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Zoo Tycoon Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Animal Collection: Good or Bad?

Discussion in 'Zoo Games & Simulators' started by ZebraDude95, 15 May 2018.

  1. ZebraDude95

    ZebraDude95 Active Member 5+ year member

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    Recently, I have been playing a lot of Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Animal Collection for the PC. The game is also available on Xbox One. Personally, I find it very addicting and fun to play, although I have run into a few glitches. Does anyone else find the game fun or are there people out there with a more negative opinion? I would like to know.
     
  2. Fallax

    Fallax Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Most people in the Zoo Tycoon community despise it because of how limited it is compared to Zoo Tycoon 2.
     
  3. Loxodonta Cobra

    Loxodonta Cobra Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I have extremely mixed feelings about this game. The bulk of it lies in two very major flaws unique only to the xbox zoo tycoon. My first annoyance with this game is the lack of customization that made the first two zoo tycoon games so much fun. You cannot build your own exhibits, paths are connected automatically, there's a limited number of animal objects such as food and water and enrichment that can be placed in an enclosure and you cannot go into the enclosures like in zoo tycoon 2. My other complaint is the animal choices that they have. We have over 200 animal species in Ultimate Collection which is great, however, who asked for seven lions? Even worse, who wants nine agoutis? There is an incredible over-saturation of certain taxons of animals in this game, all while completely ignoring certain creatures that make up an modern zoo: canines, horses, gorillas, orangs, penguins, pinnipeds, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, cattle, pigs, wild goats and sheep, I could go on. If we just had a sequel to zoo tycoon including the graphics of this game, with the customization of the previous two, that would've made me happier than anything related to this.
     
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  4. premierfong

    premierfong Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Graphics wise, excellent!!!. Gameplay wise, it not fun at all. We wanted an upgraded ZT2.
     
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  5. Okapipako

    Okapipako Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I stopped playing the games after ZT2 but I've never shown any interest in this one for the reasons Loxodonta alluded to. They really phoned it in with the species selection, IMO. I understand that modeling, animating, coding etc an individual species takes way more time in the current gaming generation's standards than for an early 2000s PC game, but even that considered I think much more could have been done, and their decisions at times are downright mind boggling. Standards that players will no doubt be expecting like gorillas, zebras, cheetahs and the entire order of penguins remain absent in lieu of choices like nine agoutis. Nothing against agoutis but... why? Bloating up the amount of available animals with dozens and dozens of lazy palette swaps is a really disappointing cop out and it'd honestly be preferable to me if they had none of the 'alternates'. It's cheap and dirty.

    On top of that they botched exhibit design by... removing it altogether. Wasn't that one of the major draws of the series from the get go?? The game is all style and no substance it looks like. The ZT2 modding community meanwhile is doing truly amazing things considering that game's comparatively limited hardware. Hire them and put them in charge of the next game.
     
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  6. BigNate

    BigNate Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I was addicted for about two days, when I was trying to get the achievement of getting all possible color variations of he animals. I also tried to complete the photo album by getting a picture of every animal, and then released one of every animal into the wild. After that I couldn't play anymore.
     
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  7. evilmonkey239

    evilmonkey239 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Good:
    • Adds more animal diversity to the game, including some animals we would’ve liked in the original such as kangaroos, koalas, other big cats, and crocodilians
    • Removes the ridiculously low zoo limit so now you can use your park’s space to its fullest
    • The graphics are a step up from the 2013 game thanks to the four years of advancing technology between them
    Bad:
    • Has the same problem as the original of focusing more on species/subspecies/populations of a few specific categories of animal rather than more animal diversity, for example there are nine types of agouti
    • Puts tapirs, the largest land animals in South America, in mini exhibits
    • Includes albino jaguars as their rare color variants instead of black ones
    • Several missed animal opportunities, such as giving all three cougar subspecies the tropical biome as their preferred habitat, despite the animal being found in a variety of habitats across its huge range
    • Still fails to include a lot of ABC animals fans would’ve wanted like cheetahs, leopards, gorillas, orangutans, hyenas, wolves, zebras, penguins, ratites, etc.
    • Adds pointless new features, such as “zoonews” to your main entrance menu and paths not being automatically built with your attractions.
     
  8. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Just to clarify, can animals in a mini exhibit breed? If not, then that's a lot of animals that can never be bred from in the zoo.
     
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  9. BigNate

    BigNate Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    no
     
  10. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I’m not sure about others but the thing I enjoy most about ZT1 and ZT2 is breeding the animals. My second favourite thing about ZT1 is making money and my second favourite thing about ZT2 is designing exhibits. Therefore I don’t think ZTUAC is for me.
     
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  11. evilmonkey239

    evilmonkey239 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I have Zoo Tycoon 2, Zoo Tycoon from 2013, and the remastered version “Ultimate Animal Collection” at my house but only the first of those games has proved capable of holding my attention for long periods of time.
     
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  12. Ebirah766

    Ebirah766 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    For me they all did that. I used to play Zoo Tycoon on the Xbox with my cousin, so I have fond memories of it. :D
     
  13. JVM

    JVM Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I think we can all agree that Ultimate Animal Collection is a significant improvement on the original Zoo Tycoon Xbox even though they share many of the same flaws.
     
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  14. evilmonkey239

    evilmonkey239 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Agreed.