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> Results: Marine Park Empire
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Children seem to enjoy the study of animals and this is easily seen through their love of animal cartoon characters, wildlife programs, and zoos. Microsoft thought enough of Zoo Tycoon to keep it in its stable of games and release a sequel. Similarly, Enlight thought enough of its similar Zoo Empire to follow with Marine Park Empire. It's a decent game for the family, but may be too complicated for most children.
Comparisons between Zoo Tycoon and Marine Park Empire are simply irresistible. Both are strategy games based on meeting goals in zoo management. Zoo Tycoon seems to be a bit more accessible and focuses a bit more on exploring the zoo the player builds while Marine Park Empire gets very detailed about the dynamics and minutia of running the zoo as a successful business. Both games include a fair amount of educational material about the animals and zoos, and both have some value as light hearted business simulations. Both games use some 3D graphics and a free camera view, but Zoo Tycoon 2 features the ability to drive a Jeep through the zoo while in Marine Park Empire a player would have to select on a zoo patron and switch to their first-person view to see what they see in the park. Marine Park Empire stands apart from its obvious competition by drowning you in as much detail as you can handle, and with the inclusion of aquatic park features. The marine creatures add several new options for you to add texture to your land-based animal zoos. In fact, Marine Park Empire is simply Enlight's Zoo Empire with an expansion pack bolted on. Now players have new items to work with such as new exhibit types like tanks that go deep into the ground, and marine zookeepers specializing in aquatic beasts.  The game really caters to micro-managers. Every detail is important in the game, such as the composition of an aquarium's water or the sand at its bottom, or the types of drinks available in a soda vending machine. Creatures in the zoo are ranked for comfort against dozens of different categories and the player must work to please them or suffer the consequences; unhappy animals make visitors uneasy at the least, and may die at the worst. The zoo patrons and zoo employees are also a demanding lot, so players must keep on their toes to meet their needs. There's a lot to keep track of and most of it makes reasonable sense, so Marine Park Empire is a decent business simulation for the family to play. But the abundance of excruciating details can also shift the game balance too far in the direction of work instead of play. Such levels of detail become tedious to work with. And the game's interface sometimes gets in the way, making it hard to select objects in an animal's exhibit if they're obscured from view by objects like trees or structures. This means the player has to sometimes fight the interface to get things done. There are also game quirks like when an animal breaks out of its exhibit boundaries. Sometimes the zookeepers don't capture the creature and return it to its exhibit, where a player can then repair the boundary and restore order. Sometimes the animal is subdued and caged in the middle of some other area of the park, and the way to free it is to build a new boundary around the cage. There's no way to know that unless you experiment because the documentation doesn't cover that oddity.  Still, the game has its educational and entertaining points. The 3D graphics are pretty nice and the animal animations and behavior thrilled my children. The children also liked the sound effects and music in the game. The economics, though simple, were too much for my children, aged 3 and 6. There is just too much going on in the park for young strategy game fans to keep up with. But I can see children ages 10 and up being able to get into it. The graphics are colorful and appealing and the various animations are delightful to watch. Some patience is required to work through the game's quirks, but in the end this one's okay for the family. 
Marine Park Empire is great for all audiences. If there's any reservation I'd have about recommending it to children, it is due to the depth of the game's details, which can be overbearing for younger players. Parents also need to be aware of the game's occasional reference to animal reproduction. Discussions about the need to have both sexes in an exhibit are done in a clinical manner, and there are no explicit depictions of reproductive activity. GamerParents, though, may be put on the spot when a baby giraffe materializes in the giraffe exhibit and the GamerKid asks, "Hey! Where did the baby come from?" Marine Park Empire is fine for all ages if kids are watching their GamerParents play, but it's recommended higher for solo play.
This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Marine Park Empire |
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