| Jurassic World Evolution 3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Review Overview
What is Jurassic World Evolution 3?
Jurassic World Evolution 3 is a park management simulation game by Frontier Developments, and the third entry in the Jurassic World Evolution game series. Set during the events of the third movie from the Jurassic World quadrilogy, 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion, Jurassic World Evolution 3 puts players in charge of the budding Dinosaur Integration Network (DIN) as it evolves from a proof of concept to a full-on means to reintegrate dinosaurs to the modern ecosystem.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 features:
⚫︎ 85 unique prehistoric species to encounter and breed
⚫︎ Campaign and Sandbox modes
⚫︎ Full community creations support for blueprints and builds
⚫︎ Full voice-acting with cinematic cutscenes
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Epic |
 PSN |
 Xbox |
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| $59.99 | |||||||||||
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Layered and Intuitive Park Management Unique Park Management Loop Well-paced Campaign with Great Tutorial All-out Voice Acting and Cutscenes |
Extinction Now is a Lame Villain |
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Story - 6/10
Jurassic World Evolution 3’s story suffers a little bit from its lackluster villain and low stakes. Most people will find the ecological throughline of the narrative unengaging and not at all relatable, yours truly included. You can’t really expect a park management sim to have a great story, even if it involves dinosaurs.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Gameplay - 8/10
Jurassic World Evolution 3’s park management mechanics aren’t just layered and intuitive; they’re completely different from most of its kind’s usual systems. Focusing more on genetic manipulation and crisis response over basic consumerism, it’s as alarmingly thrilling as it is satisfying—exactly how you’d expect running a dinosaur park would be like.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Visuals - 8/10
Jurassic World Evolution 3 has quite the visual fidelity about it. From the spanning environments, half of which you made yourself, to the dinosaur models themselves, this game really knows how to sell its visual identity. If not for the complete lack of aesthetic innovation from every other game in the Jurassic World Evolution series, this game’s UI alone would be worth a higher score.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Audio - 8/10
Great voice acting goes a long way, and could even make up for the complete lack of animated human models to attach the voices to. Jurassic World Evolution 3 proves as much with its cast of well-performing VAs. Also, the game has Jeff Goldblum. ‘Nuff said!
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Value for Money - 7/10
Though I’d usually shy away from the AAA premium price of $60, this game easily recoups that value through sheer playtime alone, plus the merit of having great visuals, audio, and gameplay to boot. Still pretty expensive for a park sim, though.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Overall Score - 74/100
Although its expectedly bland story and equally unimpressive antagonist drag it down somewhat, Jurassic World Evolution 3 still sports a strong and unique park management system that you can only really appreciate from a game like this. Definitely not the apex of its kind, but it’s more of a small raptor in a big enclosure situation rather than an outright flawed creation.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 Review: Apex Park Sim With An Extinct Story
I love me a good park sim. That’s not a particularly controversial thing to say, I imagine, especially when something like Planet Coaster exists. What may be controversial, however, is considering every park sim, from the aforementioned Planet Coaster (both of them) to the classic Rollercoaster Tycoon, the same.
When you really think about it, this genre’s very formulaic, with the variety mostly coming from different levels of customization. It’s almost city-builder levels of sameness, but that works to my favor because I like the formula, and more of the thing I like is always good.
Jurassic World Evolution 3, though, isn’t like other park sims. For one thing, calling it a park management sim isn’t even completely accurate, considering you’re only managing the park aspect of the game half the time. For another, it’s just as, if not more, solid in its implementation of its unique ideas than most of its ilk. Sadly, that may not be enough for it to break out from its mold anyway.
What do I mean by that? Well, why don’t we just dive right into this review and find out?
The Dinosaurs are Back, For Real This Time
Jurassic Park. If you were born sometime within the last three decades, chances are you at least have a passing knowledge of that cinematic milestone. If not, perhaps you know of the countless sequels and spin-offs it birthed, some of which are, perhaps, better off forgotten. Among the most recent ones are the Jurassic World movies, which all comprise a quadrilogy as of 2025.
This game is set sometime during the third Jurassic World movie, Jurassic World: Dominion, which sees the dinosaurs escaping from the destruction of Isla Nublar and mixing in with the world’s modern ecosystems.
Naturally, fearsome as they are, dinosaurs were adapted to different climates, so they’re basically doomed to become extinct for a second time. At least, that’s what would’ve happened if the DIN hadn’t been established.
That’s where you, the player, come in. The Dinosaur Integration Network (DIN) is a collective of scientists, entrepreneurs, and experts working together to reintegrate dinosaurs back into the modern ecosystem through careful genetic manipulation and population control. You are its newest park manager, tasked with managing and building up the DIN’s various sites around the world, using tourism as funding for its research, and ultimately restoring the dinosaurs’ place in the ecosystem.
Already, we see the seeds of what the game does differently from other park sims, but that concludes the narrative summary of Jurassic Park Evolution 3. So far, no dinosaur maulings and iconic one-liners, but there will be plenty of time for that after we go through the game’s mechanics.
Uniquely Scientific and Conservationist Approach to Park Management
Jurassic World Evolution 3, much like any park sim, or any simulation game for that matter, has layers upon layers of mechanics working together to create a closed system of positive feedback loops. For Planet Coaster, it’s your rides and profits. In this case, everything revolves around the IP's poster children: Dinosaurs.
Now, it’s easy to imagine a dinosaur theme park. Heck, you might’ve gone to one within your lifetime. But this isn’t that. No, it’s something else. Something more altruistic and skimming the lines of erudition instead of the usual capitalistic gain. This game is as much about saving the dinosaurs as it is profiting off of them.
We’ll begin with acquisition, because that’s how the game starts you off. New dinos come in through one of three possible ways: capture, synthesis, and natural birth. That last one’s very important, so remember it for now.
Captured dinos are the ones that escaped Isla Nublar and are all female. If you’re a movie buff, you know exactly why that’s the case. Synthesized dinos are the ones that got the DNA-from-a-preserved-mosquito treatment the first movie showed off. These ones are made, sequenced, and hatched in a laboratory, then released into enclosures. Lastly, the natural birth dinos are the ones born from a mating pair.
Regardless of how you got them, once you have these dinos, you need to spruce up their enclosure to reflect their natural environments. If you’ve played Planet Zoo, it’s much the same system it has for environmental editing there, though I will note that this game’s version is much smoother and intuitive—a common praise I’d give throughout this review.
Once your dinos are happy, you need to profit from them somehow. Research is fun, but altruism doesn’t pay the bills for further studies, so you need to entertain the guests by showing off your dinos, selling toys, food, and drink, and letting them stay in the park hotels.
There are also the various maintenance works you need to keep up with, else the dinos end up sick, or worse, escaped and hungry. Sometimes, storms roll in, breaking enclosures and forcing an end-of-movie dino massacre to happen—something you’re going to have to clean up after.
Then there’s the park design and themes to keep congruent with your vision, employees to hire and train, long and short-term contracts to fulfill for more cash, guest needs, foot traffic, etc.
There are a lot of layers at work here, about as many as the geologic fossil record, and they all mash together to create a park sim that cares more about the future of its attractions than what profit could be had.
This, by itself, is already something to praise this game for, though it bears noting that all Jurassic Park Evolution games are like this. This latest one is the most polished, however, having more systems, better controls (even on console), and many more dinosaurs to unlock.
It’s endearing as all heck, and no less fun from a management sim perspective. This could’ve been what elevated the game into greatness. Alas, this girl isn’t as clever as we expected. For all the thought that went into its mechanics, barely any was spared for its story.
Low-stakes Narrative with A Lame Antagonist
If the dinosaurs aren’t the bad guys and the humans are literally wielding capitalism to keep them alive, then who’s the big bad of the game’s campaign mode? Why, an extremist group of anti-dino anarchists, of course!
And just like that, the wind is taken out of the game’s sails. It’s all just human intolerance again in the end. These weird techno-cultists, called Extinction Now, are pretty much just generic ne’er-do-wells trying to uproot a purely beneficial project that would otherwise not hurt the rest of humanity.
Not only is it low-stakes for everyone except the people of DIN, but it’s not even creative or satisfying. They steal eggs, poison dinosaurs, and sabotage park facilities—all acts of anarchy that could be undone in like five minutes.
This drops the game’s score by a lot, even for a genre that doesn’t need good stories. It would’ve been better off without one in this case. The devs were too busy asking if they could; they never paused to think if they should. This is the price we ended up paying.
Striking Visuals with A-tier Voice Acting
Well, as awful as the game’s narrative is, at least it’s presented with the full creative power of the dev team. This game’s visuals knock it out of the park with its 3D cinematics, sweeping landscape shots, and crisp UI.
In the same vein as the game’s built-in graphical prowess, players are also afforded the chance to express their creativity with the game’s expanded blueprint crafting system. It’s basically Legos, but for various park facilities. With so many themes to choose from and countless pieces within each, the game is a feast for creatives and planners alike.
Oh, and the voice acting. The game’s tonally whiplashing dialogue notwithstanding, this is among the best performances I’ve seen in a park sim. I’m surprised they bothered at all, considering it’s not strictly necessary.
And to think they even splurged and got Jeff Goldblum to voice Dr. Ian Malcolm again. Fans of the original Jurassic Park are eating well with this one.
An Apex Predator Brought Low By Poor Storytelling
And so, we reach the end of this review. Considering everything the game had to offer, it’s clear that Jurassic Park Evolution 3 is an apex predator with a debilitating mutation. Like a gene spliced incorrectly, the game’s story is eating into its own quality and killing its overall value from the inside out.
This really is a shame, what with the game’s unique take on an otherwise formulaic genre and all. Sadly, it’s just as much a part of this game as the rest of its facets, such as it is, and cannot be removed. I’d happily play this game still. Dinosaurs are the coolest thing ever, after all. I’d just stick to the Sandbox mode after the tutorial, if I were you, lest the game’s sub-par narrative catch you unawares by a bush and maul you offscreen.
Is Jurassic World Evolution 3 Worth It?
A Bit Pricy for Its Kind, But Likely to Be Worth It Anyway
The short answer is yes, this game is worth it. The long answer is also yes, but you should consider how much you’re paying upfront. The game comes in at the AAA standard of $60. It’s nothing crazy, certainly nothing like AAA prices nowadays, but it's still a decent chunk of change.
Considering what other park sims are available at lower prices, there might be some regret in buying one that costs as much as an open-world RPG, but that’s less likely than you enjoying what the game does right, and opting out of what it doesn’t.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
Epic |
PSN |
Xbox |
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| $59.99 | |||||||||||
Jurassic World Evolution 3 FAQ
What Languages is Jurassic World Evolution 3 Available in?
Jurassic World Evolution 3 supports the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
Will Jurassic World Evolution 3 Have DLC?
Maybe, but it’s unlikely. According to the game’s official website, the game’s developers are currently more focused on launching the game and updating it over creating future DLC content.
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Jurassic World Evolution 3 Product Information
 |
|
| Title | JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTION 3 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | October 21, 2025 (PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch) |
| Developer | Frontier Developments |
| Publisher | Frontier Developments |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam, Epic Games) PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Simulation |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB 10+ |
| Official Website | Jurassic World Evolution 3 Website |
