The 3D engine is the big new improvement here because it allows the other additions to gameplay. But even with the new engine the graphics aren't exactly impressive. They're simple, easy, and obviously created for children. Neither models nor textures are especially detailed. Animation sets are bigger for each of the animals, reflecting their moods, and aren't bad, but aren't exactly fluid. There are plenty of collision detection problems with animals and environments causing them to slide across the ground. Still, everything from a visual standpoint is functional and nothing is particularly displeasing even if nothing is particularly pleasing either.
The engine also allows for more park manipulation thanks to the terrain editor. There's a variety of tools to make interesting enclosures with different types of landscapes. It's easy to create depressed enclosures, raised mesas, or simple hilly terrain. It's much easier than the first game and allows for different types of boundaries between the park guests and the animals. Some of the exhibits I liked the most in my travels to various zoos around the world are those that use trenches and cliffs as the main protection. These are now easily created so that animals can't get out of enclosures while allowing the use of smaller fences so that park guests can see better. While this technique allows for the creation of much more attractive zoos, trenches can also cause serious problems for your animals as they fall into them constantly. If you don't have convenient ramps out of these trenches for your animals, they'll continue to get stuck over and over again. Now, I'm no expert, but I know I've heard real zoo keepers tell park guests that animals know not to walk forward into ditches, making it possible for people like me to get 15 feet from an elephant with only a rope barrier and a ditch between us. Zoo Tycoon 2 allows you to pick up and move any animal around, creating a solution to the problem, but I don't want to have to pick my stupid elephants out of the 25 foot ditch they just fell into all the time.
Other than that, building enclosures is easy and even a bit more fun than it used to be. Gone are the days of adding and subtracting items until the happy face appears and the frowny face doesn't is gone. Just add the correct biome terrain and your animals will be good. These more lenient rules help to create much more diverse enclosures based off of creativity instead of a mathematical equation.
As before, players will be able to select an animal and get zookeeper recommendations about what toys to use, food to place, and terrain the animal will be comfortable in. Laying down the right terrain is even easier now because of the biome brush. This easy paint tool will easily fill you enclosure with the correct landscape. Each biome has several choices inside of it as well allowing for smaller adjustments to make things "just-so." It's a little cheesy and inexpensive to use from a tycoon lover standpoint, but will certainly help players out that are only there for the zoos. It's pretty obvious from that from some of the decisions and changes that the game is more about zoos than tycoons anyway.
Some of the more interesting additions come at the behest of gamers around the world looking for more interaction with the animals. In the first game, the only interaction possible was creating environments. Now, players can actually go into first person and walk around the park from the perspective of a person, a good thing because the regular camera is very restrictive to someone like me. Not only does first-person allow for better vision of park layout, but also lets you complete tasks around the park and take pictures for your scrapbook.
Anything that your maintenance or zoo keepers can do, you can too. Simply drop down into first person mode, walk around the park, and hit the space button to pick up trash or poop, fill food dishes, wash animals, or administer medicine. It's so easy, in fact, that it becomes a very easy way to save money towards the beginning of a scenario as well as a quicker way to complete objectives, such as healing all of the sick animals in a run down park. While it's a welcome addition, being able to pick up 40 pieces of trash in less than five seconds is a bit strange. For each job task you undertake, a little floating animation will show it is being done. So if you pick up a piece of trash, a broom will sweep it up. If you hit the space bar quickly around a large area full of trash, a ton of brooms will magically appear making me think of Fantasia and Mickey Mouse. It's pretty ridiculous and almost eliminates the need for full time employees until your park gets gigantic, which consequently makes the game too easy.
The economic structure has also been overhauled, creating a friendlier way for zoos to make money and players to get feedback about their enclosures and park. Instead of relying on concession stands and souvenirs, donations made by the public will run the show. Create a kick ass enclosure with different types of animals running around together (even predators in with their "food" crazily enough - something that is nearly impossible to think about in a normal zoo) and park guests will donate money and your park fame will increase. As with the previous game: the happier the animal, the happier the guests. The happier the guests, the more generous the donation. While I think this system is a little too easy - meaning I had no problems making money - it definitely gives players direct and positive feedback about their park.
One thing that I like about Zoo Tycoon 2 is the amount of information available. It's easy to find info about all of the park guests and animals and sort it out by all of the different categories that matter. It makes finding and addressing problems efficient and satisfying.
Still, even with the improvements, there are still other problems. Among the biggest are the horrific sounds that the park guests make. When their demon cow voices start spewing around while in first-person view you'll find yourself looking around for a weapon of some sort to stomp the baddies. I just don't understand how someone approved those sounds as passable.
Technically, the game lags quite a bit on each of the computers I've tried to play on. Strangely enough, the lag all comes when using the interface. There's a delay when clicking on an icon, a delay when trying to look at the information lists, and a delay when doing almost anything GUI related. It's really annoying and strange considering the game really shouldn't be a system hog.