We are incredibly excited to see Frontier continuing their amazing support for Jurassic World: Evolution – this time with the announcement of their first paid DLC (Bar the pre-order dinosaurs for those of you who missed out on those!).
This DLC, titled ‘Secrets of Dr Wu’ (Reveal video here), was revealed by Community Manager Bo Marit on the Frontier Forums on the 8th of November. The DLC will include new missions, new locations on both Isla Muerta and Isla Tacano, and five new dinosaurs added to the mix. So far, we have seen the ever popular Trodoon, as featured within Telltale’s Jurassic Park: The Game, and the brand-new Olorotitan, and three more which form the focus of this DLC.
So, what is the focus of this DLC, I hear you ask? Well – much like in Jurassic World, and Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, Henry Wu has been hard at work on brand new Hybrids which will join Jurassic World! These include Ankylodocus, Stegoceratops, and Spinoraptor – combinations of some of the most popular dinosaurs in the franchise. Stegoceratops is of special note – as it appears in Jurassic World on the monitor in Wu’s lab, and is very cool to see here! These dinosaurs come alongside additional genetic traits for dinosaurs within the DLC – including the option to allow the Indominus Rex to camouflage. What will this mean for our ACU teams, who already struggle containing this beast? We will have to wait and see!
All of this comes alongside slightly smaller change in the latest patch – such as new dinosaur behaviours, day/night cycles and more. These will be available to existing players – regardless of whether they choose to purchase the upcoming DLC, and it is fantastic to see Frontier committing to longevity for the game.
I am also excited to share that I had the chance to ask Bo Marit (Frontier Community Manager) a couple of questions relating to the new DLC! Check them out below:
Tom: Starting off – how has the community reaction to Jurassic World: Evolution been so far?
Bo: Hi Tom! We’ve been so excited about the community’s reaction! Paul (Crowther, red.), Chanté, and myself have been preparing the announcement for a while, monitoring how the community was doing and what they were hoping for. We knew 1.5 was going to address some major community feedback, so it was very exciting to finally tell everyone about it!
As always, the support we’ve received is mind-blowing to say the least; it’s been great to go through everyone’s thoughts and comments when we announced it, and to see the excitement for new content in the game – some even guessed the new dinosaurs correctly. We’re trying hard to meet everyone’s expectations, and I hope this update illustrates how much time, effort and love the development team are still putting into the game. Overall, it’s been an amazing week for the Jurassic community and for us, and we can’t wait to share more about the Secrets of Dr. Wu!
Tom: Super exciting to see new dinosaurs in this update! What kind of process goes into choosing the new dinosaurs which get added in Evolution?
Bo: We initially looked at the Jurassic lore (films and books) and prioritised based on which species were appearing and the frequency of those appearances. We also looked at previous Jurassic games and what dinosaurs they had. Finally we wanted to have a good balance of species that resembled the campaign of JWE and the Jurassic lore as a whole; we wanted to do as many as possible for the game’s launch and then we just continued from there.
Tom: I know you’re a big fan of games – and we finally see the Trodoon added here! Did you ever get to play Telltale’s Jurassic Park game, where a lot of love for this dino comes from?
Bo: I haven’t played it myself, but I know a bunch of the JWE team did of course! And we know the games our community love and care about, so it’s really humbling for us all to have Jurassic World Evolution among the greats!
Tom: It’s incredibly exciting seeing Hybrids added – if you could make your dream dinosaur Hybrid, what would it be and why?
Bo: That’s so difficult! I did my Bosaurus impression on the stream the other day, which is like a Velociraptor with a Compy: weird and creepy and vicious, lurks from a tree and then attacks you!
As for the Secrets of Dr. Wu, I can’t wait to play around with the Spinoraptor and the Stegoceratops; they both look absolutely amazing in the game, and I think they’d be a real challenge to keep in the park, haha!
Tom What was it like getting to play with a character like Henry Wu again? Did you get BD back to reprise his role?
Bo: BD Wong did reprise his role, yes, and he’s just so amazingly evil! It’s been great having access to Universal’s database and the original characters, they just add so much personality and nostalgia to the game. The new content is kind of preceding the evil Henry Wu from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and the hybrids he’s auctioning off there. It’s been really interesting to delve deeper into the character for sure.
Tom: Lastly – can we expect more DLC for the game in the future?
Bo: Nice try, Tom!
Ah man – worth a try! Thanks Bo – really appreciate it!
Jurassic World: Evolution: Secrets of Dr Wu releases on consoles and PC on the 20th of November for £12.99 ($14.99, €14.99) and will be available to anyone who already owns the base game of Jurassic World Evolution.
Written by:
Tom Fishenden