"Zoo Tycoon 2 Extinct Animals" Review (PC)

Pros:

• Hunt for Fossils
• Mini-games to recreate animals

Cons:

• Limited new content

• 30+ new extinct animals.
• Hunt fossils for new animals throughout your zoo.
• New staff members and buildings to take care of extinct animals and entertain guests.
• Collect all the fossils and gain the ability to recreate the extinct animal.
• Chase down and capture escaped animals.
• Tutorial walks you through new features, including how to hunt for fossils.
• "Zoo Tycoon 2" is required.

A little more than 30 extinct animals comes with "Zoo Tycoon 2 Extinct Animals." Those animals range from the small (dodo birds, for example) to the large (a Tyrannosaurus!). Just like other zoo animals, their exhibit will need to be decked out with the right plant life, ground, and food. Some of them can be adopted, others you can recreate by digging up fossils.

Fossils are dug up by walking around the zoo in a first person view mode. A fossil detector will beep to let you know when a fossil is nearby. A novel idea that I quickly grew tired of. Kids won't get tired of this nearly fast as proved by my young gamer who kept wanting to play long after I did.

To recreate the animal you'll have to find a specific number of their fossils. After collecting all the pieces, it is then time to put together the pieces. It's a simple puzzle that young gamers will be able to complete with minimally help. The outline of the dinosaur is show. Puzzle pieces of the skeleton have to be turned and moved to their correct location.

The recreation process doesn't end there! Next it's off to the lab to complete other mini-game of pushing the arrow buttons or clicking the mouse at just the right time. Complete it correctly and a super extinct animal (or a bigger animal) is created. Finally after all that, your new animal is put in a crate while you get their new home ready.

The fossil portion was fun the first couple of times (walking around the park in first person is a fantastic feature). I'd rather spend more time managing. Good news is that you can hire staff that will help you locate where the fossils are buried.

The Bottom Line: Kids still playing "Zoo Tycoon 2" will welcome the new animals and buildings. It's not going to change a gamer's mind about the series. "Zoo Tycoon Extinct Animals" will add to gameplay for the younger players. The tutorial walks through new features to make it easy to pick up and get own the new animals.