Good game BUT definitely room for improvement! As critical as this review might read, these are all fixable problems. It is a good game, that with the proper corrections can become a great one. I still recommend it, it has great potential.
Problems (or just irritating):
By far the most frustrating thing so far has been the staff having to walk everywhere. If you want a more natural reserve-like enclosure, it takes way too long for staff to get from A to B. The animals then either go without treatment entirely, or it takes too long for them to receive treatment. This is solved by providing staff a vehicle - like in Jurassic evolution. Or even just expanding (or entirely removing) the auto-quarantine limit.
The young WILL try and swim across huge bodies of water (for no apparent reason), become exhausted part way across, and then starve to death unless you physically pluck them out and back onto dry land. This is also an issue with the fleeing mechanic. They will flee until they die of thirst or hunger; the attack mechanic is relentless when they are within a habitat (this occurring when the ideal social group is exceeded and you get social outcasts).
I don't know if this is a common issue or not, but I've found some of the viewpoints don't work. This could just be me not placing them correctly, but then there is no guide/walkthrough on where to best place things. I've found some of the animals also get stuck between a feeding station and barrier, even when there seems to be enough room for them to get between the two. I've also had issues with the large (non-basic) animal nursery and its placement (ends up with staff access errors).
On the previous point (specifically the guides), there is definitely a lack of guides/walkthroughs as you go along. Bar the very first tutorial, you are left to figure it out yourself (the guides under '?' are minimalistic and not very helpful). This is fine once you do get your head around everything, but is frustrating when you first start the game.
On trying a more nature reserve-like habitat, I found that when I introduced any predators, they would kill beyond what was needed. They would kill and then run to kill again, instead of filling their food meter. This makes managing prey populations difficult if you want realistic growth. It would be nice if predators could go longer without food, that would feel more realistic.
The exhibits are visually appealing, but the animals don't seem to reproduce. It would be good if similarly to Planet Zoo it could be a source of passive income (auto-selling when populations exceed a specified number). On reproduction, it would be nice if you could control individuals reproduction (similar mechanic to Planet Zoo - where you can put some on medications to prevent reproduction), rather than lace the whole habitats food. Having the animals build their own nests is probably unrealistic, but would be nice. With the large dinosaurs (Argentinosaurus specifically), I've found they don't stay close enough to the nest, and eggs die as a result. Unsure if this is a bug/placement issue/trees getting in the way etc.
Occasionally, during the game, Nigel will chime in with some introduction or facts about a species. These aren't consistent (aren't always triggered by a new animal being placed), and the cinematic mode is unfortunately terrible. If it is a hatchling, you end up just seeing blades of grass because the camera is angled so low. And with the adults (depending on where they are positioned) you are just as likely to get an up-close view of the barrier of their habitat.
Any time an event happens, the notification pops up on the left. But clicking the notification only takes you to the relevant event around half the time. A dinosaur has reached adolescence - great it takes you to the dinosaur. But then a new pop-up comes up for eggs hatching, and after clicking on it, you're still staring at the dinosaur from before. Whatever the issue is with the notifications, it doesn't seem to be a problem with the alerts.
