The World of Dino Parks - A Review of Dinosaur World

 "Welcome... to Jurassic Park!"

Love this artwork!

While the quote may be from the original movies (and would more likely be better attributed to Dinosaur Island, this is my review and I'm going to quote the original movie heavily here because I can and I want to. As a big fan of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, I was beyond thrilled when I found out that there was a board game that was based off of the movies that even incorporated one of my favorite mechanics in the game: worker placement. I had really started getting into collecting board games in 2023 and the idea of adding a dino-park themed game to my collection was very exciting to me.

This launched a flurry of searching for reviews of the game as well as any further information about where to purchase the game and what the general cost of the game would be to see if I'd want to pick it up. The former yielded quite a few results and I read review after review of the game to see what was thought about it. Overall, reviews tended towards the positive with the game, but I found that there were several that pointed out to the sequel, Dinosaur World, as a definitive way to enjoy the game as it deepened all of the games aspects and made it feel better overall. The latter part of the information I sought was fairly easy since the game was available in retail at several major stores, including Target where I normally shopped, and the price was fairly reasonable.

Intrigued by the prospect of finding a game that was like Dinosaur Island, but better, I then started looking into what Dinosaur World would entail. I found out that there had been a Kickstarter campaign for the game the year prior but nothing had been sent out to backers yet. It was too late for me to get in on the Kickstarter and too early for me to find a copy of the game out in the wild as it was still shipping out to backers at the time of my investigation, so I waited (impatiently).

I had been clued into a local Facebook group where individuals could buy and sell used games, usually for significantly less than the normal MSRP, which was extremely dangerous for me since I was looking to explode my collection. My wallet definitely suffered at that time, but as I was perusing the group one day, I found that someone was selling a copy of Dinosaur World with all the Kickstarter bits and bobs for a really reasonable price and I immediately reached out and snapped up the copy of the game. It came with three expansions included, the Dinosaur World: Hybrid Pack, the Dinosaur World: Water Pack, and the Dinosaur World: Ice Age Pack, along with the excellent metal coins and all dino meeples with the screened on artwork, which I very much appreciated.

Since obtaining the game, I've sunk quite a few hours into the game and have 11 plays (at the time of writing) in the game, about half solo. I've played each of the included expansions twice and thought I'd take the time today to review the base game as well as expansions. It's been such an incredible experience and as I've been reviewing things more regularly on Friday, I thought I'd include one of my favorite games to play in that rotation.

"We've Spared No Expense"

The special Kickstarter first player token is absolutely fantastic.

I first want to address the elephant (or should I say, "dinosaur?") in the room in regards to the quality of the components contained within the game. As I personally own the Deluxe Version of the game, I'll be reviewing the components in the Deluxe Version, so please keep that in mind when looking into purchasing the base game. There are portions, which I will note, that will not be contained within the base game that are present in the Kickstarter version of the game that was only for backers. All Kickstarter exclusive additions are now available through an extra "Add On" pack directly through the publisher website for an additional cost. This includes solo mode cards, 68 Dinosaur meeples with heat-transfer artwork, and 6 Special Building tiles as well that were available during the Kickstarter campaign. The metal coins are unfortunately not available for purchase at this time.

Player Boards: (available in both versions) Player boards are double layered and have easy to understand graphics on them. They are all visually appealing and provide nice niches for the player cubes to track resources throughout the game. The double layered nature of the boards makes these one of my favorite player boards to work with as components don't slide around everywhere when placed on them. With a game like Dinosaur World, this is very important.

Meeples: There are 72 worker meeples (in five colors), 74 dinosaur meeples (is it fair to call them that?), and 4 jeeples (they're little jeep meeples!) that are contained within the box. The worker meeples are small, but easy to determine what type they are since they not only have a different color, but also a different visual aspect. The scientists for example are blue but also have a fantastic shock of hair that sticks out from the meeple head. The administrator meeples are green and feature one hand holding a cane (a la Richard Hammond). The security meeples are yellow and feature a fantastic fedora and the park rangers are purple with a pith helmet. The basic white meeples are standard shape to differentiate between the other meeples.

The Jeeples themselves are also great, with each one having a different color and style of vehicle contained on each of the jeeples. They are well-crafted resin pieces that feature a beautiful color transfer on the jeeples as well. This is the first time that the retail version differs from the deluxe version and fortunately, it's only a slight change. While the deluxe version contains multiple jeeple styles, the basic retail version only contains one style of jeeple and fortunately it doesn't affect gameplay.

The dinosaurs themselves are the biggest draw of the game and they too are beautifully designed to reflect the large and small carnivores as well as the herbivores that you'll be adding to your park. Unfortunately, this is another example of a Kickstarter exclusive and while the basic game does have great looking dino standees, the Kickstarter version comes with multiple versions of each of the dinosaurs included in the game, with each type of the dinos getting their own heat-transfer colored dinos. Again, while purely aesthetic, it still does offer a bit of FOMO due to the cool types of dinos included in the Kickstarter version.

Dice: This is where the game truly shines for both retail and Kickstarter versions. There are 9 DNA dice that are beautifully colored and feel heavy and well made and are slightly larger than normal dice for added weight, feel and ease of reading, even across the table. Each of the DNA icons on the dice is heat-transferred and is presented in vibrant colors that work very well. Additionally, there are three separate danger dice included for each of the dinosaur types that also feature the beautiful heat-transfer decals, resulting in vibrant and beautiful dice that roll on your table.

Public Boards, Hexes, and Park Boards: Each of the main island boards, Public Notice Boards, Park Boards, as well as the hexes for the tiles that you add to your park are all layered cardboard and feature easy to read and understand graphics to help players with setup and determination of what they do. While the Public Notice Board is not double layered, which feels like an oversight, it does provide an easy to understand overview of rounds, excitement and player scores, making it simple to know where everyone stands. Central Island boards are large and easy to set up with the different hexes, and each of the hexes contained within the game are well designed and easy to understand to determine what is needed to be performed once they are added to the player parks. Park boards feature slight design changes, but are purely aesthetic and don't reflect any player advantages.

The backs of each of the hexes are also well designed as each one provides information about what attraction is contained on the other side of the board making for easy cleanup. Special Buildings have either an "A", "B", or "C" on the back along with the icon to help with setup and attraction tiles display the basic attraction type on the back for simple setup and teardown. Dino paddock tiles feature the herbivore/carnivores symbol on the back for quick sorting from the other cards and the Welcome Center is double sided to flip to the Park Entrance tile later in the game. All hexes feature fantastic artwork that pairs nicely with the main island boards when face down, making them very aesthetically pleasing.

The Kickstarter version of the game did come with seven extra hexes (six of which are available in the Add On Pack) that are added with the special buildings from the main game. While they don't necessarily add too much to the game, there are a few hexes that do have some beneficial tiles that could change how the game goes for a player.

Remaining Components: Each version of the game comes with a beautifully designed dice bag (although the Kickstarter version comes with a bag with the Dinosaur World logo on it) that fits the DNA dice inside easily. Additionally, there are numerous cardboard tokens that are contained within the game that are used throughout the game, including boredom chits, upgrade tokens, and coins. It should be noted here that the coins contained within the Kickstarter version of the game are metal and are my favorite metal coins that I've been able to play around with. The dino iconography is great and there is significant heft to each of the coins along with varying sizes, colors, and shapes for each coin type.

"Yeah, But John, If The Pirates Of The Caribbean Breaks Down, The Pirates Don’t Eat The Tourists!"

Gameplay: This is really what y'all are here for, isn't it? The gameplay. The reason for getting board games to the table and the mix of mechanics that manipulates the meeples on the mat (well, "board", but I needed an "M" for the alliteration).

I'll start off first by saying that Dinosaur World is definitely a deep game with quite a few significant choices that players can make throughout the game. It's listed as a 3.27 in weight, which makes this the heaviest (both gameplay wise and weight) game in my collection. Whilst I think that sometimes "weight" here on BGG can be a bit higher than I would attribute to games, I would have to agree that Dinosaur World definitely feels more weighty in its choices that you can make on the board. Decisions that are made during the game about which actions to take have long-lasting consequences that persist through the end of the game, making this a game that has significant depth to it. It should be noted that there are included player aides, but with the Kickstarter version there were some errata on the aides. However, the player aides themselves are very well designed and helpful for quick reminders about each phase of the game.

The game proceeds through five separate phases each round and after five rounds, the game ends and final scores are totaled. While this might not seem like to take too long, the each round can take quite a bit of time due to players having to make decisions about what actions to take and man, are there a lot of them. Throughout the game there are numerous ways to earn points, including building tiles, making dinosaurs, activating tiles, increasing your Jeeple Tour track, and completing public objectives. Public objectives award the most points to the first player to complete them and then awards fewer points to the second and third player to complete them, respectively. In a four player game, the fourth player doesn't earn any points if they are the last person to complete an objective, making public objectives something to work towards as soon as possible for the most points. If there is a tie for when a public objective is completed, the player with the most VP at the time of completion gets the higher rewards.

After the initial tile draft where players choose a starting dino paddock and special building, the play proceeds into the normal rounds of the game. To start a round there is a Hire Worker phase that allows each player to choose from a set of worker cards that awards nine separate workers. Generally, there is a mix of four basic workers and five special workers in various color mixes. These workers are used in the next three phases and affect what actions players are able to take as certain workers allow for certain actions to be more beneficial if a worker is used.

The Public Phase of the round which is done in turns, starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise around the table. The "Private Phase" and "Tour Phase" then proceed with each player taking actions simultaneously and concluding once all players have confirmed that they have finished their actions. The round ends with an "Income & Cleanup Phase" which all players take simultaneously as well and sees points, money and first player tokens assigned.

The Public Phase round begins with the start player (determined by whomever has the lowest amount of victory points) choosing one of four actions: gather DNA, build a dino paddock, build an attraction, or build a special building. All but the build an attraction action require money and a worker, which makes this an important step to contemplate the rest of the turn as if players use too many workers, they might not have enough for later portions of the round. DNA Gathering allows players to add more to their bank multiplied by the number of workers used and if players use a scientist meeple, they are able to add an additional basic or advanced DNA to whatever they gathered per scientist used. A dino paddock requires either one administrator worker, or two worker of any other color, plus the cost, which is usually lower than the special buildings. The one caveat with dino paddocks is that they cannot be placed next to another dinosaur, resulting in your park having to be planned well. Special buildings require a worker to purchase, along with the coin cost, but the color of the worker doesn't matter. Special buildings also have a letter ranking from A to C with lower letter buildings costing more, but offering higher rewards and better points. Attractions only have a coin cost and are the general buildings that are available to all players and only one of each attraction can be built per park. Tiles refill each time one is chosen which always offers at minimum three paddocks or special buildings at any time. Players can also only have one of each tile in their park, even if duplicates appear later in the game to be bought by other players.

The Private Phase offers five separate actions to be taken by each player during the phase, with each one requiring a worker to perform and some require additional funds to pay for (or providing additional funding): DNA Refinement, VC Funding, Security, Jeeple Garage, Make Dinosaurs. Each action adds an extra benefit if a special worker is used and players perform all these actions simultaneously. DNA Refinement allows players to combine DNA which allows them to spend two basic DNA to get an advanced DNA, or perform the opposite, getting two basic for one advanced DNA. Colors are primary and secondary, making the split/combination action very easy to determine. For each scientist used, an additional basic DNA is created as well. VC Funding allows players to get coins based on the slot a worker is placed in with administrators adding an additional 1 coin per slot. Security allows players to increase their security by one space, paying coins based on the cost shown on the track, with security workers reducing the cost by 1 per slot. Jeeple Garage allows players to increase their Jeeple Upgrade Track by 1 space based on the cost printed, with Park Ranger workers reducing the cost by 1. Additionally, once players pass a threshold for a new zone, they add a new bonus (which is immediately gained and again at the end of the round) and add an additional route token to add another hex their jeeple can move to during the tour. The Make Dinosaurs phase is fairly self explanatory and players spend a worker and the required DNA to make a dinosaur and place it in it's paddock that also awards both threat and VP upon creation. Players can make up to three dinos per round and each paddock can hold up to four dinos with additional dinos awarding more points, but also costing more (and often different) DNA and potentially adding more threat to the track.

The Jeeple Tour Phase then sees players moving their jeeple through their park, starting at the Welcome Center (or Park Entrance in rounds 4 and 5) and uses the number of Route tokens unlocked by the player. For example, three route tokens allows the jeep to move to three different hexes on the tour. Players can move to any adjacent tile in any direction, but once a route token is placed, players cannot move into that tile again for the rest of the tour. Tiles are activated either by spending workers and/or resources, with excitement being generated for each tile. However, each tile visited generates boredom, which provides less and less excitement for each time a tile is visited. Players activate buildings by placing workers (if necessary), gain or spend the required excitement, increase the boredom, and perform actions associated with the tiles. Some allow for more income, additional DNA, or even creating dinosaurs, but those often require a worker to activate, so planning the tour phase is important. All excitement is tracked on the Public Notice Board and players cannot enter or activate a tile if they don't have the required excitement to spend for a negative excitement level, making planning your tour something that is very important, especially if you've not thought too much about how you built your park. Players do not have to activate a tile if they are unable to, but it does require a movement point to move through the tile. Dino Paddocks can be activated, but require at least one dino in the paddock and each additional dinosaur in the paddock adds additional excitement to the total for the paddock. However, at the end of the tour, players then need to roll danger dice to see if there were any "accidents" that occurred on the tour, gaining death tokens based on what was rolled (either 0, 1 or 2 tokens). Carnivores provide higher excitement, but also have a higher risk associated with the paddocks, with the larger Carnivores providing the most risk to visit (obviously).

The Income & Cleanup Phase begins once all players have finished their tour and players return their jeeple and route tokens back to the starting tile, gain benefits from all bonuses on their jeeple track, collect income based on excitement level with more excitement providing more income, and resetting their excitement level back to 0. Players return all workers placed in the park back to the general supply, but it should also be noted that players do not have to use all worker during their turn and can save workers between rounds. Players then have to evaluate threat and compare it to their security level. If the threat is higher than security, players gain death tokens equal to the amount by which your threat exceeds security. All DNA returns to the bag, 2 Dino Paddock tiles are discarded as well as 2 Special Building tiles are discarded as well at the end of the round, refreshing the remaining tiles on the boards. Turn order is determined by fewest to most VP and the round marker is moved to the next space. At the end of round 3, players flip their Welcome Center tile and place it at least three spaces away in a new spot in their park for the final two rounds.

The game ends after five rounds (or six for a longer game) and players total points. This includes totaling points for extra benefits listed on the park hexes, getting 1 VP per coin, and determining points lost per death tokens. The player with the fewest death tokens discards all their tokens and all other players discard an equal number of death tokens themselves. The remaining death tokens result in a loss of VP based on the number of tokens remaining. Once totals are finalized, the player with the most VP at the end of the game wins.

With so much to do during the game, it must be said that anyone with "Analysis Paralysis" could make this game go longer. There's quite a bit to do each round with all the phases and with the glut of potential options that could be taken, players often have an overwhelming amount of actions that could be taken during their turns. I personally love the level of depth that this game entails as it hearkens back to my time playing RollerCoaster Tycoon and while it doesn't have as much freedom as Roller Coaster Tycoon, there's a significant number of actions that can be taken that all require careful and strategic planning.

Each game that I've played has felt extremely different from one another and although I generally have the mindset of building up as many dinosaurs as possible and saying "forget security," that risk/reward nature often means that I have a high number of points, but I also lose quite a bit at the end of the game due to my overall deaths. It's very interesting to play the game with other people as there's numerous strategies that could be viable with this game which makes me appreciate it even more.

Additionally, the included solo mode (with the Kickstarter version) adds some significant replayability and adds in a new mechanic: dino escapes. This and added worker cards adds in another level of depth to the game and challenges players with obtaining a high score and each time I've played there's been significant changes due to each worker card being randomly chosen at the beginning of the game. The clever nature of the additional mechanics make me wish that they were included in the base game, but that's for me to talk about in the next section.

"Yeah, But Your Scientists Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could That They Didn’t Stop To Think If They Should."

We've come to the part of the review that I find the hardest: pointing out the things in the game that aren't the best. First and foremost, I would like to point out that I'm not a big fan of Kickstarter exclusive items, although I am happy that they released an "add-on" pack for the game that adds what was in the Kickstarter version for people to purchase. It unfortunately is what contains the solo mode (as it's not included in the retail version for whatever reason) and while I'm glad they also give the cool dino minis with the heat-transfer visuals, I wish that it wasn't an additional $30 MSRP to play the game solo. It's not a practice that I like since I'm mainly playing games solo and most games nowadays include the solo version in the retail version to play out of the box.

I do also have to note that Dinosaur World is MASSIVE. My dining room table is a 38"x38" table with extendable leaves that make it 38"x60" and the game takes up almost all of the table when playing two players alone. I haven't attempted four players just because we don't have room on the table to play as Dinosaur World takes up so much space. The combination of the Public Boards, Player Boards (and parks that grow as the game progresses) and all the dinosaurs, means that this game takes up quite a bit of space, even when playing two person, and I often find myself wondering how to shrink the table space it takes. I'm hoping that an insert will help reduce the amount of space it takes as that should keep components contained, but without an insert, prepare to have your entire table eaten by this massive beast.

I personally think the dice work much better on the game.

I'm also not a huge fan of the "boredom" chits that are used for tracking on each of the tiles as they are small, fiddly and can be hard to see on the tiles. I've found that using small 5-8mm six sided dice works much better as it provides and easy to see visual reminder and they are significantly less fiddly than the small cardboard chits, plus they are far more easy to clean up than the cardboard chits.

I also wish that there was some more player interaction during the game. There has been a fan-made expansion, "Rampage", that adds more player interaction and adds the fantastic dino escape mechanic from the solo mode as well as a few more solo implementations that adds more player interaction. While Dinosaur World is a great game, it primarily is a solo/solitaire park building game with the only interaction being when a player might take a hex that another player wanted or completes an objective before another person. It's a great game, but does beg for a bit more player interaction for some additional fun.

"Now Eventually You Do Plan To Have Dinosaurs On Your Dinosaur Tour, Right?"

There are also three separate expansions for Dinosaur World that I've been fortunate enough to have included with my copy of the game so I thought that I'd review them here too and talk about what additions each one adds. I will note that each expansion only adds additional dinosaur paddocks that add one or two more mechanics to how the game is played and each one is not really compatible with the others, so they're designed to be played with one active at each time. They're not really necessary for the game, although they do add a few additional quirks that change up gameplay.

The Hybrid Pack is my personal favorite of the expansions since it adds in hybrid dinosaurs that are a mix of carnivore and herbivore dinosaurs. They are able to be counted as one or the other when working towards objectives and feature a new dice that adds security or excitement during the Jeeple Tour phase. Additionally, they feature more danger, requiring players to roll both dice that are associated with the types of dinos that are in the paddock. These dinos tend to be more expensive to build (DNA-wise), but offer greater VP when built.

The Water Pack is the weakest of the three expansions as it adds water dinos, but also a mechanic that adds algae that players then need to remove with workers. Players roll the new dice to determine if 0, 1, or 2 algae is added to the paddock at the beginning of the round and each algae token requires one worker to remove, but presents a negative 1 excitement for each 2 algae remaining. There are end game bonuses for each paddock in the water pack that award additional points per other dinosaur of the respective type (herbivore, small carnivore, large carnivore) in the park. The water dinos also do not escape during the solo game, which is a small benefit, but still doesn't do enough to really make this a pack I want to include every game.

The Ice Age Pack includes my favorite mechanic of the new expansions as it allows and encourages players to build the paddocks close to other dino paddocks. Each tile includes four bonus scoring sides that give bonus points at the end of the game if players match tiles with the respective icons on the Ice Age Paddocks. An additional dice is included as well to roll that awards security, excitement, threat, deaths or even VP and is rolled instead of the normal danger dice. However, at the end of the Jeeple Tour, all paddocks that contain an Ice Age mammal see the player roll a dice for the paddock, even if they weren't visited, presenting another layer of complication.

"Life Finds A Way."

Even after playing quite a few other games, I find myself gravitating back to the realm of Dinosaur World and the depth that it allows for. I enjoyed the game enough that I included it on my 10x10 Challenge for 2024 and I have completed 3 games so far this year of the game. While I do wish that the game was slightly easier to setup, that should (hopefully) be mitigated by an insert, and I'm excited to continue playing this game as I personally think it's a great addition to my collection. I know that there's also a Roll and Write version, Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'n Write, that I hope to add to my collection when I'm not in the mood for something as deep, but for now, I'm very happy with what the game entails.

As a kid, I always wanted to run my own dinosaur park after seeing Jurassic Park, and I finally get my opportunity with Dinosaur World. While there are a few areas that the game stumbles in implementation and execution, I still think that this is an excellent medium-weight game that would be a fantastic addition to any collection that lacks a great dinosaur game. There's a significant level of depth and play that is contained within the game and I always look forward to being able to play the game again once I total everything up. That's why I give Dinosaur World a 9/10 and continue to keep it in my collection.

Give Your Thoughts:What are your thoughts, if any on Dinosaur World? Has it been a game that you've attempted to play and just found yourself not liking it? What are your favorite dinosaur themed games?

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*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 31/5/2024*