Parkasaurus is a very chill and accomodating tycoon game about running a Park filled with creatures straight from Jurassic era ;)

This game could be another Prison Architect-engine powered clone or another 16bit-styled pixelart, but it decides to go it's own route. And while this might not be the best graphics fidelity in tycoon genre, the main stars of the show - dinosaurs - are actually done really good. Not only models are awesome and go well with the rest of the style, but they're animated properly. You can basically sit and watch your dinos have fun in exhibits for hours!

When it comes to other elements - models are on the same level, but the park employees/guests' animations have a lesser variation to them. Park decor fits right in with the rest.

In the end - presentation is very consistent and tells you what kind of game you're playing. Despite some minor glitches (like dino models going through other objects and fences) I really liked it!

Very standard, run-of-the-mill tycoon audio here. Music is there and is not making me disable it in the options, so that's good. Dinos roar from time to time, which is fun and guests cry in awe. It's cool for first two hours and then you just put on spotify or your favourite show and just chill with the game.

Don't get me wrong - it's really not easy to do something interesting with your audio in a tycoon game. The best thing I ever experienced in this regard is Two-Point Hospital with their radio shows and random announcements - and even that can get boring if you go past certain game time.

The core of every management game is gameplay. And I am happy to tell you that Parkasaurus, most of the time, knows what it wants to achieve and how to do it. Most of it is pretty standard management game - you need to build your park, accomodate your guests but also your attractions - Dinos! Your employees do not have any requirements or needs, they don't even ask for a raise, so clearly working in a Dino park is a dream job! :D

The game has day/night cycles and seasons cycle. Day/night has some impact on gameplay, as guests can behave differently after dark, especially if you don't put up any lights in your park. It will also make Dinos with certain traits look different, which is cool. Seasons cycle is only aesthetics as far as I can tell. Each day is summarised when the park closes and you are served some usefull stats in your office. I really like that, as it tells you what to focus in next days, but after you close this report there doesn't seem to be a way to get it back. You just have to wait for the next one.

And Parkasaurus is like that when you take your magnifying glass and look closer - there is a lot of data it can show you about your park, Dinos or employees, but it can be really hard to act on it due to how it's served. For example, you can click on a Dino in your park to get some in depth information and issue tasks for your employees that involve the Dino, but if you go to the list of all your dinos, there is no way to do and see the same or even jump to that menu from there. The best it can do is jump you to the area where the dino is - which might not be helpful if you have several of them in the same exhibit.

It's not a big issue though, as the game is really easy. I do have some experience with management games and I do like to chill playing them, but Parkasaurus is less about how to suceed and rather about how long it will take you. I haven't tried to fail, but I don't think there is a way to fail in this game. Even if your TRexes break out and go on a rampage, it won't matter much. Just set you back for 30 minutes. Even the added Dinosaur Tycoon challange, which is supposed to be harder, is not really harder - it's just more time consuming. The only times I really need to optimize was if I wanted to get all the rewards in story missions (which include additional rewards for completing it in specific number of days) or to get the Dinosaur Tycoon achievement (you need to hit target numbers, but at the point you're doing it you have everything unlocked and enough cash to just open three more parks the same size).

Outside of standard management mechanics, Parkasaurus allows you to build your park the way you want - most of the time at least - and gives you A LOT of variety when it comes to decor and theme. So if you love to desing your attractions in games like that, you'll love it.

Usually tycoon games don't have too much story, and even if they have - it's contained in one scenario/park. Parkasaurus has a very basic story to tell, which is fun, ligh-hearted and just falls in with the style. I won't spoil it in this review, but if I was giving games score, it would make it higher :)

I played the game on a higher end machine so it didn't give me any performance issues, mostly. I don't think it ever crashed on me during my 33hrs playthrough or bugged out on me somehow.

It supports my 21:9 screen just fine, even in menus and has unlocked framerate. The only nitpick is that you will get less and less framerate as your park grows bigger and you have more guests - which is perfectly normal, most tycoon games behave like that. The other nitpick is that at the beginning of each day, game autosaves and for bigger parks this autosave takes a moment. It's solid couple of seconds (up to 30sec I think), so it's noticeable but not annyoing enough for me to check if it's hitting my hardware that much or just an engine quirk.

So if you like to have a challange in your management games, you might want to pass on Parkasaurus. But if you don't mind just chilling and watching your Dinos have fun with exhibits you design for them - you will have fun with it.

It might be especially good for kids that love Dinos or for players of any age that are not that much into tycoon games but think they like the theme here.