| Main Forum - Video Games - Search - Next
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3
Chalkdust 04/19/07, 08:03 | 
0 | I was going through some old boxes and found my RCT 1 and 2 discs, decided to see if they stood up as well as I remembered. First one yes, second one no.
I don't know what it was about the second one... it seemed so unnecessary to give it a new number. They botched the interface and made no substantial changes to park management, building, etc. It really was just another set of expansions.
Curious, and now with a much better computer than I had when it came out, I got the RCT 3 demo.
A few hours later I went and bought the platinum pack that includes both the water park and zoo-ish expansions.
This is very fun.
A true successor to the bright, chunky construction-set feel of the first game with a very solid (if a little unfamiliar at first) interface. The graphics are almost exact three-dimensional replicas of the first couple games. If you look at them from the right angle it's hard to tell.
And then you realize you can rotate the camera and zoom in to ground level and RIDE THE RIDES (this is what I always wanted and it is exactly what it should be).
In terms of gameplay, at its core it's the solid Roller Coaster Tycoon formula. Build up your park, keep the guests and staff happy, advertise, tweak prices, build rides, theme your areas, decorate and meet the various objectives it throws at you, which though I am only a few parks along are quite varied. Not just build up a park to X value with Y customers, there are goals to appeal to all styles of players. Build X roller coasters of Y length with Z excitement rating, get so much from ticket sales, win the award for most beautiful park, etc. etc.
All my little strategies are coming back to me. 10 cent bathrooms, a balloon stand by every roller coaster, planting a thicket of trees around the more intense segments of the ride to boost the excitement, plus stupid things I did like give all the rides horrible punny names in line with the park's theme.
The expansion content is much more than just some extra scenery sets. The water park element integrates very well into a park overall, with multi-level pool structures, water slides, lifeguards, chemical cleaning schedules, lifeguards; and the animal exhibits give the game a bit of Zoo Tycoon-esque animal management, feeding and control issues (tranquilizer dart cam!)
The level of customization is staggering, from the wealth of themes, props, big crazy ride-triggered setpieces (like an oil derrick that spouts crude and then explodes when your coaster train passes by a track tile you set), girder-and-panel style custom building tools (plus you can save your structures to load into other parks); the terrain tools are versatile and easy to use; plus the game uses RCT 2's auto-adjust mechanism for if your ride is going to go underground, doing the digging for you.
There are also fireworks and laser shows which you can program, I haven't even begun to explore the options there.
Already I can see many hours going into this, and I am looking forward to it. Now if only I could find my old ride files and save games, there's a ton of stuff I want to load into this.
Oh, yeah. Almost forgot. Sandbox mode! No monetary limits! Whee!
The original (yeah, I know, not quite) and still the best Tycoon series out there. | | Next | Reply - Reply With Quote | | | | |
|
| |
