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Simulation games come in all shapes and sizes and it’s hard to keep track of all the different types of simulated worlds that you can dip into on your computer. Zoo Tycoon 2 is, as the name implies, the follow up to Zoo Tycoon, which is a game that I have to admit that I never even noticed. I tend to play a fair few strategy/simulation games and although most of them tend to be of the conquer the world or good vs. evil type, I’m not averse to the odd bit of build/work/make money kind of scenario.

With games like The Sims being so enormously popular it’s not hard to see why other game companies want to try to grab a slice of that cake and Zoo Tycoon 2 is, in an odd way a cross between The Sims and a theme park simulator. OK, you don’t have to keep your Sim happy, nor do you have to try and make friends etc., but you are responsible for the happiness of the animals in your Zoo and if you take good care of them, they make friends and more importantly, they make baby animals.

And before you ask, no there is no animal smut of any kind in the game - Microsoft is targeting the younger audience and has a 3+ rating in Europe. The hardware requirements are also fairly modest, considering that the game uses a 3D engine, but a decent graphics card won’t go amiss as the game is DirectX 9 compatible. That said, you won’t need a cutting edge PC and Microsoft recommends a minimum CPU spec of only a 733MHz Pentium III processor or equivalent, along with 256MB of system memory - but I’d recommend something faster just to make sure that the whole game runs smoothly.

Having covered the boring technical bits, let’s take a closer look at the game itself. There are three different game play modes, Sandbox - which is the easiest and has no targets or requirements to meet, Campaign – where you have to achieve certain goals and finally Challenge – which is similar to campaign, but with more time limited mini tasks to perform. Normally you’d play one of the 17 campaigns spread around the world which consists of a variety of challenges from breeding rare species of animals to making as much money as possible.

The game play is fairly repetitive and although you end up being in charge of various sized parks in a wide range of locations, pretty every campaign and challenge mission is much the same as the last. Basically, you always have to make sure that you keep your animals and your visitors happy and of course all your Zoo staff.

Keeping the guests happy is important in two ways, primarily because happy guests make your park more popular and a more popular park means more guests. Also happy guests are more likely to donate money to your Zoo, which helps sell your coffers along with the entrance fees and items you sell in the park.

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