Theme park simulators have been an integral part of my gaming life ever since I was introduced to RollerCoaster Tycoon by the babysitter as a kid. Older classics have undeniable charm and depth, and the newer, more glamorous simulators like Planet Coaster are unbelievable in how minutely you can customise your creations. Park Beyond makes a conscious effort to stand out from the park sims of yore while learning from what made them so compelling. The preview build I played was restricted to a few tutorial levels and a sandbox, but those alone got the game’s message across.
In a stunning change of pace, Park Beyond begins with the protagonist waking up in bed. From their bedroom, they’re roped into a lengthy tutorial that shows you the ropes of coaster building, constructing a functional track throughout a city, weaving around buildings as you’re guided to a specific endpoint. It’s a surprisingly narrative-heavy sequence and shows off a lot of Park Beyond’s particular brand of humour, leaning on fourth wall breaking and hand-waving the idea of building a rollercoaster through a city without a permit. It’s a strong opening, and that’s without even touching the actual coaster building mechanics.
I appreciate this approach to scenario design. Previous entries in the genre rarely attempt anything in the way of a storyline, relying on individual scenarios that allude to themes or events that randomly get theme parks built around them. This time, you’re explicitly beginning a career in theme park design with companions and mentors, despite the fact you’re little more than a kid waking up and fulfilling a far-fetched dream. While the tone is a little saccharine and predictable, I still found it charming.
Back to the coasters. These are the real stars of the show - coaster design in Park Beyond is incredibly intuitive and will delight those who had trouble with Planet Coaster’s often clunky execution. Every individual track piece is dragged out by your mouse, with banking and rotation controlled with easily-learned hotkeys. You have the tightest controls over what your coaster looks like, down to the precise nature of your inversions, and to help out, Park Beyond allows you to slot in some pre-built track pieces, such as loops and corkscrews.
Add to this the game’s signature wacky set pieces - Impossification - that allow for trackless leaps and other health and safety nightmares, and you have one of the most powerful track designers ever put into a park sim. It feels great to use, and while I took an immediate dislike to Impossification, I’ve resolved to put aside my love for realism to enjoy this game that doesn’t want me to take it seriously.
To exemplify this, a coaster’s stats depend not on G-forces, ride times, and top speeds, but on the ‘hooks’ you decide to build them around. Ride aspects such as riding backwards or getting a ton of inversions provide stat bonuses and appeal to different types of guests, allowing you to tailor coasters and entire sections of your park to different demographics. Recreating the kiddie area at Disney and placing it far away from your own mini Busch Gardens is wonderfully possible in Park Beyond and feeds into its own inventiveness.
I don’t have a full grasp on how challenging Park Beyond will end up. The first levels were sometimes bumpier thanks to bugs that prevented my progress until I reloaded the game, and sandboxes aren’t a great way to gauge difficulty, but from what I saw, there will be quite some depth to the simulation level. Individual shop item prices can be tweaked to take advantage of market trends, even flat rides can undergo Impossification, and the overall layout of your park seems to have far more impact than in rival park sims. The strongest feeling I have coming out of this preview is curiosity - I want to see where the campaign goes. I want to know if a simulation game can sustain a compelling narrative. I want to throw caution to the wind and build the most ridiculous roller coasters. That last one, at least, I know to be possible.