Zoo Time Review (PC)

Rubber arms that flail in the wind? Check. Rag doll physics that make everything seem mismatched and perhaps even a little broken? Check. A barn full of farmyard animals that would soon rather make your life a living nightmare than offer an extra helping hand to aid you on your quest to bath a hippo? Check, check, and check. Zoo Time has arrived, and it has pulled out all of the stops to give the likes of Party Animals and Overcooked something to quake in their boots about. What’s more, the creators behind it have made a conscious effort to spruce up the bloodstream of the tired yet homely comfort that is the team-based party genre with its own brand of sauce. But more on that later.

Zoo Time doesn’t make the average agricultural task look easy, nor does it exactly give fledgling farmhands the confidence boost they so desperately crave to ease themselves into an easygoing career choice, for that matter. It’s ludicrous—pandemonium on a silver platter, even. It’s the sort of party game that loves the idea of being as chaotic and and as messy as possible, without having to resort to mindless violence or tactile gestures. To put it simply, it’s the game that you would turn to after a long, long day at the office—a momentary respite that feels both welcoming and oddly wholesome, despite being backed by relentless waves of nonsensical zoo-based scenarios. And I’m all for it.

If you’re looking to lend your hand to the whimsical world of zoo keeping, then grab a few friends and stick with us a while longer as we unpack Purple Phobia’s latest co-op-based party IP.

Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You

Zoo Time would be a simple do-good co-op game if not for the rebellious animals constantly making your life a living hell. But that’s exactly what this is: a game where people, or zookeepers, in an ideal world, must complete routine tasks while the weight of the world (or the might of a hippopotamus) sheds its burdens on your shoulders in an attempt to thwart your progress. In a traditional top-down format à la Overcooked, each of these avid zookeepers are given the joint goal of preventing all hell from letting loose, whether it’s by working together to wrangle animals, fortify their enclosures, or fulfilling certain goals before the final grain in the hourglass meets its final dune.

There are a few difficulty levels to choose between here, with the easier options allowing you to take more time completing objectives, and the tougher ones providing more of a hands-on challenge. Either way, the gameplay still plays out in a similar fashion, with the bulk of the experience primarily consisting of collaborating to overcome obstacles, and earning your stripes in exchange for other, more lavish perks between sessions. To that end, you could argue that it is, respectfully speaking, a lot like its adversaries, with a lot of the same progression hooks and game modes that you might find in your typical squad-based party game. Not that this is a bad thing, though.

Bubbling Over

A physics-based game at heart, Zoo Time doesn’t boast the tightest gameplay mechanics in the world. Instead, what you have here is a hectic, almost useless set of controls that don’t exactly play ball or react in the same way that you would half expect them to. But that’s the point, I think. The game itself feels awfully sloppy, with most of the scenarios rolling out in a jumbled, almost reckless manner — which is precisely what it aims for, funnily enough. And it’s for that reason alone that, even if you are somewhat familiar with the party game scene, you still won’t be able to find stable ground here. But that’s a good thing; it means all players begin and end on a the same playing field.

As chaotic and as mindless as Zoo Time is, the game is still surprisingly enjoyable, with its deep pocket of zoo-based objectives and multiplayer modes offering more than enough comical moments to justify the price tag alone. It isn’t perfect, at least not from a conceptual standpoint, though it does come clean with some slinky physics-based control systems, adorable candy-coated graphical elements, and a generously crafted collection of maps, animals, and diverse tasks, to boot. Could it do with another spoonful? Probably, yes, if only to increase the overall replay value.

Verdict

There’s something awfully endearing about the image of several clueless zookeepers flailing their heads and desperately trying to execute their dreams with all odds stacked firmly against them, isn’t there? Party games, in general, have that sort of effect on you—the kind that you know all too well is ridiculous, but can’t help but bathe in for more hours than you’d probably like to admit. Zoo Time, especially, has that same look about it, with all of its contents being as equally silly as they are downright entertaining to watch unfold over the course of multiple seasons alongside a few fellow farmhands.

To give credit where it’s due, Zoo Time is definitely one of the more enjoyable party games that I’ve had the pleasure of dipping my toes into in the past few months or so. While it isn’t perfect, it does manage to incubate a lot of great playable modes and in-game features that make an otherwise annoyingly familiar blueprint all the more compelling and binge-worthy. On that note, if you, too, could do with a few laughs at the expense of your friend’s misfortune, then perhaps you ought to consider trying your hand at wrangling a few highland cows in Zoo Time. It won’t coerce you into swapping career paths or anything, but it’ll certainly make you develop a mutual respect for the local zookeepers. Unless said zookeepers are your friends in Zoo Time, that is.