Jurassic World Evolution 2: Late Cretaceous Pack Review

We’re not sure how long Frontier Developments plan to continue building out Jurassic World Evolution 2, but over the course of the ten months since release, that base game has been well complemented; the Early Cretaceous Pack, the Camp Cretaceous Dinosaur Pack and the biggy, the movie-inspired Dominion Biosyn expansion, have added in some serious content to a game that was already full to the brim. 

Now though we’ve got the Jurassic World Evolution 2: Late Cretaceous Pack, another DLC drop that promises even more dinos – those that roamed the land more than sixty-five million years ago. 

Running at a fairly cheap price point, the Jurassic World Evolution 2: Late Cretaceous Pack will set you back £5.99, and this puts it firmly in line with the first pack that started the content drops off. It’s much cheaper than the Dominion Biosyn Expansion, but that is very much found in the amount of content on offer. However, much like our thoughts which surrounded the Early Cretaceous Pack, it does feel like the Late Cretaceous Pack is a little on the skimpy side. It’s likely to find love from fans of Jurassic World Evolution 2, but a game changer this is not. 

So what do you get in the Jurassic World Evolution 2: Late Cretaceous Pack? Well, there are a couple of land based animals, a flyer which will be at home soaring through your park and a marine species that is utterly deadly. Aside from that, it’s lacking.

It’s the Barbaridactylus which is possibly the most exciting addition for us, if only as the more flyers that we can get in our park, the better. This one is a stunner too, running a – frankly superb – head crest which allows it to stand out from the crown. Super-pointy in all the right areas, this pterosaur happily feeds off the fish in your park, swooping down for a bite whenever it gets a fancy. 

But it’ll need to be careful because in those waters lies the terrifying Styxosaurus. An eel-like creature that is pretty much all neck and little else, anything and everything that goes near its watery habitat will know about it. Swift, powerful, and complete with a jaw that will crush anything that it comes into contact with, the Styxosaurus should be a park pleasure. At least, it would be if it was a bit better looking; nothing was shining down on this one when it was created. That can be fixed via the power of the Jurassic World scientists though and there are a range of diverse bioluminescent pattern colours that can be infused into the Styxosaurus. There are a ton of patterns and skin colours for you to inject, allowing you the chance to personalise this one massively. 

With the air and sea options very much exhausted in a heartbeat, the Late Cretaceous Pack can only then fall on to a couple of land-based dinosaurs – but these are two beasts for very different reasons. 

The lumbering Alamosaurus is one of the biggest land dinosaurs to be discovered. It’s a huge thing at some thirteen metres in height and twenty-nine in length. But, it’s a bit of a docile beast, a cutie that we’ve had great pleasure in watching thrive. Feeding off of the taller trees and armoured with spikes for times of need, there’s not much in the dino world that could take this guy down. 

You’d probably give the Australovenator a chance though, mostly due to the sheer speed it moves at. Characterised as the ‘cheetah of its time’, this is a seriously swift bipedal theropod, one whose name literally translates into ‘southern hunter’. In fact, we were unaware of the existence of the Australovenator but a quick Google points to it being Australia’s answer to the fearsome, much more famous, Velociraptor. You can see why too and so if you’re looking for something to excite, the Australovenator is probably it. Get a pack of them going and even the biggest of dinos would have its work cut out to survive a pack of these raptors – sorry Alamosaurus. 

You cannot fault Frontier for delving into the depths of the Late Cretaceous period and picking out four species of animal that are so diverse, but those four are all that is delivered in the Jurassic World Evolution 2: Late Cretaceous Pack. On the back of the much bigger Dominion Biosyn expansion, it all feels just a little disappointing.

All that means is that with the lack of properly good content being reflected in the asking price, there’s probably just about room for the four new dinosaurs that make up the Late Cretaceous Pack to find a place in your park, particularly if you’ve gone all in with previous content drops. Be aware, this isn’t the pack that will have you heading back to your Jurassic World with excitement, nor fear. 

The Jurassic World Evolution 2: Late Cretaceous Pack is available on the Xbox Store