izigame.me

As a wee lad, did you play Sim Theme Park/Theme Park World? How about Thrillville? Did you enjoy them? If you answered yes, then this game is for you. If you're coming from the realm of RollerCoaster Tycoon and Planet Coaster, this may not be your flavor. It's a game OOZING with personality, charm, and fun. Your experience is going to vary wildly based on your play style and past Theme Park simulators you have played. It does have it's quirks (and flat out bugs) but the devs have been great at updating the game since Beta and I have faith it will only improve. Many players seem to forget how (to put it nicely) quirky Planet Coaster was when we first played it. Even through the first year post launch, they were adjusting systems and adding QOL improvements.
Lastly before I get to my breakdown, if you're coming into this asking or wondering about rides by certain manufacturers - turn around. Walk away and go back to Planet Coaster. I'm just going to make it easy on you. Expecting ANYTHING from the real world will just lead to disappointment. Even the rides based on real world rides have a Park Beyond flavor (such as a Wing Coaster with 3 seats per side instead of 2 or a Dive Machine train with rows that get adjusted in 2's so it's a 2 row or 4 row) This game was never designed to replace PlanCo and it was definitely not designed to be realistic.
This game is for players who:
-Loved Sim Theme Park/Theme Park World and Thrillville
-Want an actual Theme Park Simulator Game and not something trying to act like CAD software.
-Are looking for a Gamepad friendly theme park sim (Think Steam Deck/ROG Ally uses)
-Just want to have fun without worrying about the nuances behind a trillion micro pieces to make scenery.
-Aren't coming into this expecting RCT or PlanCo (Seriously, people were dragging Thrillville for the same thing years ago and now it's a game many fondly remember)
-Aren't looking to get serious with a Coaster builder. It is meant to be casual friendly and can be used to make something that looks realistic, but like I said - Sim Theme Park/Theme Park World mentality here. It's meant to be quick and easy and as we all know, you can't have quick, easy, and pretty...usually.
This game is NOT for players who:
-Are expecting realism like RCT or PlanCo
-Are expecting to recreate Magic Kingdom or Alton Towers
-Don't like fidgety path systems (Let's be real, what non grid theme park game HAS good pathing? PlanCo's is definitely the best out of all, but that's not saying much)
-Are heavy into Piece By Piece building. They have a system for it in Park Beyond, but...hm...it's probably it's biggest Achilles heel. Thankfully the game comes with a ton of prefabricated shops and buildings to use if you don't wish to use the PBP system.
-Expect No Limits 2 or Planet Coaster doing the 2m method for 15 hours granular coaster building.
Pros:
-Art/Visual Style
-Amount of rides is great and Impossification in a way nearly doubles the number.
-Foliage selection is *ahegao face*
-Scenery selection is fantastic
-Audio and Soundtrack is SOOOOOOOO good! (Coaster sounds aren't though, this ain't it chief lmao)
-Career mode and the characters add SO much personality and life to the game.
-Objects can be scaled
-Rides and object recolor options are VERY granular
-Impossification made me smile SO MUCH the first time I did it. It's seriously addicting and lead to a feeling of whimsy, discovery, and excitement that I haven't felt from a game in a long time.
-Sandbox map selection is amazing! More than 20 maps available across a variety of biomes. (Yes, each Biome has one TOTALLY FLAT AND EMPTY map to play on)
Cons:
-Coaster builder is a better version of RCTW's. I actually don't dislike it, but I know and understand that it can be a total deal breaker for people. Just as an FYI, the builder does have built in heart lining which looks fantastic!
-Path building
-Piece by Piece building system is more skittish than a Squirrel running through traffic.
-Questionable UI choices such as for example, placing flowers but being unable to select their color before placement. It leads to you having to click each one that you placed and selecting the new color. A big oof for me when making gardens.
-Can't disable collisions (huge boo on this one and hoping it's an option in the future)
-Convoluted day 1 DLC rollout. Some objects only available from Namco's site, such as English Gardens. Some objects only available in the Collectors bundle, such as Beyond the Seas. I hope within the next few weeks everything can be obtained via Steam in a more user friendly fashion that is less confusing for players.
-Some bugs and quirks here and there that can easily be fixed with future patches.
When they first announced this game, I could tell it was going to be something truly special. When they announced the Collectors Edition, for the first time in my life (ok I lied last time was for Breath of the Wild) I pre-ordered a Collectors Edition of a game. I played the first beta and was extremely disappointed, it was a buggy mess that was almost unplayable. Then came the second beta, the game was finally playable and fun! Now we're at launch and there were further improvements but there is still definitely work to be done. There is also lots of planned free and paid content planned for the game so the devs are absolutely pushing for longevity. Limbics first foray into the Theme Park and Sim genre is bold, it's creative, and most importantly it never forgets what it wants to be - a video game.
Closing thoughts: As long as Limbic continues to patch the game and release a balanced stream of Free/Paid content, I think they have a winner on their hands.