Amongst the truly revered genres on PC, the park builder manages to merge economic necessity, with nascent creativity. Just because a large part of this genre is close to being Tripadvisor: The Game shouldn’t put anyone off, as crafting a fun-filled experience for a batch of imaginary customers remains far more fulfilling than it has any right to be. While Theme Park laid the foundations, and Planet Coaster has built some spectacular structures upon them, Park Beyond hopes to provide an experience that surpasses them both.
Things start with a hint of whimsy, thanks partly to the playful musical accompaniment combined with a paper plane-chasing experience that teaches you how to lay down rollercoaster track. There’s some nice quality-of-life inclusions here, including a permanently visible test train that’s running down the track as you build it, showing the coaster’s speed throughout. It certainly solves the disappointment of only discovering after creating for an hour that it’s an abject failure, hopefully preventing your customers from immediately losing their lunch.
You’re not on your own through Park Beyond; amongst the fully voiced cast, Phil is the aging rollercoaster designer who’s keen to take on a protégé, while Blaize Ultra is a wild and vibrant host who’s been attracted to your roller coaster designs and wants to see exactly what you’ve got.
Phil has his moments, but Blaize’s peppy, energetic delivery means she’s a touch annoying. That said, it’s unlikely you’ll spend too much time with her, so you can probably cope. She offers up your first selection of rollercoaster modules, with the immediate choice between a cannon and a stunt ramp being easily won by the lingering whiff of gunpowder. This is the first indication that Park Beyond is trying to do something a bit different, and it allows you to be even more creative with your coaster designs – while firing health and safety legislation off a cliff – adding in a section that shoots the cart through thin air.
This then expands into various other mechanics you can utilise to take your coasters beyond the norm, including tunnelling through obstacles, or creating a coaster with a section that glides across the water, meaning that you’re able to make some truly organic creations.
The visuals are chunky and colourful, and the opening tutorial’s decision to build a huge ride across and through apartment buildings and the surrounding landscape certainly makes an immediate impact. Once you get into the park building itself, it takes on a form that feels a lot more recognisable, and it’s hampered at times by some occasionally fussy path-laying requirements. If you’ve played Planet Coaster you’ll immediately grasp what Park Beyond is asking of you here, with each ride needing features like an entrance and an exit, and then you have to ensure that repairs have been made before you can open it to the public.
While it’s occasionally fiddly when connecting pathways, Park Beyond makes adding rides as simple and intuitive as possible, with exits appearing and snapping into place close to any nearby paths. This kind of thing helps you to put together a park with remarkable speed, allowing you to flex your creative muscles with alacrity with a finished result possible in a shorter playing window.
A new thing to consider with Park Beyond is the different demographics you want to target with your attraction. Teenagers allegedly like a park with sugary drinks and thrilling rides, while families like cocoa and fantasy. Untended adults who fancy a day out need to focus on the caffeine (this is, of course, embarrassingly accurate) and fine food. Juggling all of the wants and needs of your customers is integral to the park building genre, and Park Beyond certainly feels accessible and manageable, with a UI layout that apes Frontier’s Jurassic World Evolution. While I was playing the beta on PC, I can see it being effective to manage on console too.
From what we’ve been able to play so far, Park Beyond brings a new flavour to the park builder genre, though certain parts of it will taste pretty familiar.
