So, it's been almost a year since my last "review" of this game, and I've had a blast playing it since then. The game has got some
great updates in the meantime (one every month - some big, some small, the latest one is game-changing in a rather positive way), so I think a re-review is due. I'll quote my post from last November and go through the paragraphs one by one.
Parkitect is shaping up wonderfully. It's still not complete, but you can see the vision of the developers, and it's possible to have a good game experience with what we've got so far. Not quite RCT2 yet, but definitely getting there.
First off, this is still true, but I'd say it's a technicality. Parkitect still lacks pre-made scenarios, which is kind of a big deal for many players. However, setting up your own scenario is really easy, and the terrain generator means you won't spend hours creating a playing field that isn't completely flat. There are many player-generated scenarios out there, but none packed with the game yet, and there is no specific menus set up to accomodate a Career mode. You'll have to load the scenarios as you would any new game file. However, I'd say that apart from scenarios, Parkitect has surpassed RCT2 in gameplay. Building and managing a park in Parkitect is more convenient, there are more aspects to consider, and a lot more things to do and build. Don't take this as criticism of RCT2, it's still an enormously enjoyable game even today, more than a decade and a half after its creation. Parkitect has only now been able to catch up to it, minus scenarios, after years of development by devoted developers with modern tools. And RCT2 might still subjectively have the edge in charm, and objectively in UI design. Still, I rarely wish for any of RCT2's features while playing Parkitect.
Allow me to illustrate each paragraph with semi-relevant pictures from the Devlog:
(Oh, and time-restricted goals have not been implemented yet either)
Lots of other settings to use and abuse, though.
Unlike the RCT series, shops and stalls in Parkitect have to be restocked with supplies. This adds a completely new depth to your park planning. You can't just plonk shops down willy-nilly, but you must use a depot and haulers to support them. This encourages the use of "back stage" areas with depots, staff break rooms and staff-only pathways, supporting a cluster of shops and stalls. In RCT, I hardly bothered with buildings other than ride stations and restaurants, but in Parkitect I use them all the time to camouflage the back stage.
With the recent Parkitect update, Alpha 19, the playstyle bolded here has finally become a gameplay element. Every path tile and ride now evaluates the level of themeing visible to guests standing on it. Scenery pieces will increase the rating, while the sight of "back stage" elements will decrease it. A handy graphics overlay will display the "immersion score" of the tiles.
This picture was from a few updates back; since then the system has been expanded to include rides as well:
More info in
these two links. And yes, despite the huge number of calculations running in the background, I haven't noticed any impact on the game's performance, even on a
pretty big, heavily themed park.
Speaking of buildings, the construction tool is really awesome and user-friendly. It still lacks some parts to work well (I miss pillars on grid lines and more roof slopes in particular), but it's so much easier to build stuff than in RCT that the latter feels inflexible, slow and unwieldy by comparison. Just the fact that walls and objects don't reset their build height to ground level after you plonk one down makes a huge difference. Building a huge flat roof in RCT is a major pain in the rear. In Parkitect, it's trivial.
Not much has changed here, overall, apart from a whole lot of new scenery pieces. The building system is still easy-to-use, flexible, and convenient. Pillars on grid lines and more roof slopes, requested in the quote, have long since been added. Even single-tile spires are now possible, since generic geometric shapes were added in a recent update. Transparent glass walls and roofs also allow you to make prettier windows.
I haven't quite gotten the hang of building coasters yet, but looking back at my RCT2/3 creations, I've never really had it. Parkitect's coaster tool is very flexible. It's based on track pieces like RCT, with the difference being that you're free to chose banking on every node, and the track pieces can be scaled up and down in size. If you want a 50 meter corkscrew, you can build it with ease.
Again, not much changes. New coaster types have been added (most notably a B&M-like Flying coaster and recently a Water Coaster à la Mack's Supersplashes), but I still suck at building them. The ability to change between different track slope angles has also been added, a feature that was missing previously:
However, and I'm afraid I forgot to mention this last year, Parkitect still lags behind RCT2 in two little aspects on the coaster building side: You can't create shuttle coasters (the track has to be a continuous loop for the ride to open, and a train can't enter the station in reverse), and you can't highlight the end of the ride and build backwards. These features are currently the most-requested ones to the developers, however, so I have faith they will be fixed. The Monorail rides can now operate in shuttle mode, so it's clear that some work has been done to allow this for tracked rides in general.
My first and biggest gripe with the game at this stage, is that the guest AI is still lacking. Guests spend far too much time dicking around at random, and rarely seek out rides unless they have the right intensity (the excitement rating doesn't seem to draw guests at all). In my current park, two rides (out of 11) seem to account for 80 % of all ridership. When the park had exactly 500 guests in it, I paused the game and did a quick count: Roughly 125 guests were on rides, and 120 were queueing. Disregarding the Star Shape, there were 380 guests of which 90 were riding the 10 attractions, and 32 were in a queue. Most of the attractions have never been filled up, and were actually losing money. This problem is exacerbated in coasters, since their construction and maintenance costs are far higher than that of other rides, and intensity is harder to fine tune. Unless you hit an intensity sweet spot, guests are likely to ignore the coaster, and instead walk around the park complaining that it is boring (this means junior coasters are vastly underpowered - guests don't seem to have differing tastes). Why they even went there in the first place remains a mystery. I've seen guests pay to enter the park, buy a balloon and 4 soft drinks, then leave without riding anything.
I'm happy to report that these issues have been fixed. Parks can now accomodate a much higher number of guests (I think the cap is at 2000 or so, admittedly less than RCT2, but that's a tradeoff of using 3D models over 2D sprites), and they behave a lot less randomly. They are more inclined to ride coasters too, which does great for park profitability, and have a greater variety of tastes. Some like to go on Merry Go-Rounds and Junior Coasters, other beeline for the intense flat rides. The Star Shape is still a major money-maker, though, and probably a way better investment for a park than any coaster at the moment. I've also been able to create parks that run a profit on a "pay per entrance, free rides" policy. Profitability is nice to have, since Sandbox gameplay has been outmoded to its own game mode - which means that in regular play, money now matters.
The game is still in Alpha, with an update every month. The developers have said that they aim to tweak the coaster stats in the coming update, so I'm not worried despite the little rant above. In time, I think this will be a very fine park game. Try it out, I think it's still fairly cheap!
Apart from the things about coaster stats, this still holds true. The game has improved remarkably in the past year, and development is still going strong. The
Developers' Blog has a new entry every week, and the game gets an update every month. They have chosen to label the game an "Alpha" until the career mode is added, but it already runs like a finished game. Frequent updates tend to break mods often, however, so the modding community has become less active in anticipation of a stable release, or dedicated modding tools, whichever comes first (hints seem to indicate the latter). But I'm still enthusiastic for the game, and would consider it money well spent!
I'll buy a Steam copy of the game to the first person to drop me a PM about this message. It has not been claimed yet as of the last edit of this post.
Other things:
I'm searching the devlogs of the last year for other things that has been implemented after last year's review, and will present them quickly below:
Random events are now a thing. This includes price hikes/drops, your park getting extra PR from being featured on the radio, groups of vandals roaming the park, a load of enthusiasts arriving by bus, or the dreaded "delivery problems" event, where no new supplies will be brought to your park for up to three months, which is likely to put all your stalls out of stock.
That's right, vandals. Vandalism is now implemented. Luckily, Mechanics will fix vandalized objects they come across. And garbage bins fill up, and need to be emptied by Janitors. The trash must be carried to the nearest Depot, so those should be placed around for convenience - just make sure to keep them out of sight of guests!
Terrain textures got an upgrade, they are not restricted to the grid any more.
These signs are great for ride exits!
There are also a bunch more water rides. No Rapids yet, but all of the others from RCT2 are there now, to my knowledge! Plus also Splash Battles (pictured) and transport boats.
Overall, I give the game both thumbs up. It's the spiritual successor to RCT2, and it fills the role amicably. There are still some features missing, and still room for improvement, but also things it does better than its predecessor, or for that matter its current competitors. I've had fun building decorative stuff, I've been struggling to keep my park's head above water, I've solved challenges the game threw my way, and ever more rarely I've missed features from other games. I'm really looking forward to look back on the coming year's worth of features in a year or so. I hope others on here will also try the game out, so I won't be as lonely discussing it!
