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Luckily for humans, on Earth we are subject to the laws of physics, which prevent us from performing impossible actions and keep us grounded. Also fortunately, video games are the perfect setting to experiment with what goes beyond the possible and that is precisely what it tries to do. Park Beyond in a genre as crowded as management and construction.
Yes, there have been great construction games of amusement parks throughout history and it is exactly for this reason that the German studio Limbic Entertainment (Tropico 6), which already has experience in the field of resource managers and simulators, has decided to give a twist to the traditional formula of this type of works. Park Beyond, in this sense, introduces the concept of impossibility, which will allow us to make our theme park the most unique in the world. Join us in our Park Beyond analysis for Xbox Series X to find out what it means and what we thought of the Limbic and Bandai Namco game.
Impossibility or making the impossible possible
Park Beyond bases its playable base on the concept of impossibility. Amusement park construction games have historically offered the ability to build classic rides, design roller coasters, or place drink and hot dog stands to suit the needs of customers. All of this is also possible here, but to this we must add the term that we have been mentioning. At Park Beyond, making impossible is breaking the barrier of the laws of physics and making any attraction take on a new dimension that brings a touch of madness and fun to our park.
We are talking about double Ferris wheels, animatronics that take on a life of their own or even the ability to disable stores or employees. To do so we will have to fill the amazement meter, something that can only be achieved by satisfying the visitors of our park. to go increasing the level of wonder (indicated with a kind of pencil in the upper left corner of the screen) we will gain the ability to disable new elements of our park until we reach the spectacular attractions.
In our opinion, the disable is a great idea from Limbic for Park Beyond. And yes, the game run away from realism in this particular section, but it also stands out from a competition that has almost always followed the same paths. As for the attractions themselves, there are more than twenty of them (we imagine that with future DLCs the number will increase, which will contribute to greater variety and enjoyment) and three types of tracks to build our own roller coasters. A good introductory offer, although we would have liked the number to be higher.
Build your dreams with command
There is no doubt that management and simulation video games have historically been linked to the PC world. Fortunately, more and more are landing on consoles from day one with fantastic versions, but even so, each work is a world and on many occasions the controller is not capable of successfully supplying the benefits of the mouse and keyboard. Which is why we’re happy to say that’s not the case with Park Beyond. It is true that it will cost you a couple of hours get to drive with command Xbox (this is how we have played it), since it is a deep game, with a large number of menus (many of them explanatory as part of the tutorial), shortcuts and other commands.
However, in its fundamentals (the construction and decoration of the park and the design of the roller coasters) it works like clockwork; once again, keeping in mind that you will have to pass a acclimatization period to handling. Especially the creation of roller coasters has delighted us. Ascend, descend, create loops, twist the track so that visitors go upside down and all kinds of possibilities that will help you create attractions that are as spectacular as they are colorful.
To know all the ins and outs of the game and get used to the mechanics (and the depth not only of its construction and decoration of every smallest detail -including even choosing the colors of the uniform of our employees-, but also the economic management and financial -which has several aspects to take into account for the place to be profitable as well as fun) Park Beyond boasts of a full story mode. Divided into eight missions, this game mode invites us to put ourselves in the shoes of a young man with crazy ideas who finds the right people to make his ideas come true.
In each of the missions we face different challenges to offer viability to the parks through improvements or construction of new attractions. Even if this story mode isn’t what you’re looking for in a theme park game, it will we strongly recommend that you at least complete the first few levels to get to know the depth that the game hides before jumping into free mode, in which we can start our adventure in scenarios of different shapes and settings.
I personally stay with him sandbox mode, in which one can unleash their imagination and terraform the terrain, build the attractions, rides, entrances and exits, stalls and hire staff from scratch. It’s much more fun to start from scratch and create a successful park, but surely many of you will find the motivation to complete a campaign that, all told, is followed with interest and teaches a lot about the work of Limbic Entertainment.
Margin for technical improvement
Every game has its lights and its shadows. Park Beyond lights are the impossibility and the possibilities it offers when it comes to creating the theme park of your dreams. However, where there room for improvement is in the technical section. At least in its first days of life, the Limbic title has small visual glitches such as clipping and it has also crashed once. Nothing exaggerated or that harms the experience, but it does require the occasional update to correct these problems and end up being as polished as possible.
On the other side of the coin is the visual section. Park Beyond does not have realistic graphics nor does it pretend to be. The video game from the German studio is committed to colourfulness, saturation and brightness, all very much in keeping with the crazy and fun-focused approach that it presents in the playable. In this sense, the highlight is the modeling of the attractions and even the visitors. At any time we can zoom in on them and we will be able to see that they are not the typical little-defined dolls to make a bulge, but that they have a job behind them that is appreciated when we are immersed in the action of our park.
Although it is something secondary, we did not want to end this analysis without mentioning the game soundtrack, with many vibrant and attractive themes to listen to, both when we are on the menus and when we are at work building the park. The title also has a great Spanish dubbing that accompanies us throughout the campaign mode.
conclusions
You may have played other amusement park building games, but none of them had what Park Beyond has. We talk about the impossibility, which allows us to turn conventional attractions into authentic follies with which to delight the visitors of our park. Far from being a mere promotional claim, it is the differential element of the Limbic Entertainment game, which bets everything on the surprise factor of this concept. without forgetting the playable bases of such a beloved genre: design roller coasters, take care of all the decorative details, hire staff, maintain financial balance, offer a good experience to customers or have to think and plan the starting and ending places of each queue and the location of each attraction.
Despite some technical problems, Park Beyond is exactly what fans of the genre expect of this type of game, but with a fantastic twist that is worth taking a look at.