Since time immemorial, management games —in which we have to make a business, city or in this case an amusement park work properly— have been one of the most coveted by PC users. This is well known by Limbic Entertainment, a German studio known for its participation in the Might & Magic franchise and the video game tropic 6which is in charge of the development of Park Beyond.
Two years ago, during Gamescom 2021, Bandai Namco shared the first trailer for Park Beyond.
We at GamerFocus had access to two demos of Park Beyond shared by Bandai Namco and Limbic Entertainment, before getting the chance to experience the full game for our review or Review. During this time we have seen the evolution of the Limbic Entertainment title and learned everything about creating roller coasters and managing our park.
A look at the amusement park
This is a game that doesn’t take itself seriously and has no problem reminding us of that.
The Park Beyond campaign teaches us each of the basic concepts of the game. First it teaches us how to create roller coasters and then it opens the door to the whole world of possibilities that we have when we open our own park. This is how in Park Beyond we have created our first roller coaster, with fairly limited access to the game’s tools, which we will unlock as we progress through the campaign or if we play in free mode, they will already be available from the start. However, the freedom to create routes between the buildings or the possibility of making gigantic slopes with resounding falls into the void have left us pleasantly surprised. That if at the beginning our creations will not be as expected, this is an “art” that is obtained with patience and experience.
The test train is our guide to a successful build.
The creation of roller coasters is not the only thing that the title of the German studio Limbic Entertainment has to offer. Since, after our first mission, we are given a vacant lot in our care, in which we can let our imagination run wild —without leaving the necessary parameters for a business of this type to have the expected success.
Park Beyond and his concept of “imposification”
The concept of “imposification” permeates every nook and cranny of Park Beyond.
Johannes Reithmann, Creative Director at Limbic Entertainment spoke about the concept of “imposification” at Park Beyond. This in a few words is the possibility that the game has to make every corner and aspect of our amusement park “crazier”.
Each of the characters that we will meet in Park Beyond’s story mode will approach the concept of “imposification” in a particular way.
The players can not only include this concept in their attractions, since the clients, workers and buildings within our park will also be infected and will join the crazy things we create, creating unexpected situations. We could see and experience this concept in every corner of our park. From the calmer attractions to the behavior of customers in lines to buy refreshments or in common areas.
At Park Beyond we will also have to worry about the management of our park
During the time we used for our Park Beyond review or Review we were able to start managing our park in the game’s campaign, and even do a free play session without having interruptions from tutorials or campaign cinematics. This one takes us by the hand through each of the points that we must take into account to have a popular amusement park and that, of course, does not generate losses.
Izzy is the person who will tell us that a park should not only be crazy, but also financially stable.
It should be noted that, for the most experienced players of the genre, Park Beyond has a creative mode. In this we can access 28 zones —each one with its particular terrain and set in different parts of the world— to start from scratch and without any interruption with the construction of our dream park.
The graphic quality and lighting, although they have not surprised us, they comply.
Once we start playing Park Beyond it can be overwhelming with the amount of details, which we will have to be aware of. The park must have a good location for bathrooms, garbage cans, seats, places to eat, souvenir shops and of course attractions. Additionally, we will have to be aware of the tastes of the visitors —each space that we create shows us if the place is loved or hated by families, adolescents and adults— or the recommendations that critics make about our restaurants.
Decisions must be made immediately or we will lose money
We must be aware of the status of each worker and give them breaks or fire them if necessary.
Our park will have goals, which we can adjust according to the movements we have during a week or a month —the longer the period of days we will have a better idea of how the business is working. When an attraction is generating losses, we must verify prices, costs and begin to design a strategy to attract visitors, even if it means having to temporarily close an attraction. In the final version of the game we will be able to consult the thoughts of the visitors to be able to make more precise decisions.
The seats, the number of staff – between entertainers and cleaning services – along with a good location of the bathrooms will give us positive reviews from visitors.
A short but satisfying trip
Crazy dreams start in a messy room.
Additionally, the performance of Park Beyond during our review or Review has been outstanding —except for some texts that have not yet been located— and has never been below 60 FPS. Our Park Beyond review has been done on a PC with a Ryzen 3700X CPU, 16 GB of RAM and a Radeon 5700 GPU.
Park Beyond In Summary
Park Beyond is a game with intuitive mechanics and accessible controls, which make it easy for new players to enter this genre. The possibilities that players have at their disposal make each game session feel different and added to this is the collaboration with Bandai Namco franchises, which means that “imposification” has no limit. Certainly, Limbic Entertainment’s game hasn’t reinvented the genre. However, it must be said that Park Beyond is a great option for those who like this kind of game.
Review made with a digital copy of Park Beyond for Steam provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
