The Case

Ahh, Rollercoaster Tycoon. Many were the hours I whiled away setting up elaborate theme parks and being hilariously cruel to the simulated people that came to visit. But that was back in the early 2000s, and Adventure Park is the new kid on the block attempting to recapture our imagination and have us building roller coasters all over again. But does it measure up, or will it fall off the rails before the first drop?

The Trial

Adventure Park, like most tycoon games, has you taking on the role of a manager of a business. The standard options for construction, employee hiring, decorations, and (for the really brave) landscaping are all there, allowing you to design a theme park in pretty much the same way that every theme park game has since the late 90’s. You start with access to a single theme - Pirates - and a small selection of rides. More are made available as your park gains popularity and star ratings. What isn't broken doesn't need to be fixed, and Adventure Park does the basics well enough, but it just seems as though the developers were playing it safe when the game could have been something more, something different and unique.

The one new system that Adventure Park tries to implement is the construction of roller coasters. It is a refreshing change, removing any form of grid based construction for a slightly more organic building system that doesn’t take long to master. It isn't without flaws, however. There are no pre-made tracks, and you’re limited only to using climbs and drops to make the track exciting for those riding it - no loops, sharp turns or anything else. The campaign missions make the lack of good variety in roller coaster elements worse by insisting that you manage to construct a coaster with a set G-Force, which nearly made me break the screen in frustration a number of times.

Speaking of a lack of variety, the total number of rides available to the player comes in at a disappointing 21, over a total of 5 potential themes. It completely derailed my plans to create a number of differently themed parks once I got to freeplay mode. It’s hard to make a park themed completely around pirates when all you have under that theme are a ferris wheel, a horizontal spinning ride, and a tower ride. So you’re forced to take on a Disneyland-esque style. It doesn’t completely ruin the experience, and the park sizes are relatively small. Maybe the developers thought that a large selection of rides may completely overwhelm players, but I still wish that ‘Piratetopia’ could have been something that saw fruition within the game.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Adventure Park, however, is the almost total lack of cruelty potential. You can’t arbitrarily select a group of guests to unleash your godlike sociopathy upon - perhaps one of my favourite things to do in simulation games of all kinds. Gone are the days where you could speed up a roller coaster until the carts launched out of the park, or set a Space Shot ride to launch the passengers almost literally into space. Nowadays, despite the fact that you can upgrade rides to double and even quadruple of their original speed, at the most extreme, you’ll have passengers walking away with some nausea or whiplash only. I even went so far as dismantling a rollercoaster while people were riding it, and all that happened was that they teleported to the ground underneath, then scurried back to the path.

This is a shame, since on the technical side of things Adventure Park doesn’t do too badly. The graphics are pretty, even if they don’t seem to be pushing any technical boundaries, and it’s a lot more colourful than most of the games that get released today, which is always a refreshing break. The music is decidedly dull. It’s by no means bad, it certainly seems well crafted enough, it’s just not something that stands out or remains stuck in your head after a session. The lack of sound effects was also noticeable, with a complete lack of sounds coming from the rides, and the people riding them. Even stock sounds of people enjoying a rollercoaster would have been preferable to zooming in far enough to click individual people and see if they’re having a good time.

The Verdict

Adventure Park is a game that is functionally similar as Rollercoaster Tycoon, just without a lot of the features that made the original so much fun to play. The low variety in coaster rides, combined with the inability to set up a number of classic rollercoaster tricks, disappoints and leaves the player feeling cheated. When combined with a forgettable soundtrack, and a complete lack of authentic sound effects, it makes me wonder if we’d all be better off installing Chris Sawyer’s original games instead.

Case Review