Parkitect: Deluxe Edition Review

Whether it’s the real-life attractions or just building my own virtual ones, I bloody love rollercoasters. Fun, exhilarating, and just a good time all around, the same can also be said about videogames! But can the newly released console version of Parkitect: Deluxe Edition by developer Texel Raptor be described as such?

Although originally released on PC back in 2018, this version of Parkitect is something brand-new to console only players and includes both the Taste of Adventure and Booms and Blooms DLC, so this really is the complete package! Or a deluxe edition, if you will… This game evokes the spirit of classics such as Theme Park World, with its bright, vibrant cartoonish style and sense of relaxed fun.

The main portion of the game revolves around a campaign mode, where you go from park to park completing objectives and turn a profit before moving on to the next. Similar to how Planet Coaster works, it was great to see a coaster sim title that had some kind of structured campaign as well as letting the player create their own theme park from scratch. The missions start basic enough and help you get a feel for the game, but with over 30 of them in total — including DLC missions — there’s a good variety of parks and objectives to last for a solid chunk of time. Well, that is, if you can get past the plethora of issues…

The issues in question? Yeah, they practically ruin the game, as Parkitect has several major issues in terms of bugs and freezing. Rides had a tendency to mysteriously vanish when loading up a save, the game crashed frequently at random intervals, menus became unselectable which forced me to restart, and I even had my save data become corrupted on one occasion. Technically, it’s a mess, although Texel Raptor do seem to be patching the game at a rapid pace, so fingers crossed for an improved version somewhere down the line.

It’s a real shame, then, that this is one of the worst ports I’ve played in a long, long time. Not only did I encounter major issues, but, despite being touted as having a control scheme redesigned for controllers in mind, Parkitect feels cumbersome and unintuitive to play. This certainly isn’t the case on PC, but the game just doesn’t translate well to consoles, particularly when trying to navigate menus or attempting to build a rollercoaster from scratch.

If you do manage to play the game without any crashes, then it’s basically exactly the same as its beloved PC counterpart. As mentioned earlier, you’ve got the campaign mode with a good amount of content, as well as the option to just create your own dream park. The wealth of options here is impressive, from small rides suitable for young ones, to white-knuckle coasters that defy all logic (and gravity). Many of the rides are pre-built, but the true freedom of creativity comes from creating the rollercoasters, that is, of course, if you can stomach the iffy controls when trying to intricately create something that doesn’t instantly kill every passenger. Or, maybe you want that to happen, I’m not here to judge!

It’s not all about building the biggest, baddest (and unsafe) rides though, as your park guests will need other facilities to keep them as satisfied as possible! They’ll need bathrooms, food and drink stalls, and such to not only make sure visitors are happy, but also to keep that cash flowing! Hiring staff to serve the guests, fix rides, and keep the place looking tidy are all vitally important to the running of your park. There isn’t much here that separates Parkitect from other similar titles, but since this is such a niche genre, there’s not a whole lot of room for originality. That said, not being original doesn’t mean it’s bad (Park Beyond had unique ideas and that was rubbish) and I did have some fun with the game when it worked as intended. But, I had much more fun playing the PC version a few years ago, with much less frustration surrounding the controls.

Parkitect: Deluxe Edition was a genuine surprise when it was announced to be coming to consoles, and it really pains me to say that maybe it should have just stayed on PC. Numerous bugs, save corruption issues, and crashes happen much too frequently for me to be able to recommend this version of what is otherwise a great game. Maybe check back in a few months to see if the developer has fixed these issues if you’re strictly a console gamer.