Park Beyond Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

RollerCoaster Tycoon. Planet Coaster. Die-hard theme park designers will know (and have played) these two games. The former, more so than the latter, if the age fits. In theme park building culture, RollerCoaster Tycoon is the OG. Since 1999, it’s dominated the scene. Not that fans haven’t held their breath for another game to take its spot. But it’s that no other game has managed to recreate the same feeling RollerCoaster Tycoon achieved.

Planet Coaster does have its merits, too. It’s overwhelmingly fun for creative minds to dive in. The controls are simple enough for anyone to start. But, still doesn’t quite match RollerCoaster Tycoon. When Park Beyond came out, I crossed my fingers, literally hoping that this was finally it. A game I will remember for years to come as the one that finally toppled over RCT. I’ll say, it’s not too bad to instantly toss aside, yet still not great enough to recommend upfront. 

Let’s see why in today’s Park Beyond Review.

A Little Comsical, A Little Tense

Park Beyond is the newest amusement park building and management simulation in town. It gives you the tools and resources to fetch your inner child and bring them out to play. Except this time, you’re at the forefront of designing the theme park of your dreams from scratch and making sure everything runs smoothly henceforth.

Right off the bat, Park Beyond doesn’t hesitate to show its comical side. I found myself smiling sheepishly at the game’s attempts at humor, which neither felt cringey nor forced. There are two modes to choose from: campaign and sandbox. In the former, you won’t experience a well-crafted RPG campaign. No deep story that will bring you to tears. Or deep-dive into the characters’ lives. Yet, Park Beyond has a way of still instigating irrefutable bonds.

Across its eight missions, players learn to use the tools at their disposal. Hence, it is vital to give the campaign mode a try. Without it, I had a hard time fumbling with the controls. So, I definitely wouldn’t recommend jumping straight into the sandbox. Once the missions progress, it feels more natural to proceed. And you can feel at ease putting learning aside and tapping into your inner creativity full-on.

The Limit Lies Beyond the Sky

It sounds ridiculous. That the sky isn’t the limit. It lies far beyond your wildest imagination. But, it’s true. No exaggeration, whatsoever. See, Park Beyond has a seemingly endless selection of things to do, and stuff to build. It starts slowly, where you can get access to a small-size piece of land. There, you can put up all sorts of structures and scenery. 

Flat rides. Roller coasters. Benches. Queue paths. Radioactive barrels. Helicopters. Shops. Washrooms. Zombie animatronics. Put simply, anything you have seen in an amusement park, you’re free to put up in Park Beyond. Now, while you can select pre-made constructions, and then embellish them how you like, there’s no restriction on going that route. Instead, you can choose to start building from scratch. This gives you the freedom to come up with entirely new concepts that no one has seen before.

What’s more? There’s an abundant scroll list of every item you could possibly need. Specifically, thousands of decorative items and modular building pieces. Not to mention, each structure has variety, too. For example, there are 21 different types of shops you can access that sell several types of food and souvenirs. As you can imagine, these alone seem like an overwhelming bunch. But, no. There’s more.

THE Overlord

Park Beyond felt like you could handle a bit more, so they gave you the power of the amusement park overlord. What it means is that you’re free to do whatever you want. Starting with altering the terraform. It’s wild because rollercoasters can loop and hoop in and over canyons and water bodies. Even caves. So long as, once you test it out, it works, you’re good to go. 

Consequently, there’s the freedom to come up with the wildest, most nauseating, physics-defying roller coasters of all time. You can lift a section of land to create hills or drop it to create valleys. Don’t worry if you mess up. There’s room to “undo” an action, and even demolish a structure. 

Your theme park needs maintenance. So, you have to hire staff to help keep the park’s engines running. You can hire janitors, paramedics, and anyone else you need to help clean the place, maintain it and entertain the masses. In case you notice there are staff members who aren’t pulling their weight, you can fire them, too.

Though, you cannot assign the staff to perform a specific task. For instance, if something breaks. The game manages these for you. You don’t even get a notification to say, “Hey, we have sick people on Roller Coaster One, and we're sending three paramedics right away.” Or, “Would you like to send paramedics to the three sick people on Roller Coaster One?” Just something along those lines.

Impossification

Oh wait, there’s more, still. Park Beyond has an interesting, unique feature called “impossify.” What it does is amplify something or someone so that they can do something they couldn't possibly do in real life. You have to wait for the “impossify” meter to fill up. Then, proceed to “impossify” nearly anything within the confines of your amusement park.

Imagine a cannon shooting a roller coaster through the air. Or a multiple story carousel that completely tosses all laws of Physics aside. Impossification is where Park Beyond truly pushes its limits beyond any other theme park-building game. It’s where you can truly satisfy your customers' thirst for thrills. And, in turn, rack up the profits to expand your territory.

Downsides?

For all the good, there are more than a couple of elements that went awry. Enough that they’re hard to ignore. Starting with the overwhelming amount of glitches reported from all over. In some instances, customers would hurdle over one another and crowd the entrance so that no one could pass through. Others would have the roller coaster stop mid-way for no reason. 

In the campaign mode, some completed missions would fail to register, forcing you to start over. If that happens, you can revert to the latest save file, rather than start afresh. Some queues would glitch out. Giant blocks of texture would appear out of nowhere. The worst is when the game completely crashes, hitting you with that blue screen of death.

In terms of controls, they’re not the easiest to maneuver. It can take a while to master the controls. Even then, you have to go through the campaign mode, which is like the tutorial for the game and can take forever to complete. 

Stunt Progress

Additionally, progressing through the game is a bit flawed. You’ll find that rollercoasters use the most money, which drastically drains your budget. Yet, they don’t bring in comparable income. Instead, putting up a ton of food stalls racks up profits, as do the smaller rides. It tends to discourage you from exploring the depths of your creativity when it comes at the cost of progress.

Not to mention the fact that buying a new piece of land derails your progress, too. Customers will drop all their activities at the already-built amusement park and head over to the new land, where you haven’t even started to properly set things up. Hopefully, these issues get ironed out quickly because, without them, Park Beyond holds an infinite amount of possibilities, especially for die-hard theme park builders.

Verdict

Park Beyond has plenty going for it. However, for all the good, there are also a ton of demerits that bring the whole experience down. By far, it has the most variety and customization options. You can easily sink several hours into the game and still barely scratch the surface of all it has to offer. 

While games like RollerCoaster Tycoon and Planet Coaster have a loyal fan following, Park Beyond brings lots of unique ideas that may very well make it the current go-to theme park builder. Well, that’s only if the developing team can iron out the glitches and bugs that are just too vivid to ignore. 

Would I recommend Park Beyond to anyone? Absolutely. If you crave to hone your creative skills and want to build a theme park of your dreams, this is the game for you.