Parkasaurus Preview

Parkasaurus from development studio, Washbear, is an early access dinosaur centered theme park-esque game. The game employs a whimsical cartoony aesthetic as opposed to the fairly recently released Jurassic World Evolution’s more realistic gritty nature.

So what exactly does one do in Parkasaurus? Well, the answer is a little more complex than just build a park and populate it with dinosaurs. Players in Parkasaurs will have to manage a range of aspects from the park’s cleanliness to scientific advancement as well dinosaur and guest happiness.

The tutorial in Parkasaurus introduces players to the game’s basic mechanics but then leaves the rest up to you. Figuring out what works best for yourself is a trial and error process but thankfully since the game is fun, you’ll be a dinosaur park building pro in no time.

Building a dinosaur exhibit is really simple with all the necessary tools being available to you via the easy to access menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

Dinosaurs have specific environmental needs and require specific biomes to live in. These are created by altering the terrain, water and plant content of a particular exhibit that you’ve created until a biome descriptor is triggered and assigned to the exhibit.

Dinosaurs also require food and should they get enraged, a security officer is required to tranquilize them to ensure the safety of the park guests.

As park manager, hiring staff is one of the most important things you can do. Cleaning personnel and security are important but so too are scientists. Scientists will carry out research at a research facility and once you’ve gained enough science points, you’ll be able to unlock new items or features. The tech tree is highly reminiscent of Civilization’s with earlier research unlocking later more well developed options.

Players are able to obtain fossils and cash bonuses as well as gems by sending an expedition off on a dig. Using your expedition team you will actively unearth these fossils and items by destroying a limited number of ground tiles and revealing what’s beneath them.

Dinosaur eggs can be purchased using fossils and gems and will hatch once placed in a suitable exhibit. Players will have to keep sending their staff off on digs to unearth new fossils and gems to purchase new dinosaur species eggs for their park

Graphically, Parkasaurus is incredibly eye catching.  There’s just something so great about seeing cartoony dinosaurs react with happiness in an exhibit perfectly suited to them. The free camera option makes viewing these dinosaurs an absolute pleasure and younger gamers will really love the game’s entire aesthetic.

Since the game is still in early access though there are some bugs and errors that are still being ironed out. A typo in the science tech tree for example will be fixed eventually and the gameplay involving both park visitor and staff A.I seems to need some tweaking so that they act more like actual humans and not loiter about.

Having spent a considerable amount of time with the game so far, Parkasaurus is on the road to success. If the developers keep on supporting this title and listen to fan feedback regarding streamilining the build, hatch dinosaur, maintain park formula, Parkasaurus will turn out to be a great game in the end when it fully releases.