Customer Reviews

Zoo Empire

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I would like to echo the sentiments of the other reviews, in that the average consumer can easily be misled into thinking that they have the proper system requirements in order to run this program. My son bought this for $20 at our school book fair, and has never been able to play it, due to the unusual graphics requirements. To purchase a compatible graphics card is basically ridiculous, as they seem to cost far more than the game itself. Now we're stuck with a brand new game that is essentially worthless!

If you have played the Roller Coaster and Zoo typcoon games I feel you will be quite disappointed with Zoo Empire by Enlight. Not only is it totally different but you better study your instruction booklet before playing and be prepared to refer to it constantly.
I found it frustrating trying to manuver through the toolbar which is far from simple just to get to the sections sections needed to make the game run smoothly.. The layout is (for lack of a better word) strange!!

Well, maybe the youngsters will have an easier time of it, but I doubt it. Its simply a frustration to play..

Personally disappointed.

Though I would never compare this game to RollerCoaster Tycoon, because that is far and away the best game of this type out there, Zoo Empire certainly doesn't stand on its own. The learning curve is HUGE! I had to pick up the manual constantly even though I patiently went through all the tutorials. This game gave me no joy and a lot of headaches. The animals were hungry within 15 seconds of having fed them. Vending machines were vandalized, but heck if you could figure out which ones. The objectives were very demanding, to say the least.

The upside of this game were the graphics, which were awesome. Plus, you could view your zoo from just about any camera angle you desire. It's obvious that this is a quality-made game. Unfortunately, the gameplay is not the least bit relaxing or fun. I really wanted to like this game!

If you like Zoo Tycoon, you will love Zoo Empire! This game is way more in depth than zoo tycoon and more realistic in almost every way. I bought this game a few days ago and can't stop playing it. The animals are not just pixels on screen, they are actually alive with emotions and many realistic reactions. The first time I see an escaped gorilla enjoying a ride on the touring train I was simply amazed and blown away by the varieties and details of these "eye candy" that the game designer put into the game!

Managing a successful zoo in zoo empire is both a challenging and rewarding experience. The difficulty level will gradually increase from scenario to scenario. The game also allows you to bring your well trained animals from scenario to scenario, making it a bit easier to play (As the players will be more willing to see a famous animal than a regular one). As the Zoo Keeper, the player will also need to hone in their different skills in order to successfully run the zoo.

I especially like zoo empire in that it show that not all customers coming in the gate have touring in their mind. Just yesterday night, I caught sight of a kid stealing money from the pizza stand!

The music and the sound effects are good, but what really make this game a gem is the graphics. It is quite a treat to the eye. The art director of the game did a great job in making every structure easily recognizedable yet maintain the overall cute cartoonish style.

Some of my friends complained about the slowness of the game but it run perfectly smooth on my 2 year old computer (AMD Athlon and GeForce Ti4200) so I don't think it would be a problem for anyone of you out there.

The installation went smoothly and painlessly on my WinXP Pro.

Overall, I have to give it a 5 stars - Zoo Empire is absolutely the best simulation game for your buck in the market! This game is a guranteed fun for everyone of your family, don't miss it!

I gave it 4 stars for fun because my daughter likes it when she can play it long enough before it crashes. I gave it one star for the overall rating because the box doesn't tell you that many popular chipsets are not supported (including Intel, which is what I have)--see below for the list of unsupported chipsets. All the box says for minimum video requirements is: "NVIDIA GeForce2, ATI Radeon, or 3D cards of the same grade." I just bought a brand new eMachines T5026 with an Intel Pentium 4 processor, and I thought my Intel chipset would be of a high enough grade to play the game.

This looks like it would be a fun game, except it kept crashing on my computer, saying something like ZE.exe must close. It would crash after as little as three minutes or as long as 45 minutes. I searched all over for the answer, and finally found that many popular chipsets are not supported [...]. It should really say that on the box.

The chipsets not supported are: all ATI cards before the Radeon 7200, all nVidia cards before the GeForce, 3DFx Voodoo (and Voodoo 2, 3, 4, and 5), all Intel chipsets, all Kyro or Power VR, all Matrox, all S3, all SiS, and all Trident. It also says that inactive video cards can also cause conflicts and should be uninstalled.

It is really frustrating to buy a game and then find it doesn't work with my brand new computer with a well-known chipset (Intel).

Zoo Empire is a fabulous game! Actually, it has the potential to be the best zoo game ever! There are glitches with the animal feeding and drinking, but they are fixed by installing the patch. Now, my zookeepers seem to be feeding the animals slightly better. Although the tutorials do a good job of getting you up and running, the manual is a must-read, or else you'll miss out one some of the more complex features of the game. I just never read the manuals, just jump into a free game and figure it all out, so many of my problems were due to not reading the manual! Great, colorfull graphics, cool animations, and a great way to learn more about animals!

Hopefully the guys responsible for zoo empire will come out with version 2 of the game, and fixing the minor glitches in the game. I'll be looking forward to that.

Bought this game 2 months ago. when I installed it, my computer crashed. Email game support and they sent me an email that they were aware of the problem and would get back to me. They never got back to me and will not return my emails. The game will not uninstall off of my computer and my computer keeps crashing all the time now. Do not take the chance that it will ruin your computer to!!!!!!

Zoo empire is not rollercoaster tycoon, and comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges. There are many wonderful things included in the game. First of all, the engine that zoo empire running on, that allows the user controls is great! It is so fabulous to be able to right click to move up down all around and see the park from any view. (I was playing wildlife park prior to purchasing this game, and can never go back to it, simply for this fact- manuvering in your game is simple and flawless!) The colors, details, graphics, and wide range of animal interactions are all stunning!

AI-wise, the visitor complaints really need to be looked in: the second I open my park, people immediately begin complaining about broken items. However, this is a minor point and does not really detract from the pleasure of building wild-and-wacky exhibits.

Overall, a really fun game and much better than wildlife park.

I usually play demos of games before I consider buying them, to know if I can even understand the game enough to enjoy it. I play alot of games that are like this, and I enjoy simulation games as well. And here is some of what I noticed:

I was reading another persons review and they said that the camera moved too fast. They were probally clicking then going right to the edge of the screen to move, and the games camera is not meant to function that way. The farther you move your mouse from the point where you clicked makes it move faster, it works best if you just move a centimeter or two from the point you clicked, trust me. I've encountered this type of camera control in games before and your first time using it is usually very confusing and frustrating.

Another person also said the zookeeper would immediatly cage their animals. I also had that happen the first time I attempted an exhibit. But after looking around the menus a bit, I discovered why this happens: the first fence you find is for DECORATION ONLY. It is not meant to contain animals, so to the zookeeper, an animal surronded by decorative fence might as well have no fence whatsoever around it, and puts the animal in a crate. I don't quite remember what menu it's under, it might be Animal Enrichment Objects, but there is EXHIBIT FENCES for containing animals.

Someone also said that they were having problems placing fences. Yet again, I have encountered the way fences are to be placed in this game in other games. The way it works is that you have to click and the move your mouse to where you want it. But if you go to the left or right of being in a straight line from your starting point, it will make and L. You cannot make squares without 2 starting points, and there is no(to my knowledge in this game at least) diagonal walls.

Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed playing the demo and plan to purchase the full game. I was espescially impressed with the quality of the graphics in this game. Though I did notice that the black bears rear is quite skinny compared to his front!!!

This is the BEST zoo game ever! Its really fun, but takes up alot of memory and can be hard to controll when you make fencing. I would't recomend this game for younger kids though, as there's alot of finatial stuff. you also should assingen zoo keepers to different exibits (It will show you how to do this in the third or fourth tutorial) or your animals will die. (I've experianced this) Don't be afraid to sell animals if your cage looks crowded, or you have more than 10 animals in a cage. But Especially pay attention to your animal and vistor satisfaction. Remember,happy animals meen happy visitors!:)