There are many titles in the field of creating and managing amusement parks that have seen the light of day over the years. Theme park, Rollercoaster Tycoon or Planet Coaster are some of them. Most share the fact that an attempt is made to offer a realistic simulation for park management. Park Beyond, as its own title in English suggests, tries to go “beyond” and put a new spin on its attractions.
And it is currently almost mandatory to offer something special to get into this genre. A genre that had its heyday a few decades ago. Unlike Planet Coaster, you can’t say it’s a particularly successful market. Parkitect received rave reviews five years ago but never managed to win over the crowd. Today, there are 200 to 300 players per day on Steam, a paltry number compared to up to 10 times as many players as Planet Coaster. Otherwise, the amusement park building games industry is dead, and knowing this, Limbic Entertainment has opted for a mix of classic elements with sheer weirdness to make their work stand out.
At the end of the day, it’s nothing more than a mere amusement park simulator. Open shops, rides, roller coasters, hire cleaners, promote a green economy and so on. There are the usual pirate ships and ferris wheels and it would have been a perfect game if it stuck to those and other classic elements. But what if we put a real cannon on top of the roller coaster that propels the car to the next part of the ride? What if the pirate ship broke into three pieces while rocking and was attacked by tentacles? And if we add more wheels to the wheel itself, does that give us some sort of gear? Some of these ideas are what make Park Beyond a special title. I’ve always liked this genre and it’s always fun to try new unexpected dynamics.
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A good way to start and get acquainted with the game is in campaign mode. The whole story is based on the fact that the big company Cloudstormer has some problems and needs to find new solutions to get back to what it used to be. And of course you are the only one who can help them. It all starts with one of the employees finding one of your drawings in your apartment, which gives you a chance to meet the managers. Phil is a crazy old man who wants to see everything new, crazy and dangerous. On the contrary, Izzy is the more serious of the two and the one trying to keep the budget afloat.
The characters are pretty well written if you think that’s important on a ride. The beginning is easy: you draw the course of the paths, place some attractions and shops… After that you have to decide for which group of people you want to direct your first park. The group divides visitors into three types: families, youth, and adults. Each group likes different things. All attractions and shops show how much each group likes it. So if you want to attract adults, you should build coffee stands, something adults love but families (kids) and teenagers hate. The quiet rides are popular with families, though less so with teenagers who prefer something more dangerous and energy drinks. It always clearly indicates what likes and dislikes, so there’s no room for confusion. The campaign is divided into eight different chapters with graded difficulty. I wish it was longer and hope to see new chapters added over time.
Once you’re done with the campaign mode or you’re fed up, you can switch to the sandbox mode where you can create the amusement park of your dreams. You have a lot to choose from as you have up to 26 different cards at your disposal. Unfortunately, there are no auto-generated maps, nor the ability to change anything before playing each map. What can be changed is the amount of money you start with, the difficulty level, etc. Once you get started, you can customize the park to your liking with a variety of tools that adjust the terrain, add water, and more. Nothing it hadn’t seen before. As well as the search for new attractions, which is achieved by taking the park to the next level in terms of cleanliness and fun.
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To make the visitors even more fun, the above mods come into play. They are the so-called “impossifiers” and make the impossible possible. Not only does each attraction cater to different audiences, but it also comes with three tiers for profitability, awe, and fun. For example, the pirate ship starts with three, one, and five for the above attributes. But if you “force” the ship, you get the values four, three, and seven, respectively. This is because the ship now splits into three parts, water gets under the ship, and tentacles appear on the sides. Every attraction can offer such crazy and amazing features and it is a fun thing to watch. Like the improvements for employees. Unlike five-level rides or two-level shops, employees only need to climb one level to upgrade. So upgrading a ride takes longer than it does for an employee. Upgrading a cleaner equips it with a flamethrower that chars the junk. Because of this, I wanted to max out each attraction just to see what would happen.
Yes, I miss a little more management. You can change prices and other things, but they haven’t delved that deep into this part of the game and it feels like it’s a project meant for fun and not for tinkering with the various menus. On the other hand, the catwalks need to be repaired. Sometimes it’s frustrating how difficult it can be to place them because they’re either too high, too low, or there’s an obstacle in the way. In addition, the technicians are not very smart to say. You may have a broken ride right in front of you that’s costing you money, but in the end you’re dealing with a perfectly good deal. I have to say that after the release date I had access to the title so I was able to download some good patches. I’ve read that many of those who played before these patches had quite a problem with bugs. I hope they get fixed as I haven’t had any issues with the PC version so far.
Park Beyond doesn’t deviate too much from its genre, but it’s still fun that isn’t as serious as other games of this type. You can tell it’s meant to be funny and even a bit silly in a good way. Shooting people out of cannons during their roller coaster rides or giving technicians robotic arms is something you don’t get the chance to do every day.