Everyone who’s watched a Jurassic Park movie has thought, “damn, even I could run that park better than these chumps”.
But could you?
Jurassic World: Evolution answers that question by putting us in charge of designing and managing a dino-park in the Las Cinco Muertes Archipelago.
Couldn’t they choose a place with a less ominous name than “the five deaths”?
Once you’ve mastered the art of keeping your park running without any deadly accidents, you’ll be itching to expand your horizons – and mods are just the way to do it.
These are some of the best ones for Jurassic World: Evolution.
Nothing says “great park management” as some appealing and well-maintained fences. It’s telling of an establishment’s priorities, and it’s the kind of things visitors to your park will mention in the reviews.
This mod by MrTroodon1 adds a lot more variety to your fence selection, with new materials, designs, and sizes for ultimate control over every detail of your park layout.
Keep in mind it only applies to Jurassic World-era fences.
Creator DrunkSayori offers us a remarkable contribution to our herbivorous wildlife – the Lambeosaurus.
This weird-looking hadrosaurid roamed the great plains of North America sometime during the Late Cretaceous period some 75 million years ago.
They’re known for the crest that grows on their head, which changes a lot as they age. We used to believe young Lambeosaurus to be a whole other species due to size and the crest’s shape.
The triceratops is one of the most iconic dinosaur species known to humankind. Everyone knows what a triceratops looks like, and countless dinosaur-themed films feature the Late Cretaceous beast.
This mod by JaggedFangDesigns aims to make Triceratops in JWE even cooler with higher-quality textures and more appealing patterns on their bodies and crests.
This heroic herbivore has never looked this good.
And it’ll add some much-needed variety to your Ceratopsidae genus.
I’ve always been a bit of a hipster, and rather than breeding the most famous kind of ceratopsid, I’d prefer something a little bit more obscure.
The Pachyrhinosaurus – meaning Thick-nosed Lizard – is known among paleontologists for its protuberant nose.
These pronounced nasal structures were probably used for competition between males, among other things. It gives it a distinguished look that inspires respect.
This unique dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous used to inhabit northern American territories like modern-day Alaska – and thanks to creator Harlequinz_Eg0, you can find it in the Las Cinco Muertes archipelago.
Not everything in this list is structures and new dinosaur species – there’s also a little something to spice up your vehicles and a couple of other ubiquitous items.
This Vehicle Reskins mod by GH0ST627 aims to brighten up your game by repainting the excavation chopper, the JP-era helicopter, the ranger vehicle, and even the ACU helicopter with more colorful and appealing tones.
I especially liked the author’s take on the classic Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler from the original film.
It may have a pretty long (and hard to pronounce) name, but the Psittacosaurus was the cutest little creature you could find during the Early Cretaceous.
This species could be found from China to Siberia and everything in-between.
It looks like someone spliced together a gecko and a chicken, but this parrot lizard is a full-fledged member of the Ceratopsidae suborder.
This mod by NanoLancensis brings the Psittacosaurus as a new standalone species to our park – including details like a Zoopedia entry and fun facts.
A new hybrid species makes its way out of the gene lab and into your park.
It’s the Dracodentitan, a dangerous cross between the agile Baryonyx and sturdy Polacanthus.
The resulting beast is a fierce carnivore with the most menacing set of front teeth I’ve ever seen. This dude looks like it was designed to inflict horror on its enemies on the battlefield, so don’t be surprised when agents from DARPA show up to make you an offer you can’t refuse.
Creator DrPenny233 went through the trouble of adding an in-depth database entry with all the information and fun facts you’d find on a base game creature, so be sure to check that out.
Popularly known as the Tyrant King of the East, the Tarbosaurus is an Asian relative of the T-Rex with even shorter arms and just as much destructive power.
Creator TigerRed1298 brings us this majestic beast to display at our park.
Its narrow snout helps tell it apart from the famous T-Rex, and your guests will be able to appreciate how environmental differences may result in notable phenotypical differences.
I doubt it has anything to do with how it looked in real life. But I love the flashy aquamarine color.
It’s truly a bad-ass and reminds me of a basilisk lizard.
One of the first successful mods for JPE was the JPOG Texture Pack by DANNYBOB, aimed at fans who want to delve into their nostalgia.
The mod replaces several dinosaurs’ textures for ones inspired by the 2003 game Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, the first 3D theme park simulation title based on the franchise.
The game wasn’t perfect.
But for some, it was the beginning of a long-standing romance with dino-park administration.
The retextured dinosaurs include the Camarasaurus, the Kentrosaurus, and several other large carnivores. It also touches herbivores like the Triceratops and Torosaurus.
If you’re playing a Jurassic Park game, you’re probably looking to re-live the movies’ charm from a new perspective.
Northfire’s Realistic Textures can put you one step closer to your aim.
This mod replaces most textures in the environment for a more realistic, movie-accurate look, that helps you tell ground types apart and makes some props like rocks and trees pop out.
It also makes grass slightly thinner and adds new banners for the Gyrosphere, Aviary, and Creation Lab.
I’ve always loved zoos because they let me get to know majestic creatures I’d never have seen otherwise.
But looking at caged beasts has always put a damper on the experience.
This mod by Zarp10 will help your visitors forget about the ethical implications of locking dinosaurs up by making your fences invisible. Don’t worry, they’re still there and are just as strong – you just can’t see them anymore.
The mod also makes some other building utilities such as light and heavy cables invisible, opening up some exciting design options.
If you genuinely want to reach the heights of creative freedom in Jurassic World Evolution, you need Ultimate Mixed Eras by Kaiodenc.
As its title suggests, this mod removes all structure limitations from sandbox mode, allowing you to build anything from any era. This includes special buildings like the Operations Centre and Arrival Monorail Stations.
It doesn’t affect the campaign or JW Challenge modes, so you won’t have to worry about any conflicts there.
No, this is not a mob from Diablo or anything of the sort. The Diabloceratops is a real dinosaur species whose fossils place in the cretaceous period near modern-day Utah.
Its name comes from the Spanish word “diablo”, meaning “devil”.
One look at the horns atop its face can clue you in as to why it was named after the demon lord.
Creator Magno included several alternative skin patterns and colors for different environments like rain-forests and the tundra – but my favorite has to be the bright blue-colored “null” skin.
All kinds of horrifying predators have existed in the history of the world, but even evolution hasn’t created something as over-the-top as the Excavaraptor.
This bad-ass black raptor was due to appear in the fourth Jurassic Park film before it was canceled.
It’s a shame we never got to see this large-handed dinosaur on the big screen. But keeping it around on our island is the next best thing.
This dinosaur addition by Slaka_D is one of the very best fictional new species in the mod scene.
There are some aspects of JWE’s gameplay that seem a bit misguided – and MrTroodon1 has taken the time to hunt these little details down and fix them.
This is an overhaul of everything happening inside your dinosaur’s mind and body. Once installed, you’ll notice large carnivores socializing.
Your dinosaurs will also only mess with the prey they could realistically hunt, so no more small and medium-sized carnivores hunting larger hadrosaurs.
Attack and defense stats have also been reworked for more realism whenever dinosaurs duke it out against one another.
This has the secondary consequence of making large herbivores harder to keep, requiring fence repair much more often.
The De-Hybridized Dinosaur Pack by creator Sweetener adds three new species based on hybrids featured in the franchise.
It features the armored ceratopsian Agathauma, the massive Chinese titanosaurian Borealosaurus, and the bipedal carnivore Utahraptor – found in, well, you know.
These are all fantastic, imposing additions to the Las Cinco Muertes archipelago.
Prolific creator MrTroodon1 finds the base game dinosaur textures a bit dull and unbecoming of some of the most extraordinary beasts ever to walk the Earth.
They set out to fix this with the Dinosaur Model and Texture Edits mod, which works exactly as advertised. It doesn’t change every single dinosaur, but it does give most of them a makeover. The lucky ones include the Baryonyx, the Camarasaurus, and the Diplodocus, among many others.
The mod also includes some optional files that change some particular species to look more like their 1993 Kenner’s Figures incarnations.
It’s also possible to replace the Indominus Rex for the Ultimasaurus from Kenner’s 1998 Chaos Effect line of action figures.
Wherever there is a facility management simulator, there’s a mod to make maps larger – and JWE is no exception.
Expanded Islands by TheTohoSociety will give you enough space to create sprawling mega-projects and run whatever experiment you want on your genetically engineered dinosaur population.
With it, you can cram every kind of environment you can think of into the same island without a hitch.
Creator Harlequinz_Eg0 brings us new and improved tools for terraforming our dinosaur reserve with more detail.
It replaces the stock terrain tools with something similar to Planet Coaster, another popular management simulator.
One of the most important changes is the addition of sliders, which replace the set values for brush size and tool intensity. It’s far more sophisticated, and lets you easily create hills, valleys, and plains with more natural angles.
We’ve covered some fantastic visual improvements so far.
But I’m always looking for the one mod that’ll catapult my experience to the next level.
When it comes to dinosaur appearance, the Jurassic Park Expansion Pack by Lucca2951 is that mod.
It touches all the dinosaurs from the original Jurassic Park Trilogy like the T-Rex, the Velociraptor, and the Parasaurolophus, replacing textures and meshes so the reptiles look more like their movie counterparts.
If you’re a die-hard fan of the films or want to switch things up, this is a fantastic offering.
I remember playing the classic Jurassic Park III Park Builder on the GBA and being terrible at it. I was a little bit too young, and being the ancient reptilian version of Tiger King was just beyond my skill set.
Creator ConstantChange, on the other hand, seems to have loved the game and celebrates it through this Expansion Pack, which brings a massive 59 dinosaur increase to your park’s biodiversity.
That’s nearly doubling the roster!
These include the Eoraptor, Megalosaurus, Mononykus, and much more.
It may seem like a lot, but it still pales against the original GBA game’s 127 carnivores and 104 herbivores.
One of the best ways to improve your park’s appeal is the Environment Rework by DANNYBOB, which aims at retexturing the entire terrain with more detailed and colorful textures.
All the main textures have been replaced (dirt and shrub will be easier to distinguish, for example), and other minor improvements have been made.
These include more fallen tree logs here and there, and retouched props like rocks and vegetation for a sharper, more saturated landscape.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
