Complete Freedom
There are a lot of other interesting things in Operation Genesis that will keep you busy, though, so you can't just watch your dinosaurs all day long. You can zoom in on your guests and see just exactly what they think of your park and what they need. This is a good way to tell if you have enough bathrooms and restaurants and that sort of stuff. Something that I really enjoyed is that you can choose to fly your park ranger's helicopter and shoot your dinos (with tranquilizers or vaccines) from the air. You can also ride along in your land cruisers or even manually drive them around if you want to. Another fun thing you can do is take a ride in a hot air balloon and take pictures of you park which you can then sell to make a little extra money. So lets add all of this up. You not only get the fun of building and maintaining your park and you have absolute freedom, but you can also zoom in and watch your dinosaurs as well as your guests and you can also drive or fly around, shoot stuff, and take pictures. It is all fairly well done and all rather fun if you can get into it.Graphics
Graphically, Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is impressive. The camera system is very well done and you can seamlessly go from a wide shot of your park and then zoom in on a dinosaur or a guest and get a full 360 degree view of whatever they are doing. The dinosaurs are very well animated and perform a lot of different actions and it is amazing to watch them. They do some funny things as well. One time I knocked down my fences and let my dinos run amok. An allosaurus was stalking a visitor that had stopped and was simply cowering in fear. The allosaurus stood there for a few seconds, then started sniffing the person, then took a few steps away and when the person stood up because they thought they were safe, the allosaur rushed in and ate them. That is just freaking cool. When the carnivores attack a sheep or a cow or a human there is quite a bit of blood, which is nice because it makes the experience feel authentic. It is kind of gross, but these aren't fluffy kittens. Other aspects of the graphics such as lighting, weather effects, and some very nice looking water with amazing looking reflections round out a good looking game.
Sound
The sound is also very well done. When you are looking at your park from a high view, you can't really hear much, but when you zoom in you can hear all of the people, dinosaurs, vehicles, and everything else. No one knows what dinosaurs actually sounded like, but all of the dinosaurs sound like they did in the Jurassic Park movies so that is good enough for me. It is a thrill to hear the recognizable roar or the T-Rex and screams of the velociraptors and this adds a lot to what makes the game so fun. The music has also been lifted right from the JP movies and fits in perfectly. There are only a few tracks so they repeat a lot, but I really didn't mind it. Operation Genesis is a good sounding game overall.Bottom Line
If you are a dinosaur fan, there is a lot to like in Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. Building the perfect park and then creating your dinosaurs is fun, but the real appeal in Operation Genesis is that you can zoom in and just watch your dinosaurs hanging out. I absolutely love that. The park creation stuff is, admittedly, not as strong as in other "tycoon" games, but that really isn't why you should be playing Operation Genesis. The dinosaurs are the real attraction here and they have been very well done. I have to admit that I am a huge dinosaur nut and I have been ever since I was a little kid. I'm also a big fan of the Jurassic Park movies, so there was a lot in this game that was very appealing to me. I think other dinosaur fans will enjoy it just as much Give it a rental at least, but if you are a big fan of Jurassic Park or just dinosaurs in general, it is a solid purchase.
