Rollercoaster Tycoon is a video game series that simulates the management and construction of amusement parks. The first game in the franchise was released in 1999 on PC and on the Xbox and was an instant classic being the third best selling game in 1999. The first game, similar to its sequel, featured 2D isometric graphics being only the only games on the Xbox to have 2D graphics. A year after the release of Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 hit the market. The game finally made the jump to 3D graphics which caused the game to top the sales charts in 2004. The franchise went dormant until early 2015 when Atari and Nvissio announcement that they would team up to create the newest installation in the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise, Rollercoaster Tycoon: World.
The creators of RTCW during production, stated that the game would feature a spline based rollercoaster creation/ path system meaning the player will be able to drag and pull pieces of a coaster or path with ease. Atari was also able to say that they have collaborated with the amusement park super giant, Six Flags in order to make more realistic rides, shops, restaurants, and decorations. Lastly, the developers in order to drive home the hype said that they would pull away from the grid based placement system from RCT3 that received terrible player reception.
Will the game live up to the promises made by the developers of the game or will it disappoint and let down fans of this accredited franchise?
When the game starts immediately it is easy to see that there was a huge leap in graphical improvements from RCT3. This time around there is definitely a lot more attention to detail outside the theme park. Players are able to choose from a forest, desert, island and field all of which feature gorgeous landscapes, unlike previous games where the environments outside the park look like endless green or yellow voids.
Along with the environments, rides, shops, and restaurants look more realistic thanks to the aforementioned partnership with Six Flags. The people that roam throughout the park also look like actual people in this iteration of the franchise and have hairstyles and outfits that are unique to each person as opposed to looking like toys in the past games. Rollercoasters actually have stations that look like the real deal as opposed to past games just having random tracks in the middle of a field.
Looks aside, the gameplay is what makes this game the best in the franchise. Keeping up with their promises, the developers were able to build a spline based coaster and path creation system meaning players can pull, drag and twist the coaster as they please so long as the support beams can be placed. In the older games, in order to make a coaster players could only place parts piece by piece which caused coasters to gather an angular appearance. A problem with the spline system is that while the track can be placed it won’t be safe and the game has no way to tell the player. This results in either having to restart the entire coaster or placing a ludicrous amount of brakes that makes the coaster look ridiculous.
As before, players can place rides, stores, and restaurants and can also place various scenery related objects in order to make the park look good. This makes the people in the park happy and as the manager of a park the player has to maintain happiness like making the park look good, placing lamps so that the park is lit up when it gets dark, cleaning up trash and vomit, entertaining the guests, having fair prices for merchandise and food and repairing rides.
A new element added to the game was the inclusion of player created content. Rides and decorations created by other players can be downloaded and traded amongst each other which adds a new degree of creativity into an already creative game.
Various aspects of keeping people happy are based on employees like entertainers, mechanics and janitors. Unlike past installments, players must place buildings that hire these employees. These buildings, however, have a limit to how many employees that the player can hire. The buildings take up space that is absolutely precious in this game.
This has nailed just about every aspect yet one this is missing the atmosphere. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 is a heavily flawed game yet the one thing had going for it was the atmosphere. Maybe it’s the music or the childish look of the game but the atmosphere is better than in Rollercoaster Tycoon World.
Despite a few small kinks in the gameplay Rollercoaster Tycoon: World, it is still a really good and fun game and is the game that will define the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise . People who are fans of the franchise, roller coasters, theme parks, or tycoons should definitely pick up this games. In conclusion, the game deserves an 8/10 for vastly improving aspects that made the past games in the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise so great.