Zoo Tycoon review

Read our full in-depth Xbox One review now.

Microsoft has one of the most diverse launch game line-ups ever with the Xbox One, with Zoo Tycoon being the most family-friendly. It’s a console re-imagining of the PC management sim, which lets you build and maintain a virtual menagerie of animals as you try to cope with finances, employees and conservation efforts.

We usually prefer to play management games with a mouse and keyboard than with a console controller, but Zoo Tycoon makes it much easier for Xbox One gamers to get the job done by putting them directly in the shoes of one of your keepers, rather than an all-seeing top down view. You can walk around the zoo at your leisure, or jump into a buggy to get around a little faster. This brings you much closer to the animals, which are clearly the main focus; adding concession stands, children’s entertainers and cafes will fulfil certain visitor needs, but they are far more interested in getting up close and personal with the creatures on display.

Petting virtual chimps not your thing? Feed a virtual elephant instead

Players can join in using the Kinect camera. Adding interactive experiences to each exhibit will let you feed each animal by holding out your hand, or pull faces at chimpanzees to raise their happiness levels. There are over 100 breeds and species to choose from, but some are more interactive than others. Motion tracking isn’t perfect and the voice commands are barely any faster than using the controller, so unless you’re keeping young children entertained with the animal reactions you’re better off passing over the Kinect component entirely.

Once you’ve learned the basics in the comprehensive yet monotonously long tutorial mode, you can jump into the freeform mode which removes the need to earn cash and just lets you fill your zoo with animals. With all the challenge removed, you can quickly reach the exhibit cap, leaving you to juggle animals as you open larger enclosures and sell smaller ones, or fire janitorial employees to make room for an extra breeding researcher.

You’ll quickly reach the limits of what one person can do, so you’ll have to switch to the more familiar top-down view and hire additional keepers to keep the feeding troughs topped up. Unfortunately it’s down to you to clean up after your animals; despite exploding in a cloud of confetti, there’s no escaping the fact that you’re spending your gaming time picking up virtual dung.

The traditional top-down view will help you manage your Zoo, but it’s less immersive than walking around

Even once you migrate from free play to the Challenge mode, the difficulty very rarely spikes. The toughest challenge objectives are relatively easy to complete, so we were never in danger of running out of funding of being forced to shut our zoo altogether. Obviously this is a game party aimed at children, so it has a difficulty curve to match, along with a constant stream of awards. Every time you reach a new level, which happens roughly every five minutes, you unlock new animals and exhibits or upgrades to existing ones.

After filling your zoo with animals, you can take a walk through it, camera in hand, and snap them as they explore their new enclosures. The photo album ticks off each new animal as you snap it, and with certain rare species like albino rhinos only arriving once you build a breeding centre, it will take a lot of play the before you’ve seen the entire bestiary. You can’t wander into the enclosures, despite being head keeper, so you’re stuck snapping photos from the fences rather than getting truly up close.

Zoo Tycoon isn’t exactly stretching the Xbox One’s limits, but fur looks reasonably convincing in motion

The furrier animals might look convincing up close, but overall Zoo Tycoon does little to truly push the Xbox One’s new hardware. The game runs at a native 1080p and has a distinctive art style, with each animal having detailed facial expressions and convincing behaviour. If you stick to the top-down view you won’t appreciate the more subtle animations or the accurately captures roars, trumpets and neighs of your collection.

There’s not much in the way of wider commentary on keeping animals in captivity, although it is at least refreshing to see Microsoft use Zoo Tycoon to raise awareness of global conservation efforts. Once the animals in your zoo reach a certain level, they can be released into the wild; beyond the material in-game awards and Xbox achievements, the company has pledged to donate $10,000 to charity every time players release 1,000 animals of a certain species. Arguably this is little more than a marketing stunt, but it’s still a welcome move on Microsoft’s part.

interacting with your animals is the best way to keep guests entertained

On the surface, Zoo Tycoon has the cuteness factor that will appeal to children and animal-loving adults alike. It’s easy to get in to and a joy to play thanks to a simple menu system and beautifully realised and accurately animated animals. Dig a little deeper and you’ll soon discover the simulation is fairly basic, the challenge is minimal and the time required to breed every possible animal is significant, so there may not be enough of a draw to return once the Xbox One gets an expanded set of games.