day at the zoo; Zookeeper mode, which allows you to interact with your animals as never before; and a new Photo mode, which lets you snap pictures of your favorite animals and guests and share them with friends. Zoopedia, detailing all types of entertaining and interesting facts about animals, rounds out the new and improved features of the upcoming game.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Next Generation, November 26, 2004

By 

aralissia "~aralissia" (North Norway) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Zoo Tycoon 2 with Bonus Animal Pen (Monkey or Tiger) (CD-ROM)

I've waited with baited breath for Zoo Tycoon 2 to come out for quite awhile now, followed the previews and developer interviews, and purchased it as soon as I could. New campaigns, better graphics, fun objects, 30 animals! I couldn't wait to get it installed. Started playing and this review is a result of that. Conclusion: Zoo Tycoon 2 is a great game. But is it as good as the original Zoo Tycoon?

This time round you have 3 modes of play: Freeform, Scenario and Campaign. Freeform is pretty self explanatory, whilst scenario mode allows you to play different zoos with no main objective, just little in game challenges you can accept or decline. If you complete enough of these in game challenges you gain access to new themed objects (jungle and safari). In Campaign mode you get a zoo and have to complete specific pre determined goals. They are locked so you have to go through from beginning to end. Some were quite fun, a pity I went through them in a day and a half though. Sigh. Not long enough in my opinion, but hopefully expansion packs will provide us campaign hungry players with more.

An important aspect to pay attention to in Zoo Tycoon 2 is the fame rating (represented by stars in the top left of your screen). Various factors such as number of animals and guest happiness are combined to give you a star rating from 1-5. Each new rating opens up new objects (both zoo and animal types), animals, and plants/rocks. Adoption of animals (unless you have an objective that limits your usage of adoption) is a bit like a slot machine. You can place the animals or decline the offer, in which case another animal (which takes awhile to get) pops up depending on your star rating. Varied animal types with detailed graphics, objects, and actions can be accessed eventually.

Zoo Tycoon 2 is much less animal oriented than its predecessor. Biomes can be combined in slip slop ways, most of the advanced objects are not really needed unless you want the guests to be entertained, and often times the animal is available long before plants/rocks from its biome are. The layout of the animal objects and biomes menus is much improved and lots of neat new objects are available though.

The guests are your standard tycoon fare, having wants and levels of that want. Fun, Food, Drinks, Benches all of these and more are necessary to make your guests truly content. There are loads of decorative objects and path laying and deleting of objects is a snap with some new systems. And user created content, let's not forgot the infinite possibilities of that. When laying out fences you can choose to do so in freeform, square, or line manner. So the game is more manageable than before in zoo layout manner.

One thing I didn't like was the default resolution and zoom power. I had to up mine to 1280X1024 to be able to view the zoo from a far away enough distance to make it all manageable. The zoom (when using the mouse button) is a bit awkward to use, and does not go very far out. And be prepared if you're graphics card, cpu and processor aren't at least average at this point you most likely will not be able to play this game.

I really like that a lot of the campaigns have you rescuing abused animals or taking over zoos with unhappy animals. And you no longer "sell animals" you can release it into the wild (yay) or give it up for adoption. Most people who play games like this tend to like animals, and I found this added a happy nice feeling to the game if you know what I mean.

The graphics are bold and beautiful, detailed and colourful. No complaints in that department. There is a wander mode where you can become a mechanic/zoo keeper/pedestrian and the graphics move smoothly and look good even at this close a range. And it is quite amusing (and handy if you're low on cash) to empty trashcans, fill food dishes, and clean animals (amongst other things).

Zoo Tycoon 2 is a great game - fun for all ages. But does it surpass its predecessor? In my opinion as a control obsessed tycoon/simulation lover ALMOST but not quite. Of course the graphics are better and the numerous improvements are remarkable, but the game play isn't any deeper. Quite the contrary. The game has become much more "kid friendly" i.e. easier and while this is great for kids, for serious tycoon players who want full control and a bit of a challenge Zoo tycoon 2 falls short. But in its own right, when not compared to the wonderful Zoo Tycoon and with recognition of the fact that this one has no expansion packs or patches as of yet and can become a whole lot more, its a FABULOUS game. So if you liked the first, or want a game the whole family can enjoy rush out and get it.

70 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Improvement, November 24, 2004

By 

Chrissy1018 (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zoo Tycoon 2 with Bonus Animal Pen (Monkey or Tiger) (CD-ROM)

I was going to resist getting Zoo Tycoon 2, having recently being disappointed by the update of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (which is NOT an improvement). I am, however, a simulation/strategy game addict--and I am happy to report that I don't regret giving in to the impulse to buy Zoo Tycoon 2.

The original version of this game was not one of my favorites. I found changing little squares of landscape and mending fences rather tedious for long term game play, not to mention only having income from entrance fees and food/drinks keeping my bank account in a permanent decline, and visitors loosing interest in the exhibits too quickly.

WHY THIS VERSION IS BETTER:
* 3D Animation - I tend not to care much about graphics in general, however these graphics are quite well done, and you can zoom in quite close to observe the animals. You can also click on any animal and find out what it's doing at any given moment.

* Photo Safari - In certain scenarios and challenge games, you can earn awards by taking pictures of specific events. Switching to a digital camera style view, you may have to take a snapshot of two animals, or an animal running, etc.

* Interactive Mode - You can switch to guest view, and walk around your park, getting a close-up view. Further, you can play caretaker and clean up after animals (and guests), clean animals and fill food dishes yourself.

* Donations/Income - Guests continue to visit all exhibits as the game progresses, and contribute donations at each exhibit. The more interesting the exhibit, the more they donate (they like biomes: exhibits in which the terrain, plants, rocks and animals are all appropriate to one another).

* Guest/Animal Detail - Similar to Roller Coaster Tycoon, you can view each guest or animal's specific needs, discovering which are fulfilled and which are not. You can also view lists of this information that can be organized by any category (which animals are pregnant, which guests most need a bathroom, etc.)

* Responsive Guests - In the previous versions, guests nearly dying of thirst would walk right by a soda stand complaining. Now they form lines (though they'll whine if the line is too long) or give an opinion ("I want something other than soda.")

* Atmosphere - Part of your score depends on the appearance of your zoo. Guests will get unhappy without fountains, arches and bouncy kangaroo rides to keep them entertained (and you'll get a message if too many of them are dissatisfied).

* Zoo Rating/Progress - As your zoo improves, so does your rating, unlocking more objects and animals.

* Exhibit Design - As with the previous version, you paint exhibits with appropriate terrain and fill them with the right vegetation for the animal. However, you paint in broad strokes, rather than micromanaging every square. Also, you don't pay for the change of terrain, which keeps the costs of building an exhibit much more manageable.

* Gifts to Wear - There's a different gift for each animal, and guests will buy those relating to animals they've seen in your zoo. You might see them walking around with moose antlers on their heads or peacock backpacks.

* No Broken Fences: The fences no longer deteriorate, so animals only escape if you use the wrong kind of fence, and most predators will not kill other animals (i.e. crocodiles won't go after flamingoes, but lions will hunt gazelle given the opportunity). Guests will still flee from escaped animals, however.

*Animal Adoption: No longer can you purchase unlimited flamingoes or tigers. A limited number and variety of animals are available at a time, the higher your zoo rating, the more species available and the more options you have. You can choose to pass on adopting a species, and it will be replaced by a random other species after some time that isn't already an option (but each level only makes certain species available, you need to earn 5 stars to get the rarest animals).

* Specified Research: Rather than having to research several things you don't want to get the one you do, you can choose the specific object you want to research next for a set fee. Objects available for research expand with your zoo rating.

WHAT IT LACKS:
* Number of Scenarios: I've had the game less than a week, and have already beaten most of the campaign scenarios. However, there are many challenge games still to be played. No doubt an expansion pack is already in the works to fix this.

* Number of Animals: There are only 30 different animals, mostly the same as those found in the previous version. However, there is a wide variety: for instance you have one species of tiger, one of elephant, etc. I imagine there will be an expansion pack to supplement this, too.

* Limited Initial Animal Choice: You always start out with the same three (Moose, Peacock and Camel) and need to establish them before more are made available, which gets a bit tiresome when you play a number of scenarios.

BOTTOM LINE: A family-friendly game, I'd say this is one of the best simulation games of 2004 (and I've played a lot of them). Easy enough for kids to play, but entertaining enough for adults. If you're a fan of Rollercoaster Tycoon or SimCity, this is an excellent choice.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes Zoo Tycoon 1 look like a pile of Elephant droppings!, November 26, 2004

A Kid's Review

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Zoo Tycoon 2 with Bonus Animal Pen (Monkey or Tiger) (CD-ROM)

As I said before, this game didn't work with quite a large percent of PC viedo cards. I bought a new card from Fry's Electronics and it works fine. No glitches or anything. It's so, so, much better. It's simple too. The animals are not as picky, and they're much more realistic. For example, my Grizzly Bears fight over the female. One of them is killed. No volince or anything. Complety E-rated. Just growling and pawing, then one of them turns into... well, basicly, bones. One thing that annoys me is that guests really care about amusment. No statues+ no fountains + no bouncy-rides = lots of angry guests that leave the zoo instantly. On the plus side, Freeform games come with unlimited cash and you don't have to wait for new objects. That's what I think a freeform game should be like.
I recomend Zoo Tycoon 2 with Bonus Animal Pen (Monkey or Tiger) instead of Zoo Tycoon 2, because it not only comes with the pen, but with a National Geographic DVD.