Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis as a game works on paper, a Theme Park and RollerCoaster Tycoon freeform sandbox type game where you are in chare of creating and running Jurrasic Park, trying to make it a 5-star theme park by creating as many different dinosaurs as possible and building a park around it with basic amenities for visitors and rides that completely show off your selection of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the result is a simplistic game where very little happens, leaving a game that is somewhat of a disappointment content wise.
The game at least tries to do something with the company behind it producing a "world building" game on the console (PS2 and XBOX), something not really seen, but on the PC, it's just another boring tycoon game in a long series of tycoon games. The game is split into mode. There is a series of mission for you to complete with specific challenges with adverse conditions. It can vary from trying to get a park with previously bad management from a park that was poorly handled to a park that is earning money and a high star rating to a park that is ill equipped with little to no security fences and dinosaurs rampaging around the island eating visitors.
This mode has some appeal with a difficulty that means that you have to try multiple times. However, the main focus of the game is to start, open and build up Jurassic Park into a 5-star theme park, in a game mode creatively titled Operation Genesis. After building a few things like the entrance, a public restroom and the kiosk as well as the hatchery and your first dinosaur, the game begins. Right off the bat, one of the first things to do is send in a team to dig up fossils. These fossils can be used to extract DNA to create the dinosaurs for your park. The higher percentage of DNA extracted for any one dinosaur, the longer the dinosaur can live.
Occasionally, you will dig up gold, silver or opals to sell for profit to go towards the park funds. Another method of obtaining dinosaur bones is the fossil market, where you can buy the bones to the dinosaur you want. If you have 100% for a specific dinosaur, the bones will not appear. Each dinosaurs has their own star rating, such as 1-star, 2-stars, 3-stars, etc, with their star rating affecting the overall star rating of the park. Another aspect of the game is the research area, where you can new buildings for your visitors, such as the Souvenir Stand and the Rest Area as well as new attractions, such as the balloon ride and viewing area.
Security in the park is key, since you don't want those pesky dinosaurs killing or scaring your visitors. You can build different sized fences, turrets (which you have to develop before you can implement) and security helicopters that can be used to revive downed dinosaurs, to move them in case they are in the visitor part of you park and to kill them if they happened to start attacking your visitors. Your dinosaurs also need looking after since they can come down with diseases and can be quickly killed off.
Weather can also be a factor, with storms and tornados killing your dinosaurs and being a potential threat to the people visiting your park. It's also simple in terms of graphics, not leaving much in the way for anything impressive. Getting over the hump of being introduced to all of the aspects of the game, you will soon find that it takes a while for the game to get anywhere and there will be times where you can get up and go to the bathroom or get a drink or get your iPod and have almost nothing happen in your park, which is underwhelming.
A slightly more complicated version of the game would have helped, but since it's both designed with the console in mind and the company having a budget on the small sized, it might have been more than could have been asked for from the development team. As a console game for the PS2 and Xbox, it was a step forward in terms of a Theme Park or RollerCoaster Tycoon type game for what the console could achieve. For the PC, it's just another game in that style and can be easily ignored. I would love to see a remake or reimagining of this game, with a new graphics engine and more content.
Hopefully that will eventually come out (i doubt it), but as is, Operation Genesis is not that bad as a game to play when taking a break from other games and in between when you have to do something, but might be largely ignored since it's too simple and not very appealing to look at.
The Good:
+Gives you a chance to start and run your own version of the famous Jurassic Park.
+Building research and dig teams allow for new things to build and new dinosaurs to roam the park.
The Bad:
-A little too simplistic, allowing for time to get up and take regular breaks from it. That's not a good sign.
-The graphics and gameplay a little too simple for the PC version.