Park Beyond: A Rollercoaster Tycoon-inspired Theme Park Simulator
Looking for a Park Beyond review? Our review takes a look at this theme park sim that draws inspiration from classics like Rollercoaster Tycoon. Developed by Limbic Entertainment and published by Bandai Namco, Park Beyond is based on Cartoon Network's show Mighty Magiswords. So, how well does this open-world simulator fare?
Let's address the negatives first. While there are good things to say about Park Beyond, the overall experience can feel shallow and lacking in substance. If that sounds appealing to you, then get excited. If not, don't worry, I won't keep you here for too long.
One main issue is the campaign mode. You might expect it to provide context for building parks as you wish, but it actually feels more like a long tutorial. It takes you through a handful of mundane tasks with little sense of achievement each time, which can become boring quickly.
On the other hand, creating elaborate rollercoasters is a joy - and that's not something you'd usually say about a theme park sim. Building and customizing rides is intuitive, and Park Beyond's tool tips provide a great deal of context and guidance. While the physics engine and rollercoaster controls may feel janky at first, repetition and practice will help you master them. The ride-sculpting tools offer a high level of freedom, allowing you to bring any of your ideas to life with minimal restrictions. Best of all, your creations can be fully enjoyed by park visitors.
When it comes to designing your park, Park Beyond offers generous terrain manipulation options, allowing you to create the layout exactly as you want it. This is particularly ideal because the campaign mode doesn't offer much freedom. Instead, you're engaged in mundane tasks such as expanding shops and scenery in the central hub. Once you've completed the main tutorial, you'll need to unlock more zones or upgrade facilities to progress. However, as your park grows larger and more crowded, you may experience significant performance lag when dealing with a large number of tourists.
This lag is mainly due to load times and slowdowns. When you walk around the park and visit a new zone, there's a significant wait time of around half a minute as assets are downloaded. Additionally, as your park becomes larger and more crowded, you may encounter slowdowns. This issue is less of a problem when you're zoomed out of the management view and focusing on rollercoaster creation. However, during standard management tasks like cleaning up litter, you may experience jerky performance, making tools like the handy pathfinding feature unusable at times.
There are also other bugs present in the game, including crashes, stuttering music, and texture clipping. These issues can be frustrating, especially considering the amount of time the game asks you to invest. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that, as you wait to save or interact with attractions or staff, you get kicked out of your management view and have to wait at the bottom again. While management isn't the main focus of Park Beyond, the limited depth and challenge in the park success criteria (like 'catering capacity') or tied up in unclear design decisions is disappointing. Furthermore, the lack of content is also a letdown, with the campaign lasting only a few hours and no sandbox mode available for single players.
The plan management and routing system in Park Beyond is underdeveloped, with tasks often assigned to staff and visitors that appear unnecessary. For example, telling cleaners and menders to pick up litter and vomit feels like an unnecessary burden. Cleaning up after guests should be automated with enough janitor stations, and it seems unfair to punish the poor immobile workers for guests' own faults. This feeling of necessity is further reinforced by the relative barrenness of the menus. Features such as ride components are unlocked at the start of the game but then locked behind other menus, forcing you to juggle between the ride tool and component menus to create custom rides.
