Developer: B-Alive
Publisher: bitComposer Games
Platforms: Windows
Adventure Park – Preview
If we think about simulation games, titles like ‘The Sims’ and ‘Tycoon’ pop in our minds. Although these games are the most popular, there are other ones that are dinging for some attention as well. Adventure Park gives you the chance to make your own lively amusement park in a new way but will it succeed in its goal?
There isn’t really a story in ‘Adventure Park’. You can start a Campaign, where you get the opportunity to learn the different elements and options available in the game. The Campaign contains several maps and each map has its own starting capital. Every level has diverse missions which you need to complete to advance to the next map. The first few maps are in the same desert-like area, which make it less stimulating to take a go for the next level.
If you don’t want to follow the missions, there is also the possibility to start your own amusement park without any missions, although it’s recommended to begin with the Campaign mode because the controls might be a bit tricky to explore on your own.
The graphics are decent when you’re close to the attractions. If you zoom out, the quality of the graphics are kind of depressing. The game gives the feel as if you’re playing a retro game. The details when you look onto your amusement park from above aren’t finished as well. The shadows from the attractions flicker and even disappear sometimes. The main menu isn’t very appealing and give you the feeling that you’re playing an oldschool theme park game instead of a shiny new game anno 2013. The one cool thing that was available was the possibility to ‘walk around’ like a visitor and watch everything from close by.
When you compare the graphics with the music and sound effects, the same conclusion rises: they’re not that great. There are not that much soundtracks, although a genre like this needs some additional attention when it comes to music to add that bit of extra to the game. From the moments I had to zoom in, the sound effects seemed okay and it seemed to fit the different attractions. There weren’t a lot of effects though, and as said before, this should be given more attention.
The controls are like a standard simulation game. You can move around with the arrow keys or with your mouse and you have the possibility to turn the map and the attractions around. I have to mention I had quite some troubles getting the attraction to face the right direction. It seems the controls for turning still lack some smoothness. Sometimes it’s impossible to place an attraction due to height differences or decoration standing in the way. This isn’t always very obvious to see as the only remark you sometimes get is a red contour and a not-so-distinctive message in the bottom left corner. This sometimes leave you clicking for a minute before understanding why something can’t be placed.
Adventure Park doesn’t seem to have that much attractions and other goodies to put into your amusement park. When you play the Campaign, you can only access some of the items, although this increases when you advance in the campaign.
The game has quite some information tabs as well. There are different tabs that give you info about your star rating, the percentage of happy people in the park (and their remarks) and the profit of the loss of your little company. These tabs are quite important to solve the missions, although the game lacks some extra information about these numbers and the information is spread out too much. It was quite an adventure to find the right menu.
There are several workers that can only be used for certain types of work. Each unit has its own working area so you get the chance to divide the work and spread out your employees. This would be nice if only the workers actually worked in the area they should be working in. The borders don’t seem to be active and this leads to intersecting employees. Although this isn’t that big of a deal, more workers means more salary, right?
The conclusion about this game is not really that great. Adventure Park has the potential to be a decent game when the graphics and music/sound effects improve and the Campaign isn’t that dull as it is now. I hope to see quite some changes and/or additions when the game is finished.
No Comments