Theme Park

Summary

Genre: Simulation
Number of players: 1

Review

One of the older games for the PC, it's been on practically every format you can think of, and has been brilliant on every one. It's certainly one of my favourite games, and if you haven't played it on at least one format by now, what's keeping you?


Gameplay: Theme Park is a simulation game where you assume control of a theme park designer who has to... design a theme park, surprisingly.

Theme Park is a very, very addictive game, and it's hard to explain why. It plays very well, and it's always fun and satisfying to see your park fill with "the little people", and have your rides build up. It'll take you absolutely ages to grow tired of it, believe me, and there are numerous difficulty levels, which require you to do more and more as you progress up them. For instance, "sandbox" difficulty means you just sit back and watch as you sell from your shops and get rides researched for you. However, in "full", the most difficult setting, you have to research everything, restock your shops, play the stock market, and so on.

Making your customers happy is the key to the success of your park, and there are many ways to do it. Firsty you could employ many entertainers, which do cost money, but often cheer the people up immensely. Secondly, build a fantastic roller-coaster!! Or thirdly, make all the shops sell things dirt cheap. I personally believe in the second one, but to each his own! And remember, this is your theme park...

You really do have to play it to find out how good it is. It's hard to sum it up in words...


Challenge: The object of the game is to make successful theme parks all over the globe. However once you've built a really good park, it's difficult to part with it, I found, since it means you have to start all over in a new country! Naturally it'll take you absolutely ages to complete, and you won't grow tired of it. At least, not for a looooong time.


Graphics: Dated. When you compare them to something like Half-Life on the PC, they're really behind. But then, you don't buy a game for the graphics, do you? Well, unless you're a Dreamcast owner...


Sounds: Can get a little on the annoying side, especially when there's an outburst of vomiting in your park, and you hear the same noise over... and over... and over...

The music comes from the rides themselves, so if you don't want to get annoyed by the same music all the time, build heaps of rides!


Summing up: An absolutely top-notch game which will keep you coming back for more!


Gamesmark: 85%


Reviewer: Tangycheese



Maverik's opinion: I guess Tangy and I have different definitions of the phrase 'top-notch', for, while I think Theme Park is pretty good, it ain't an essential purchase by any means. Essentially a business simulation, there's a bit too much stock-buying, researching and staffing concerns for the casual gamer, at least on the more-detailed settings. It's fun designing a park from scratch, but the novelty wears off eventually and it does get repetitive. But still a decent game.