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Park Beyond; new theme park simulation game coming 2022

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Recently, it’s been announced that a new theme park simulation game is being released in 2022, named Park Beyond: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/park-beyond-is-a-theme-park-sim-with-the-best-and-weirdest-rides/

In terms of what Park Beyond will be like; not too much is known, but here are some key points:
  • The game is designed to be very similar to Planet Coaster, but “less like an editor and more like a real game”.
  • The rides are said to have an element of “impossification” (their word, not mine) about them, so they can defy physics and do things that wouldn’t necessarily be possible in the real world. For instance, you can do coasters that shoot out of cannons to jump gaps in the track, and you can do multiple carousels piled on top of one another, or you could do a 10-wheel, skyscraper-sized Ferris wheel.
  • Even though the impossification element of the game is heavily emphasised, you will not be able to build impossible rides to begin with, as you haven’t generated enough money, and physics (the laws of reality, as they call it) still applies; you need to ensure that your coasters can actually make it round the track, and you can’t use “teleportation or high-end sci-fi”.
  • The game relies pretty heavily on a story mode (you’ll apparently be meeting “Phil, the veteran park owner” and “Izzy, his level-headed COO” quite a lot), and perhaps has some of the most in-depth management abilities I’ve ever seen; you can’t just build stuff, you have to ensure that you have the money to build stuff and that you’re turning a profit, and you need to pitch your ideas to executives to check that they meet the requirements of guests. You’ll also meet “allies and opponents” throughout the game, and you also need to analyse every element of the operation and make sure it’s delivering and turning a profit.
  • In terms of the executives feature, this will mean all kinds of things. They’ll determine whether what you’re designing is appropriate for your park’s target market, and give you restrictions and deadlines to meet, as well as a budget.
  • The designers said that they wanted to make it more like an actual game as opposed to a mere theme park editor like Planet Coaster, and they wanted to remove the “hours and hours of tinkering” that Planet Coaster requires. The design team certainly seem very critical of games like Planet Coaster.
There may well be more info, but those are the main points.

So what do you think of this? Personally, while I certainly think it sounds interesting, I think Planet Coaster is a little more my speed; call me dull, but I like realism in my creations, which this game does seem to lack to an extent, and I also personally like the freedom to just build whatever you want as opposed to having to meet requirements and have meetings with executives and what have you (while the game apparently has a sandbox mode, the story element of it is being heavily emphasised, so I’d guess that many of the management elements will still apply in sandbox). It sounds excellent if you’re into the whole management side, however!

Will anyone be buying this when it comes out in 2022?
 
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Ehh, I'll keep my eye on it but probably won't be picking it up.

The creators are critical of Planet Coaster, yet they basically made the same game anyway? I suppose they'll try to make it more simple to play, but is that going to be at the expense of the coaster designer?

But for real, they'll need to do something other than jump tracks and cannons, etc, to really distinguish it from Planet Coaster.
 
Hutch said:
Ehh, I'll keep my eye on it but probably won't be picking it up.

The creators are critical of Planet Coaster, yet they basically made the same game anyway? I suppose they'll try to make it more simple to play, but is that going to be at the expense of the coaster designer?

But for real, they'll need to do something other than jump tracks and cannons, etc, to really distinguish it from Planet Coaster.
Click to expand...
I get the impression that the game isn’t really meant for theme park enthusiasts or designed with enthusiasts in mind.

I don’t know if you’d agree, but Planet Coaster, although certainly not tailored exclusively towards us enthusiasts by any means, gives off the impression that it was designed with enthusiasts in mind. For instance, the fact that it has multiple different types of ride that effectively do the same thing (for instance, it has 5 different varieties of hyper/giga coaster, with B&M, Intamin, Mack, Giovanola and Arrow’s hypers all making an appearance. The Mack launch coaster was also added after the Premier launch coaster, and the Infinity Coaster was added alongside the Euro-Fighter, in spite of these each having very similar equivalent ride types already within the game) certainly strikes me as a nod to enthusiasts as opposed to something that the more general consumer would care about.

Rightly or wrongly, I think Park Beyond is possibly tailored more towards the general consumer, and those who aren’t quite as fussed about realism in their parks like many enthusiasts (or at least, me) are; that’s not a bad thing, but I certainly think this game looks to have more generalised ride types and controls as opposed to the deeper nuances like PlanCo does, and generally seems to have been designed with a greater degree of abstraction than PlanCo. I can imagine some non-enthusiasts might find Planet Coaster a bit difficult to grasp, so this suits them perfectly. And in fairness, if you saw the coaster builder in the video I posted above, it actually doesn’t look bad at all!
 
Looks to me as a more of a spiritual successor to Thrillville. I think they have 'borrowed' more than a few ideas from that game (wacky scientist and his young apprentice(player), jump tracks taken straight from off the rails. This might as well be called Thrillville 3. I don't see me enjoying this to the same degree as Planet Coaster (Thrillville can be a lot of fun though)

I do think there is a place for games like this, if you want a customised experience Planet Coaster and Parkitect are the way to go, but if you just want a fantasy style game that you can just have a bit of fun with from the start then this is the way to go.

I think the whole "management" aspect of this game feels like a bad move from what I have read, do you want a realistic park management game or a full on fantasy cartoon world? you can't really have both. (and if you did then Planet Coaster is the closest you could get to that)

If this game isn't loaded with amusement park inspired mini games I will be disappointed.
 
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