Do not let Let’s build a zooThe looks of fool you. It has the beautiful pixel art and presentation of a classic tycoon game, as well as all the aspects of simulation you could want. But beneath that façade of business management is a game equally concerned with exploring ethical options, and one that I’m grateful for that pauses before I have to make a decision.
You start out as the keeper of a brand new zoo, and after a few tutorials you’ll be left with an empty space and the freedom to mold it any way you want. You start with two main ways to earn new animals: rescue them from an independent shelter or trade with other zoos around the globe. In the end, attendees come to see these animals and your goal is to keep everyone happy and make a lot of money along the way.
Let’s Build A Zoo embraces the chaos I imagine running a real zoo would involve. The game’s greatest strength is how all of its systems work in tandem with each other. You’re given a lot of personal control over your park – depending on how much corn syrup is in the candies you sell. However, like in the best management games, these minute decisions often have the fundamental effects you want to plan, turning into a giant version of the Mouse Trap board game.
If you add chili seasoning to your food, it will increase the thirst of your customers, which may lead them to buy more cola. However, you cheated the cola for more caffeine, which gives everyone more energy. All in all, they’ll spend more time and money at the park, and your pocketbook goes deeper. After a while, it seems that the real inhabitants of your zoo are the people.
Watching these systems interact is when Let’s Build A Zoo is at its best, and playing with them is encouraged by adding a morale gauge in the game. You are presented with many “critical choices” throughout the game, leading to some sort of moral dilemma. You’re usually only given two decisions to choose from: one that benefits you in the short term but lowers your morale, or a more charitable act that doesn’t increase the same number of points.
When it’s very early on, these choices can make or break your zoo. No one wants to see your goose? Why not just paint one of them so it looks like a peacock? Make it your star attraction! You get money, everyone (think they) see a peacock, everyone wins! Occasionally, an odd guest will comment on how clearly my peacock is fake, and it makes me wonder what I’m doing more than any moral measure, and despite the numbers. money I used to earn. Of course, the “peacock” was only a short-term solution, and when it died of old age, I was in the same predicament as before. Only now I have an entire flimsy hand that I have to stop in order not to fall.
Depending on the virtuous relationship you choose, you unlock one of two tech tree paths for you to take down your park. One leads to sustainable farming and renewable energy, the other leads to you turning your zoo into a conveyor belt slaughterhouse.
This sounds pretty simple as a system and… that’s because it is. But Let’s Build A Zoo is so self-aware of what it’s doing that the ethics system becomes one of the best parts. By reducing morality to a single number and opening certain locks behind it, it becomes a different system for you to manage. Oh, someone died in our zoo? Ehhh… just plant a few more trees and everyone will forget. The game engages in a second layer of hypertextual morality which is actually quite unsettling. How much value can I really squeeze out of this park? And how much am I really willing to do?
Not to mention the ethical issues that Let’s Build A Zoo raises by giving you access to CRISPR technology for genetically engineered animals. Yes, that’s right, you can merge any two animals together to create anything you want. Do you like rabbits? Do you like pigs? Why not combine them together so you can have the head of a pig on the body of a rabbit? It’s the best of both worlds!
“Let’s Build A Zoo always throws new things at you without letting old things get old.”
Pairing isn’t the main focus of the game, but it does add a welcome variety to the breeding that I really appreciate. Let’s Build A Zoo always throws new things at you without letting the old stuff go. It gives the game an eerie energy, like you’re in a circus running over and over again spinning discs on sticks – but in a strangely relaxed way.
Let’s Build A Zoo’s soundtrack adds to this, as it always perfectly complements the atmosphere of the game. It’s a collection of ambient music that is simultaneously catchy, rhythmic but also a bit menacing. It adds depth of consequence behind every decision you make in style FTL: Faster than light.
Although for a game with so much on display at any one time, I find myself wishing that Let’s Build A Zoo’s menu was a bit more streamlined. There have been two patches that have smoothed things out, but I think some areas like managing your employees or animals could do with less menu interaction. I can see this becoming a problem when you have thousands of days in the game.
Let’s Build A Zoo has the deeply absorbing core it builds from, and its more unique elements are enough for this game to stand on its own in a crowded genre. I would recommend it to most people, even those who think it doesn’t appeal to them. I’m normally very bad at these games and end up throwing, say, fifty couches into a corner to complete some level criteria as quickly as possible, but even I like Let’s Build A Zoo. Plus, like any good tycoon game, I’m a bit embarrassed by my behavior.
