Park Beyond Preview

Park Beyond is the upcoming brain-twisting theme park simulation game from developer Limbic Entertainment. Taking inspiration from classic titles such as Bullfrog Production's Theme Park series and Thrillville: Off the Rails, as well as more contemporary parallels with titles such as Planet Coaster, Park Beyond offers you the opportunity to design and manage your own amusement park, creating thrilling rides and attractions that will draw in swarms of guests. Filtered through a healthy dose of fantasy that's full of wonder and imagination, you can build your parks with theming from sci-fi, fantasy, and other genres, as well as devise some truly mind-bending thrill experiences.

Those who’ve played Planet Coaster might find the toolset familiar, with a building system that allows the freedom to customise a variety of aspects of your park, including the path layout, the placement of the attractions, and the design of the rides. The intuitive building system lets you create a dream park quickly and easily whilst still maintaining control over the finer details. With a wide range of building tools and materials at your disposal, you're free to use the preexisting themed shops and rides or use the trove of building blocks and objects to design your own from the ground up.

Surely this can't be safe...

One of the standout features I noticed in Park Beyond is the physics engine, which simulates the movements and forces of the rides in real-time. This system gives your rides sufficient weight and makes the testing segments all the more entertaining. This also means that each ride will have a unique feel and experience, depending on how it's been designed and built; the physics engine works especially well for the purely chaotic nature of the rides in Park Beyond.

Whereas most titles in the theme park simulation genre sit firmly in the bounds of relative realism to emulate real-life rides and experiences, Park Beyond instead allows you to create rides that would terrify both guests and health and safety inspectors. The campaign starts with your unseen player character, a thrill savant of sorts, sitting at their work desk and looking at the blueprints of several rides and rollercoaster elements that would never be possible in the real world. These fantastical ideas catch the attention of a struggling park development company, which takes you on as a fresh architect to build and fix up their theme parks. Throughout the campaign, you will have meetings with the team, allowing you to decide on which aspects you wish to focus on for your next park, from choosing the demographic you want to cater to (whether it'll be focused for teens, adults or families), to what specific theming you want to have, such as western, sci-fi, or candyland, and more.

Contrary to popular belief, this park is diabetic friendly

Multi-layered Ferris Wheels, flat rides with overly elaborate theming, and rollercoasters that detach from their tracks are just the tip of the iceberg of possibility in Park Beyond. As you progress through the campaign, your research will unlock crazier parts, such as cannons to launch your coasters through the air, splitting tracks that divide your ride trains into separate routes before joining together again, or even a track piece that allows your carts to go literally off the rails, rolling over the terrain before hopping back onto the track. Each track piece and ride also has a dedicated appeal to different demographics, such as high-intensity rides catering more to teen guests, whereas calmer rides are more popular with families that visit your park.

You also have the standard level of park management as is seen in other titles in the genre, such as ensuring that your park is clean and provides your guests with all the necessities and luxuries they'd come to expect at a theme park, with a variety of shops and eateries at your disposal. You'll also need to ensure that your park is staffed sufficiently so that your rides continue to function safely and that you have enough entertainers wandering around to bring extra fun to guests. You're able to analyse your park's efficiency and appeal with a variety of visual options to assess the different aspects, such as if an area has sufficient access to food or a section's fun potential. You're also able to see the reactions of guests to different rides and attractions, allowing you to adjust your park accordingly if certain parts aren't appealing to the right demographic you're trying to cater to.

It can't always be fun and games, sometimes you have to sit around a table and gawk at minatures

A strong emphasis has been put on creating an audio environment that is both immersive and entertaining, with a range of sound effects that reflect the thrills and excitement of an amusement park. Echoes of the sounds of roller coasters roaring by, the screams and laughter of park guests, as well as the chimes of carousel music can be heard whilst you play. The game also features an original soundtrack to complement the title's fantastical setting, with a mix of genres that reflect the different areas of the park, with upbeat and energetic tracks for the thrill rides and more mellow and relaxing tunes for the park's more serene locales.

Park Beyond feels like a rewarding exploration of imagination and creativity, where your more stringent simulation mindset can take a break and bask in having as much fun as possible. Whether you're a seasoned theme park builder or a newcomer to the genre, Park Beyond is gearing up to be a thrill ride you won't be dying to get off of.