Eco East Africa

The Good
The role-play of being the park Warden.

The Bad
The insinuation that one of the inter active computer players is not a friend never plays out. Deploying rangers to area's never seems to deter poaching; the Warden is the only one who ever finds poacher's camps, and spends most of his/her time looking for them, and not really getting to enjoy the park. The rangers constantly leave WITH their guns, nothing seems to keep them happy. All requests to serve as a ranger or scientist come early in the game, there is no contingency for long-term game play. Eventually, animals, rangers, and the natives all start to decline and eventually disappear. At the 20th year or so, the Warden always falls victim to a hungry lion. Once the park is up and running and successful, it's boring gameplay from that point until the lion attack. It would be great if someone would come up with an updated version. Sometimes the lion doesn't even let the player get that far. Very frustrating when it happens early in the gameplay. Dead carcasses never get cleared once the animal is attacked. Uglies up the scenery.

The Bottom Line
Fun to play for a few mindless hours. Frustrating in the beginning to get funds and run the park. Boring to constantly be looking for poachers camps. Rewarding to just go wandering and watch the animals, very realistic there. Challenging to get the funds and buy supplies, but do-able eventually. Once the park is successful, the gameplay is flat. Unless you just like hanging around to watch the lion attack. Changing the scientists around seems to have no effect, even after the animals start to decline.