Reviews
[Review] ‘Jurassic World Evolution: Claire’s Sanctuary’ is a Fun New Expansion With Same Old Issues
Since its debut back in June 2018, Jurassic World Evolution has come under fire for its perceived lack of nuance. Reviewers have been quick to point out that, for a management sim, certain features you would expect to see are blatantly missing, whilst much of the content that is present has been written-off as overly simplistic and dumbed down.
Irrespective of whether these criticisms are well-founded, I would personally contend that the game is a fun, highly addictive sandbox that knows just how to please Jurassic fans. What’s more, Frontier Developments have continued to supplement the experience with a mixture of free and premium DLC, filling in some of the aforementioned gaps with deeper customization options, finessed landscaping tools and new, fearsome dinos.
Which brings us to the latest expansion: Claire’s Sanctuary. Released in conjunction with a complimentary update, the new add-on comes with three extra animals, two maps, a fresh bunch of missions, a ‘’Jurassic Tours’’ attraction, and an extensive paleobotany mechanic. Looking at this offering from a quantity point of view, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into, with the campaign alone lasting 6-7 hours and the other mechanics potentially keeping you entertained for even longer.
Of the additions, the most robust is undoubtedly paleobotany, which adds an interesting wrinkle into how you mix-and-match zoo exhibits. Whereas before the vegetation you fed to herbivores was one-size-fits-all (thanks to a nondescript ‘’plant feeder’’), this new system forces you to cultivate a diverse menu that meets various dietary requirements.
It’s a tight balancing act for the player, as you must carefully consider where to place flora so that it meets everyone’s needs. For example, Ankylosauridae are partial to the Horsetail weed, a plant that’s actually hazardous to members of the Stegosauridae family. Thus, it wouldn’t be advisable to house those two creatures in the same cage.
Of course, it’s not always that simple, as you often need to lump animals together when you’re running out of real estate. This leads to you making difficult decisions about your park ecosystem – including what animals you want to keep, whether or not they can cohabitate and if it’s worth taking a risk that you might end up poisoning one them. It’s this kind of tricky dilemma that makes the paleobotany mechanic surprisingly arresting, and if you’re a proper dinosaur nut then you’ll likely appreciate the extra bit of authenticity. Even the process of growing the food is enjoyable, as it’s well-fleshed out without being too overbearing.
Unfortunately, whilst Claire’s Sanctuary manages to make gardening (of all things) enjoyable, the rest of the content is less successful. The new creatures are too closely related to those found in the base-game and don’t bring anything new to the table. Indeed, they look, sound and behave in such familiar ways, that I didn’t even realize the Albertosaurus was part of the DLC. The fact that this update is marching out Z-listers like the Ouranosaurus is even more frustrating when you consider that there still aren’t any flying or aquatic exhibits – which is a gripe that players have had from the very beginning!
On a similar note, the ‘’Jurassic Tours’’ ride is basically a glorified reskin of the old gyrosphere. The only major upgrade being that the safari vehicle can drive through special gates that take guests from one cage to the next. This means that you can feasibly cover the entire park in just one track, instead of having to build lots of separate versions of the attraction. However, other than that, the difference is largely cosmetic.
As for the story, it’s also a mixed bag. On the positive side, the premise does change things up a little by abandoning the whole theme park setting, and having you focus on animal conservation instead. Rather than worrying about attendance figures, star ratings or turning a profit, your job is now to rescue a bunch of dinosaurs from the island, before its central volcano explodes. So basically, it’s just the first act of Fallen Kingdom, but it works reasonably well as the campaign’s ticking clock.
Or it would, were it not for the fact that any sense of jeopardy is entirely deflated by the awkward, finickity mission design. Granted, Jurassic World Evolution has always had a propensity for fucking the player about with its laborious objectives, but Claire’s Sanctuary really takes the piss in this regard. In fact, some of the tasks you are forced to complete feel like elaborate practical jokes on the part of the developer.
There’s one segment that asks you to vaccinate 60+ dinosaurs, a tedious chore that takes up a ludicrous amount of playtime. To get it sorted, you can ask the rangers to do it for you (which is a royal pain in the ass, because you can only issue a few commands per team) or commandeer the Jeep and try it manually. Either way it’s a drag, as you’ll be struggling against the clunky map design and will have to administer the cure to a skittish flock of Gallimimus that never stop moving.
This is by no means the only time-wasting mission – don’t get me started on the long sections where you twiddle your thumbs, waiting for helicopters to arrive -but it’s perhaps the most galling. And it’s hard to get invested in the looming threat of the volcano, when the game grinds to a halt every time you have to deal with bollocks like this.
Plus, there are the other irritations, like how the DLC makes you start from scratch with all your research projects, even if you’ve already completed the base-game. That’s right, you’ve got to go through the rigmarole of acquiring basics like power stations and storm shelters all over again. Why this was deemed necessary is beyond me. What does it add besides padding?
All in all, Claire’s Sanctuary is a diverting, if unessential, purchase. The paleobotany stuff is ace, the campaign has an interesting angle to it, and Jurassic Tours makes for a nice little bonus. However, the recurring quality-of-life issues are starting to grate on me, and I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to be done with these expansion packs. For example, I find it utterly mystifying that Frontier still haven’t improved the feeble range of park amenities or shaken up the mission structure more dramatically. At the very least, they could’ve introduced some pterodactyls by now!
Jurassic World Evolution: Claire’s Sanctuary review code provided by the publisher.
Jurassic World Evolution: Claire’s Sanctuary is out now for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Reviews
‘The Mouths’ Review: Takashi Shimizu’s Cursed Tree Horror Stumbles at the Finish [Fantasia 2026]
Director Takashi Shimizu’s latest, The Mouths, has a pretty straightforward premise: what if an enormous, threatening tree at the edge of a cemetery contained a killer curse? Touch it, make a wish, and let the horror begin.
As fans of Shimizu’s work know, it’s never quite so straightforward. The Japanese director, best known for the Ju-on films, delights in non-linear narratives and haunting specters. In this capacity, The Mouths more or less adheres to formula.
The screenplay was written by Masahiro Yamaura and adapts Sesuji’s novella A Questionnaire About the Mouth. The source material provides a framing device that opens the film before it is swiftly forgotten, only to return in the film’s closing moments in highly amusing fashion.
In between, the film tells the story of four friends who investigate an urban legend of a cursed tree, including soft-spoken Shota (Rihito Itagaki), sensitive Mirei (Momona Kasahara), outgoing Ann (Ai Yoshikawa), and her boastful boyfriend Tatsuya (Keito Tsuna).
Initially, the action seems straightforward: the four teens drive to the cemetery, discussing what Shota heard about the tree with a brief pause at a convenience store in between. Throughout all of these early scenes, the interaction among the teens hints at a complicated dynamic, including a minor spat between Ann and Tatsuya, and Shota’s brief but meaningful glance at Ann in the rearview mirror. These sequences are regularly interrupted by direct address police interviews as present-day Shota, Tatsuya, and Mirei make ominous declarations about the events of that evening.
The first act works because The Mouths is slowly building tension around what happened. It’s obvious from their statements that things will go awry, but Yamaura’s script teases things out. Even when they arrive at the cemetery, rather than proceed directly to the cursed object, the action pauses so Shota can propose a specific course of action: they will proceed to the tree, individually, in a specific order. The wait for the action to kick in is both tantalizing and agonizing.
First up: Shota, followed by Tatsuya, then Ann. Mirei, meanwhile, becomes increasingly reticent, which alarms the others who have already noted her sensitivity to otherworldly phenomena.
When Ann disappears, the film moves into a new act as the remaining members of the group search for her while seemingly being haunted by both her and the tree. This is where Shimizu’s penchant for ghostly figures lurking in the background and peeking around corners comes to the forefront, including one stand-out moment that leans into the curse’s origin: the visual of a hanged woman with a grotesquely stretched neck.
The middle stretch feels a little too familiar to the director’s work, however, so it’s exciting when the last act upends much of what we thought we knew. There is a reason that the film is called The Mouths: not only are most of these people revealed to be unreliable narrators, but it is revealed that several interactions throughout the film were manipulated by characters with malicious intent. These people are not quite what they seemed.
This revisionist filter on the events of the movie’s first half is provocative and enticing, though the creative team struggles to execute it without devolving into messy confusion. There’s at least one plot beat that should be a massive revelation, but both the visuals and the dialogue render it quite confusing, which robs the moment of some of its power. This is a shame, because the last act is what makes the film stand out from other curse/ghost movies.
The performances of the main four teens are solid, with Itagaki getting to show the most range. Many of the supporting characters, including a pair of frenemies who also become involved in the curse, as well as the detective investigating the case, feel a bit superfluous; the film would have benefitted from cutting back some of these scenes or, alternately, beefing up a few of these roles to justify their inclusion.
The Mouths’ other big element is its sound design. The area around the tree is surrounded by wet mud that slurps and sucks at shoes, while the cursed bark is covered in cicadas, whose distinctive buzz and crunchy shells provide evocative foley.
Overall, The Mouths is a solid but slightly inessential addition to Shimizu’s filmography. For the auteur’s fans, there’s plenty to appreciate, particularly the way the Japanese master sets up scares and pays them off, including good moments in a library and later when the detective is driving. On the other hand, the film’s big reveal is handled so clumsily that its potency is disappointingly muted.
The Mouths is a decent time, but it’s hard to overlook some of its weaknesses.
The Mouths made its North American premiere at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival. Release info TBD.
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