Jurassic World Evolution 2 – Camp Cretaceous Pack

camp cretaceous

We enjoyed Jurassic World Evolution 2 when it released at the back end of 2021, finding the step on from the first game quite satisfying and filled with a fair amount of content.  Sure, there were a few rough edges, though most of those were smoothed out with the patch that came alongside the Early Cretaceous DLC pack back in December.  The additional dinosaurs were welcome, particularly the aviary and lagoon dwelling creatures, but I think we all knew more would be inbound… but what would they be?  Unless you’re a real life palaeontologist you probably don’t know the names of that many extinct creatures, let alone what they looked like, so mining the British Museum for inspiration probably isn’t the best move.  However, if you take from a successful Netflix show made by DreamWorks you’ll probably get some recognition, though it definitely feels like we’re waiting for the big ticket Jurassic World: Dominion DLC to coincide with the movie release later this year.  In the interim, Camp Cretaceous gets its own unique content in the game for you to go nuts with… up to a point.

Based on what appears in Camp Cretaceous, there are 2 brand new creatures to grow in the labs, 2 variants on herbivores, and 8 skins to help fans of the show recreate their favourite prehistoric characters in their own parks.  First up is the headline Scorpio Rex which is a hybrid creation that looks pretty terrifying in fairness and is supremely aggressive.  Next, and joining in the meat eating roster, is the Monolophosaurus which is from the Jurassic era and is a medium sized predator.  Not as impressive as the Scorpio Rex, it manages to look distinctive out in the enclosures.  In terms of the variants they are new versions of the Ouranosaurus and Kentrosaurus to help add to the variety of the herds you’ll already have roaming around your park.  Destined to make a bigger impression though are the skins which bring new looks to the T-Rex, Ankylosaurus, Carnotaurus, Baryonyx and Parasaurolophus.  Nearly all are based on character designs from the show, and the latter is a great attempt at glow in the dark dinosaurs.  Hatching them initially doesn’t seem to do much, but if you wait until night falls you’ll see how they massively stand out for the guests.

Because the new Camp Cretaceous creature additions aren’t in the movie-verse (yet), you’ll most likely to get to them quickly in sandbox mode, though the skins should be available in any of the other modes where you’ve been honing your management skills.  A word of caution though… if (like us) you’ve been away from the parks for a little while and a couple of patches have landed, you might find that your sprawling sandbox creation has had a chunk of the progress reset.  This has the effect of needing to research every dinosaur species and trait again (even when you’ve got them wandering around already), as well as sending expeditions out to complete the genome.  It’s pretty much the same as restarting the entire park, which might be a no go for some.  There’s also the niggle where the unlocks that you research remain locked at points, like not being able to apply two upgrades to buildings.  It’s an odd one, and I have to be fair in that it could be unique to my game, but it took the shine off seeing the new beasts somewhat, and even locked me out of the headline act until I’d hit all the criteria for large carnivores again.

What you’ll really want to know is whether the Camp Cretaceous DLC is worth the entry price, and that answer depends on whether you’re a fan of the cartoon series (or have kids that are), or whether you really need to treat this like Pokémon so you can collect them all.  It’s cheap at less than six quid, so it’s not a barrier to entry, but beyond the Scorpio Rex and the Monolophosaurus there’s little new, and you might feel a bit short changed.  There are updates to the base game as well that come alongside the DLC, and with the touted sandbox updates this is probably what’s affected my park.  However, the changes to the game are part of a free patch, so the only thing you need to ask yourself is: do you an want easy to spot neon pink Parasaurolophus as an attraction?

A PS5 code for the Jurassic World Evolution 2 Camp Cretaceous DLC was provided by Frontier Developments PR team, and the pack is out now for around £5.99 on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

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Matt

Co-founder & Editor at Codec Moments

Gamer, F1 fanatic, one half of the Muddyfunkrs DJ duo (find us over on Hive Radio UK), MGS obsessed, tech geek.


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