A genuine critique of this game

Jurassic World Alive General Discussion
#1

Disclaimer: I am not trying to hate on the game itself. I am a huge fan and have been playing since launch. This is just what I see are the problems that are currently hindering the game, and the problems that have underlined it for a while. I also have zero experience with game design and marketing. This is the perspective of but one player.

I have been noticing a very concerning pattern in this game, and that is the method of new content being added into this game, and that is what can be described as an overhaul per update.

Lemme explain.

The game keeps adding new content, but does nothing to ensure that upon release, the new content adds benefits to gameplay. Lately, new content seems to be quite bothersome, with new apexes, hybrids, and a severe focus on the elite.

Let’s take it from the beginning.

Some may not know about one of the first terrors of the pvp: Monomimus. Yes, it was a beast, and Ludia thankfully nerfed it. However, it was nerfed to the point of no return. This is a very common and recurring pattern that I have been noticing. It’s one thing to nerf a creature, but it’s another to make it so irrelevant that no one would ever want to actually obtain it, fundamentally making it a waste of a creature. This has happened to so many. Procerathomimus, Indoraptor, etc. What’s the point of having a creature if it gets slapped in the face the next patch or update and forgotten. You can argue that this is balance, but it’s more of a backhanded way to appease the audiences by placing less effort.

The pattern so far is this: new creature, op hybrid, fans get mad, hybrid gets shoehorned, or is left untouched, as another new op creature gets added, and repeat. This pattern is very…lackluster in appeal. Especially with the more recent additions. Rexy. Absolutely a beast in practically every aspect. Can cover every weakness a Fierce class has. Slow? She can outspeed a lot of things a high-damage fierce should not be able to. Damage reduction? Cleanse with an already obscene attack stat. Want to run away? Priority move and lockdown. Very fun to use, but absolutely awful to be up against. Where have we seen this sorta thing before? Megalotops, Indoraptor Gen 2, Procerathomimus, Monomimus, Thoradolosaur, Dracoceratops, Monolometrodon and Monolorhino, Ardentismaxima and Geminititan, etc.

The fact that this game has repeated this for so long and with so many is genuinely conerning. It forces players to only stand by a single meta instead of exploring their options and building their own teams.

If the game is about exploration and collecting and fusing, having such a narrow focus on an now-oversaturated group of creatures is just kinda contradictory to that.

14 Likes
#2

Going off of “oversaturated”, this game lacks severe variety in not just creatures themselves, but the rarities in which theyre in. There are far more Legendary hybrids and Unique hybrids to the point where the term Rare for hybrids actually fits, because there are less than 10 of them. These ones are meant to be more accessible to lower-level players and having such a restrictive roster doesn’t help at all.

Another thing is hybrid design. I have mentioned this so many times before, and I will say it again: The hybrids of this game are a genuine demonstration of a hit or miss. So many have such potential, yet turn out uninteresting, or barely even resembling their primary components at all, or in the worst case, are a fusion of two similar-enough creatures where the final result just looks like a non-hybrid animal. There are a far bigger majority of hybrids that I consider to be good compared to the ones that are just “why”, but those “why” ones make me concerned as to how these animals are being fused. There are so many creative takes possible on hybrids, but due to a combination of animation rig restraints and/or a lack of creativity in concepts, they just end up looking…well, I often use Grypolyth and Edmontoguanodon as examples, so let’s just go with them. JWTG has the excuse of having lvl 40’s just so bizarre and wacky that it’s actually charming. Bright colors, spikes everywhere, and exaggerated features have become staples of their aesthetic. JWA is just…muted compared to it.

8 Likes
#3

I will not deny what Ludia has done to better benefit the game, with new mechanics like alliances and missions to better gain an upper hand and some QoL, it does not excuse the other sides that can be overlooked.

2 Likes
#4

This exactly, it’s by far my least favorite part about the game.

One thing this powercrept meta is achieving is actually making the Aviary and Library meta more diverse, as many players in there are incapable of instantly adapting to the meta like the top players. It’s quite nice having pretty diverse metas in there, but it could be so much more.

The problem is, they don’t care. Not that they don’t care about the game in general, they do care, but it’s the fact that they only care about a set amount of creatures and nothing else. There are hundreds of creatures in this game, 302 to be exact, with even more coming out tomorrow. However, there are only about 20 creatures one would even consider using in shores. This huge lack of diversity is what’s making the game very unfun for many players, and is what gives this game so much missed potential. There are 38 uniques and 10 apexes, why are only a third of these remotely useful endgame?

Not only does arena suffer this huge issue, but tournaments have it WAY worse. There are a whopping Sixty-five legendaries in this game, yet top tournament battles only revolve around 7 creatures (now probably only one because Rexy is on a whole other power level). Why can’t I use Darwezopteryx without getting obliterated, despite it being about as difficult to unlock as Tarbognathus? 77 epics in the game, yet only about 10 can be used successfully. 70 rares, but again, only about 10 are usable in top tournament battles.

Want to know why we have so many nerf threads and not many buff threads? It’s because there are so many creatures in this game that need a buff that buffing only one does absolutely nothing to help the game’s diversity. This is supposed to be a collection game where players can build teams freely and have fun with them. We shouldn’t be restricted to using a small amount of creatures just to win battles and have fun in general.

5 Likes
#5

You can win with any team. It’s just you can’t just switch off your good set of creatures for others without going on a big losing streak to get that new team to its place in the pecking order to where you win/lose 50/50. Losing over an over isn’t fun. Of course on the other hand switching from a weak team to a strong team and you get a big winning streak. This is with unboosted creatures. I couldn’t imagine switching from a highly boosted team to a team of non-boosted creatures. That would be one long losing streak.

I do this because I have pretty much all unboosted creatures and it’s best to switch out one or two at a time so if those are weaker, I only lose 2-3 battles in a row, maybe, to get to my new position in the arena. The addition of boosts really killed it for players to be able to swap to different creatures. I see this so I don’t boost except for my raid teams and generally don’t use those in PvP.

1 Like
#6

Another aspect of the game that has been heavily criticized is the overall lag and frequent inconveniences it has: map and creature spawns. Creature spawns are often, at least from my experiences, very unhelpful when it comes to the spawn percentages and locations of creatures. I know that rotational zones exist and epics and rares are meant to be less likely, the combination of janky spawns, interference to creature access from neighbouring bosses, and the location of dart targets on some creatures, notoriously the snakes, makes it often frustrating.

The map also experiences frequent lags, which can despawn important finds at times, and often events can be far away from people who do not have as much access to quick mobility as others, and then can be rid of once players arrive at a certain location.

5 Likes
#7

Well, you can win with any team. The main problem is that with the huge power gap between creatures, the weaker creatures are either carried by the stronger ones, or your team overall does worse, and worse than it should if the game were to have an actually balanced meta. A team consisting of Trykosaurus, Thorodolosaur, Pterovexus, Smilonemys, Monolorhino, Ceramagnus, Magnapyritor, and Tryostronix is going to win less than a team of Refrenantem, Parasauthops, Albertospinos, Skoonasaurus, Scorpius Rex Gen 3, Rexy, Troodoboa, and Ardontognathus, when put at the same trophy count. I personally don’t think a team should have to perform less based simply on what specific creature you chose, no matter how balanced your team is. Players should be able to have their own personal team different than the majority of players, without being negativity impacted progress-wise by doing so.

2 Likes
#8

Yeah it’s even getting to the point were some of the old powercreepers (like vasilas and indot) are getting powercrept themselves. At this point in a game with over 300 playable creatures only 13 of them are actually viable in the top arena

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