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Park Beyond’s array of simulation systems is more dizzying than its weird ridesWe need to make the kids drink more cinnamon coffee
We need to make the kids drink more cinnamon coffee
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Park Beyond | Modular Building TrailerWatch on YouTube
Park Beyond | Modular Building Trailer
Speaking of customers, they themselves come in three flavours. There are families, adults and groups of teens, all of them coming in clusters with names. You can view the park through different heatspots, checking for tiredness, thirst, hunger, etc., as well as seeing which rides are falling out of favour. And on top of that, different rides appeal to different demographics, so the Pirate Ship ride appeals to families, but the Kraken hits more with teens. You can give your rollercoasters similar hooks: maybe it’s super tall, or has at least four inversions; maybe it’s a starter coaster for families so it hasnoinversions and never goes over 80km. Even the different shops hit with different demos, and each time you start a new park you have to decide what kind of park it’s going to be. If you decide to cater to adults and teens, for example, you’ll need thrill rides and a bunch of coffee shops, because adults like coffee, as opposed to the family beverage of choice, the hot chocolate.
R: The impossification menu showing what improvements a ride will get; L: an impossified swing ride that has now become a terrifying brush with death |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
All these feeds into your park rating, because the more your visitors enjoy the park, the more research levels you can unlock, meaning more rides and more themes. These include standard things like Western or Candyland, but also fun ones like a clockwork DaVinci theme. The kids love Leo. Like, sure, other things feed into your park rating, a large one I’ve found being cleanliness (oh, there is also a whole staff management screen, don’t forget about that). But the main thing is: don’t be building boring kiddy rides in your teen adventure park, okay?! Okay.
Now. This is all quite disorientating. Particularly when you discover that you can change the colours on rides with as much loving care and attention asa Jedi painting his robot hot pink. This includes the colours of different lightbulbs, and can even build modularly to really make your park your own. But the thing is, I think you can engage with this as much as you’d like to, or not. This was kind of the angle the developers were going for - that it was a game that could satisfy people who just wanted to build an amazing business, or a very lovely theme park, and you don’thaveto fiddle with all the buttons and doodads.
The food vendors are possibly my favourite thing in this game because they are all on point as recreations of themed food joints in parks i.e. ridiculous |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Sadly I, a 34-year-old adult, have the attention span of a raccoon in a hotdog factory, and will dive headfirst after the nearest delicious thing I see, which is to say that I am neither targeted player in that pitch. But I have still managed to build a park that fuctions, even though I have, on multiple occasions, only realised there was a retail trend I should have taken advantage of when I saw the notification that it was over. And sure, my park may be ungainly, have a floorplan that makes no sense whatsoever, and have a pink and blue balloon ride next to a Western pizza mine. But it works, dammit!
Park Beyond is out on June 15th 2023 onSteam, and RPS Premium Supporters are gettinga code drop tomorrowfor the same beta build Bandai Namco provided me here.
