Running a theme park in the real world might be mostly about business sense, but in Park Beyond, the crucial factor is imagination. Developed by Limbic Entertainment and published by Bandai Namco, Park Beyond tasks players with designing amusement parks and the coasters within, much as a number of management games have done in the past. Going up against a litany of respected predecessors might be a tall order, but Park Beyond manages to carve out a niche that should appeal to plenty of players, even if occasionally bugs can sometimes hamper the fun.
Park Beyond drops players into the game with a whimsical opening that sets the tone of the game, introducing the basic mechanics of coaster building by following the flight of a paper plane. Beyond this point, the game offers a couple of different ways for players to familiarize themselves with the deeper mechanics. A campaign mode drip-feeds features through a series of increasingly complex missions, while a half-built park available in the sandbox mode runs through the options in a less time-consuming fashion. Both the campaign and sandbox experiences available in Park Beyond have their merits, although the sandbox may be where the game truly shines.
The biggest point of balance that feels strange in Park Beyond is the difficulty of making roller coasters profitable. Generating income off of a coaster is doable, but not with the same consistency as a well-priced flat ride. A largely intuitive and fluid construction system makes building coasters a highlight of the game, pushing this discrepancy into an occasional point of tension. In the sandbox, it’s easy to subsidize a coaster that could fail to make money with other profitable ventures, but setting goals focused on coasters can drag out campaign missions.
Many elements of Park Beyond’s gameplay might feel familiar to Planet Coaster players, with the game taking a similar approach to modernizing the experience found in classics like the RollerCoaster Tycoon series. Mapping out and building up a park is typically intuitive in a similar way, and the cartoony 3D graphics achieve comparable effects. The principal difference lies in what each game expects the player to enjoy. Planet Coaster puts effort into a healthy dose of realism, while Park Beyond broadly rejects such notions in favor of the fantastical. Guests won’t turn back from a ride with excessive g-forces, eagerly queuing to be shot through a cannon over a lake.
“Impossification” is a big talking point in Park Beyond, a feature generated by wowing guests that allows players to take rides to the next level. Flat rides received designated upgrades, tossing riders into the air or sending their seats clashing against each other. Coasters have players target a variety of goals, from creating a drawn-out scenic ride to bumping cars against each other. Like profitability, this extra challenge can make focusing on coasters in the campaign a bit more difficult, but it also provides an interesting way…
2023-06-19 09:30:05
Post from screenrant.com
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