Zoo Tycoon 2
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2009) |
 | It has been suggested that Zoo Tycoon 2 (Animals) be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2009. |
| Zoo Tycoon 2 | |
|---|---|
 Zoo Tycoon 2 boxart | |
| Developer(s) | Blue Fang Games (original) MacSoft (Mac version) |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios (original) MacSoft (Mac version) |
| Series | Zoo Tycoon |
| Engine | Gamebryo |
| Platform(s) | Windows Apple Mac |
| Release | November 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Business simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Zoo Tycoon 2 is a video game in which the player may create and operate a zoo by managing its finances, employees and animal exhibits. The goal is to become a "zoo tycoon".
Originally released for Microsoft Windows, Zoo Tycoon 2 is also available for the mobile phone, Mac OS X and Nintendo DS. It is the sequel of the 2001 game Zoo Tycoon.
Gameplay
There are a number of gameplay modes in the game, and each (with the exception of Freeform) has differing limitations.
A Freeform game in Zoo Tycoon 2 allows you to create the zoo of your choice, the only restrictions being space, animals and objects. The player's money supply is unlimited, and all items are available from the beginning of the game (except those that can only be unlocked in Scenario and Challenge games). Freeform games begin with an empty zoo, to which the player adds animal exhibits and guest facilities (such as restaurants and bathrooms), hiring employees to staff and maintain them.
The player chooses a plot of land for their zoo to be built upon at the start of a new Freeform game, and each plot of land represents a different biome (e.g. tropical rainforest, mountains, deserts, or others). Each plot of land is also a different size (large, small or medium). The player must accommodate their animals with spacious enclosures, adequate food and water, animal enrichment objects (toys or items that otherwise encourage the animals to use their natural abilities and behaviors), shelters for them to sleep or gain privacy in, and environments that suit them (for example, tigers are best suited to rainforest environments, and a lions to savanna ones).
The player must also provide for the guests, which is done by placing food and drink stands, bathrooms, picnic areas, seating, trash and recycling bins and playgrounds around the zoo.
The player can create a range of elevated and lowered terrain types, including hills, valleys, cliffs and ditches.
In addition to Freeform mode, there is also a Campaign mode in which the player chooses a campaign to play through and is placed in the shoes of an average zoo owner and is assigned different goals to complete; these goals may include having to breed tapirs, train dolphins, rescuing abused animals and more.
As well, there is a Challenge mode in which the player has a limited amount of money (although the player can choose their starting amount) with which goals must be completed.
Animals
The player chooses a plot of land for their zoo to be built upon at the start of a new sandbox mode game, each plot of land representing a different biome (there could be tropical rainforests, alpine mountains, deserts and lots more). Each plot of land is also a different size (large, medium, or small). Once the desired land has been loaded, the player may begin construction on their zoo. One must provide spacious enclosures for their animals, adequate food and water at all times, animal enrichment objects (toys or items that otherwise encourage the animals to use their natural abilities and behaviors), a shelter for them to sleep in or, if they need privacy, this is a place where they can get away from the prying eyes of guests, and of course, they need to be in the right environment (for example, a tiger is best suited to a rainforest environment, a lion is best suited to a savanna).
One also needs to provide for the guests. This includes placing food and drink stands around the zoo, bathrooms, picnic areas, places to sit down, trash cans, recycling bins and playgrounds for guests to amuse themselves. Of course, they mainly come for the animals, so be sure to adopt many animals from as many countries as one can think of in order to keep guests amused. The guests also like to make [donations], especially if your zoo has rare or endangered animals in it, so make sure you put donation boxes next to every enclosure.
The player can create a range of elevated and lowered terrain types including hills, valleys, cliffs and ditches. These can be particularly helpful when the player wants their guests to have a good view of certain enclosures in the zoo. Cliffs may also help guests to see what enclosures they have yet to get a good look at.
In addition to freeform games, there is also a campaign game mode in which the player chooses a campaign to play through and is placed in the shoes of an average zoo owner and is assigned different goals to complete; these goals may include having to breed tapirs, train dolphins, rescuing abused animals and more. Each animal you get starts with the animals' name, and a number (i.e. African Elephant 1). You can erase these and name the animals as you like. If you get a male and a female animal of the same species and put them in the same exhibit, they will eventually mate and sooner or later you will have baby animals. If you put, say a lion and a zebra in the same exhibit, they might get along for a while, but eventually the predator will kill the prey, leaving a carcass full of meat. In rare cases, if an exhibit with predators should get too crowded, the animal will go on a 'killing frenzy' and kill the animals in the same exhibit until there is enough room. So make sure that you expand exhibits as you fill them with animals!
Zoo Tycoon 2 Content
- African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) - Savannah
- American Beaver (Castor canadensis) - Wetlands
- Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris) - Tropical Rainforest
- Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicomis) - Savannah
- Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) - Savannah
- Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) - Tropical Rainforest
- Common Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) - Temperate Forest
- Common Zebra (Equus burchelli boehmi) - Savannah
- Dromedary Camel (Camelus dromedarius) - Desert
- Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) - Tundra
- Gemsbok (Oryx gazella) - Scrub
- Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) - Temperate Forest
- Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) Wetlands
- Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) - Boreal Forest
- Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) - Wetlands
- Ibex (Capra ibex) - Alpine
- Jaguar (Panthera onca) - Tropical Rainforest
- Lion (Panthera leo) - Savannah
- Moose (Alces alces americana) - Boreal Forest
- Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) - Tropical Rainforest
- Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) - Wetlands
- Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) - Tropical Rainforest
- Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus) - Savannah
- Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) - Tundra
- Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus) - Scrub
- Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) - Temperate Forest
- Reticulated Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) - Savannah
- Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) - Tropical Rainforest
- Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia) - Alpine
- Thomson's Gazelle (Gazella thomsonii) - Savannah
Download Content
- Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) - Desert
- Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) - Scrub
- Asiatic Black Bear - Temperate Forest (discontinued, only for people who had both Mobile and PC games, for one had to beat the Mobile Phone version, and then download it to their PC version)
- Black Leopard (Panthera pardus) - Tropical Rainforest
- Musk Ox (Ovibos moschatus) - Tundra
Ambient Animals
- Blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna)
- Common loon (Gavia immer)
- Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)
- King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa)
- Mallard (Anas platyrhynchus)
- Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus)
- Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
- Rock Dove (Columba livia)
- Springhare (Pedetes capensis)
- Yellow-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus africanus)
Biomes
- Alpine
- Boreal Forest
- Grassland
- Desert
- Savannah
- Scrub
- Temperate Forest
- Tropical Rainforest
- Tundra
- Wetlands
Expansion packs
Endangered Species
In October 2005, Microsoft released the Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species expansion pack. This expansion pack adds more rare animals, including the komodo dragon, scimitar-horned oryx, and orangutan, as well as a number of new forms of transportation, including sky trams, jeep tours and elevated paths. The expansion also has a feature called "variant skins", which means that when the player adopts an animal, it may look different from normal members of its species (such as a White Bengal tiger and King Cheetah).
African Adventure
Zoo Tycoon 2: African Adventure, released May 2006, adds various new African animals such as the bongo, secretary bird, Ratel and the meerkat, allows the player to drive through exhibits with African-themed jeep tours to get closer to them. The expansion pack also includes new maps based on well-known African locations, as well as new desert-themed buildings and lizard live food, and a new set of challenges and campaigns. The Jeep vehicle tours originally included in Endangered Species are featured in this expansion, with the addition of the new Jeep Liberty.
Dino Danger Pack (premium download)
The Dino Danger Pack was released at the end of July 2006. The pack could only be downloaded from the Zoo Tycoon website via credit card. It added four new animals to the game, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Carnotaurus, and Styracosaurus, as well as new objects to be used for them and a campaign game. The Dino Danger Pack could be purchased for US$4.99 and downloaded at Zoo Tycoon premium downloads[1]. Since the release of Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals, which includes more updated versions of all of the animals included in the pack, Dino Danger was taken offline from the Zoo Tycoon website and can no longer be downloaded from zootycoon.com however other sites still offer this pack.
Zookeeper Collection
The Zookeeper Collection was released in October 2006. Rather than being an expansion, it's more of a large standalone pack featuring the Endangered Species and African Adventure expansions, as well as all animals and content from Zoo Tycoon 2. It includes some Marine Mania features, such as the new mode of biome layout.
Marine Mania
Released on October 17, 2006, Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania features 20 new aquatic animals, new marine options, marine shows and several other brand new gaming features. The expansion also includes marine plants, the ability to build tanks, animal shows, minigames to teach some of your marine animals behaviors,and 4 new aquatic biomes (reef, coastal, pelagic,and benthic), and new scenarios and challenges. Changes have been made to the original method of biome layout allowing the ability to turn off rocks , flowers and/or trees.
Extinct Animals
Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals, was released on October 17, 2007. It is the largest and latest expansion in the Zoo Tycoon series, with 34 adoptable animals, plus two bonus animals.
Ultimate Collection
Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection contains the original game, all four official expansions and a new menu theme exclusive to it, similar to Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection.[2]
This title was released on September 30, 2008[3]. Some users have reported disk problems in December 2008, whereby the third disk was the same as the second one. Microsoft sent free disk replacements at their support site.
Reception
The release of Zoo Tycoon 2 in 2004 received mixed views. Many parents played the game with their children, which resulted in the numerous awards for the sequel. Although the game is aimed at children and teenagers, the educational side of the game was the rise to popularity.
However, the numerous bugs for the sequel were a major turning point. Reviews on sites like GameSpot and IGN complain of poor performance of lower-res computers, unimpressive sound system and acceptable graphics.[4]
Awards
Zoo Tycoon 2 received numerous awards from various points of view. Multiple awards from parent organizations for being a family-friendly game that could be played by young children (with the assistance of an adult). The sequel also received Dean Takahashi’s "Top 10 Games of 2004". The expansion packs for Zoo Tycoon 2, in particular Marine Mania, also strut over 5 different family friendly gaming awards.
Competition
Since the release of Zoo Tycoon in 2001, many other companies have imitated the gameplay, and the concept of running a zoo. The followers since include Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Wild!, Zoo World,World Of Zoo, Wildlife Park 2, its expansion packs Crazy Zoo and Marine World, Zoo Empire and its platinum pack Marine Park Empire. All of these have different gameplay and content, but all have the same basic concept.
However, Zoo Tycoon seems to have become more popular and better known. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 has recently stopped producing expansion packs, and Zoo Empire was a relative failure, while the Zoo Tycoon franchise has continued to expand since it first came out. The franchise is still expanding, with more expansion packs coming out. The largest competition at the moment is Deep Silver's Wildlife Park 2, originated in Germany, which has produced two expansions in two years.
Third-party creations
The game files can be edited and expanded using no more than a file compression software and a simple text editor. This lead to the creation of new animals and objects for Zoo Tycoon 2. There have been numerous websites created for this purpose and many "designers" will upload the animals or objects for download. Unlike Zoo Tycoon, where an official program designed to help users create animals, Zoo Tycoon 2 has no such program. Object and animal "skins" can be made with a DDS converter and a paint program, whilst object and animal models can be changed with Blender or other NIF program. The animal model files in Dino Danger Pack, Marine Mania, and Extinct Animals have been compressed into protected, uneditable files, precluding any model editing for marine and extinct animals. Certain groups have editable versions of Marine Mania models as the original beta version of the game use nif files.
Shortly before the release of Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals, a method for editing Dino Danger Pack files was found. This Zoo Tycoon 2 "designing" allowed a larger variety of animals to be made. It is now possible for a player to create complete unofficial expansion packs, known as User Made Expansions.
Some third party groups will release a large pack of user created content, these are commonly called UXP's, or User Expansion Packs. one of the most famous is Arabian Nights by a designing group named Artifex.
As well as changing animal bfbs and nifs, some users have created new models that work ingame. However this method involves a lot of advanced meshing and weight panning abilities.
See also
References
External links
