Planet Zoo, the latest construction and management simulation video game developed by Frontier Developments, will teach you a lot of animal facts. For example, did you know that male gharial have a “boss” on the end of its snout which makes it the only crocodile species with sexual dimorphism? You didn’t? Well, now you do.
Planet Zoo is full of these facts, as it aims to not only present you with a fun zoo sim but teach you about animals and preservation as well. The idea here is to provide your animals with the best possible living conditions, and the systems to help you do that are typically deep for a Frontier game.
My first task would be familiar for anyone who’s played Jurassic World: Evolution: rescue an escaped animal. In this case, it was a couple of Indian rhinos who had broken out of their enclosure that was missing a wall. Planet Zoo’s zoo tab is your quick look go-to, and from here I hired a couple of vets who tranquilized the rhinos, who were endearingly popped into a box and left until I was ready to fix the wall.
The attention to detail on these animals is a joy. Zoom in with your animal cam and you’ll be able to observe them up close, meandering around their enclosure, interacting with their toys and one another. I’m told you can also see them…uh…courting, though the actual mating happens offscreen and is proceded by an adorable ‘cute faces rubbing against one another” animation.
But of course if you want to breed animals you need happy, healthy animals, and that means they need the right environment. There are a number of factors that contribute to their welfare, like nutrition, social, and habitat, and once again, it’s all about the right research on the animals themselves. Do they like a particular type of food? Are they solitary creatures or do they move in herds?
In terms of habitat, it’s important your animals have enough space, but it’s also important what that space is made up of. In my demo, my springbok weren’t happy because their enclosure didn’t have enough grass, which I fixed. There are a ton of options for sprucing up your enclosures – there are three foilage artists working on Planet Zoo – which is particularly important considering you’ll want animals from all over the world.
They’ll also want stimulation, which tends to attract more guests. Food and toy enrichment items such as balls and barrels should be placed close to viewing areas; if guests see animals actually doing something, they’ll be more inclined to donate money in the various donation boxes you should have scattered around your zoo.
And that’s the thing; for all the cuteness, Planet Zoo is still a business sim. You have to make sure your zoo is making money, and that’s no easy feat when you’re juggling a million things. At one point I had to build a water treatment facility to treat the gharial’s water that was filthy and making him sick. At another, I had to set up climbing frames for the mandrills because they were so bored they were fighting with each other. All the while, you’re managing facilities for the guests, expansions, your staff, and your money. It looks wonderfully involved so far.
