It's now 100 years old if not a bit older by now, and Jurassic Park? Not nearly so old, 20 I think if I remember right. So how to celebrate two such mutual events? Apparently you do that by derailing work on Jurassic Park 4.
Oh well. At least you have Builder.
Ok, not so much a village builder (unless you call building a theme park of enslaved dinosaurs a village) as a tycoon game, Jurassic Park Builder gives you your own little South American island to meddle with the natural order all you wish, building a giant mega park of dinosaurs, support shops and decor... yeah, that is kinda limited compared to other theme park building games, but it is par for the course as the game revolves around the cycle of dinosaur creation akin to a simplified version from the first movie. Oh, and unlike the movies (unless it's a gimmick of Jurassic Park 4) this game features an underwater version of Jurassic Park, unlocked once you reach Level 10.
You start with a few dinosaurs, but the rest has to be made, that means finding amber (or ice chunks with aquatic parasites in the underwater version). Amber is scattered across the island, found as you clear away the jungle creating park space one section at a time... how the heck is that possible considering they had to find amber in mines in the first movie... ahh, too much thought. Unlike that, however, finding aquatic samples means sending expedition subs out every 9 hours looking for samples. There is a free option for this, and if your patient you can find all your samples just on free trips but you can expend a few Premium currency dollars on these trips if you can spare it for a greater yield on returns.
After that it's research time, on which you will grind thousands of dollars in order to unlock New dinosaurs, grinding even more just to buy them or to clear land to expand your park or fulfill missions by buying stuff or feeding animals or shipping food... that in s nutshell I'd the game, grinding endlessly to build the park up. This is slow going, especially since level progression is really really slow going. Still putting effort into the game is rewarding as your dinosaurs become more and more profitable as you build up dinosaurs levels and evolve them (they gain a star with each evolution up to 4 or 5 stars), making money grinding easier as time goes on, which is good since dinosaur research and buying becomes more and more expensive as you go. So... actually that is a bit of a vicious cycle, yeah, but still good all the same.
Missions are handed out by a few characters from the movies, which I suppose ihs the logical choices representing each movie... kinda.
From the original most of the characters come from, but for simplicity sake let's say Santa Claus... I mean Hammond and Asian Research Guy represent Jurassic Park 1.
Creepy stuttering guy... I mean Jeff Goldblum and his mysterious Gymkata daughter are here representing Lost World... why the creepy Gymkata daughter is here other than to push the youtube video series theme missions boggles my mind... Oh, yes, there is a batch of stories stringing all these missions together, too bad these stories are just filler to move you from one level to another and progress gameplay, easily forgettable in its own right.
Finally, though he is from the first movie representing Jurassic Park 3 is married with recreational vehicle dead Red October commander guy... I mean Dr. Grant.
The only downside is zero voice acting, but I can live with that all things considered.
The most important thing to know is that you can play this just fine without ever spending real money on this game. Yes, event and holiday dinosaurs suck as they're specifically geared to require spending real money to acquire. Also the game is long slow slogging if you grind nonstop for cash, but ultimately fulfilling for all your hard work. Pith the game doesn't support an online community or the ability to visit other players parks, especially since this is one of those you must be online to play games (so you might want to pass if you don't have a reliable wireless internet connection), but all in all I am rather fond of this tycoon game, and its not often I am pleased with a tycoon game. A 4 out of 5.
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