Park Beyond feels like a solid theme park sim with an appealing but inessential gimmick

If it weren’t for the “impossification” gimmick of Park Beyond – with its ridiculous, physics-defying rides – you’d probably be hard pressed to tell it apart from a number of other park management games out there. theme based on its trailers so far. As a die-hard management sim fan, however, I couldn’t resist the recent opportunity to take Tropico developer Limbic Entertainment’s latest project for a spin to see what, if anything, it might bring. , to the familiar theme park kind.

Park Beyond’s big brand addition is, of course, the aforementioned “impossibility,” a twist that somewhat tears the usually grounded genre of theme park management out of reality to create a world where technology and physics are no longer limits. The result is a game where players can build impossible, gravity-defying rides, bringing Till Nowak’s wonderful short The Centrifuge Brain project in mind. Based on an early version given to press ahead of Gamescom, however, Park Beyond’s impossibility gimmick is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a fun but rather inessential addition to the theme park management genre.

Rides, stores, and even employees can be “impossible” by building a park capable enough to wow visitors and inspire wonder. Wonder can then be expended at certain thresholds to make increasingly reality-defying upgrades – a classic pirate ship seesaw ride might suddenly gain the ability to split into three, each section swirling in loops independently of the another, while an octopus-themed attraction could come to life, its tentacles hoisting ride cars and plunging visitors into aquatic depths for added thrills.

Park Beyond – Modular construction trailer.

Aesthetically it’s fantastic, lending an air of nonsensical wonder to the proceedings, but, in real terms, all that seems to mean for your park is that the rides get a bit of a stat boost with every new bet. level of impossification, becoming a little more exciting, generating a little more money, becoming more expensive in maintenance, etc. The same goes for roller coasters, which, in the press, could be made impossible by ramps and cannons, blasting cars into the air to cross lakes, buildings, etc. Impossification takes a little more thought here – steep turns after a mid-air landing are a big no-no, for example – but other than a pleasant dollop of fantasy, it’s hard to really see what the impossification of significant substance could bring.

The good news, though, is that after spending some (admittedly relatively brief) time dabbling in Park Beyond’s ongoing sandbox, it looks like there’s a pretty solid management sim beneath all of these impossification affairs, with Limbic having included the sort of strategic wrinkles and micromanagement options that help keep things interesting. Park managers will need to keep an eye out for social trends, for example, in case, say, a health craze causes visitors to avoid your fast food stalls. And for those who really like to get stuck in – maximizing traffic flow and meeting visitor needs through hyper-efficient park layouts and economic engines – Limbic hasn’t skimped, providing feedback tools, maps thermals and more.

Park Beyond – Trailer.

The feeling after a bit of play, then, is that there’s real potential here, and that Park Beyond might be able to find a comfortable place alongside its genre peers, even without that impossification stuff. Admittedly, it does feel like he could have a bit more strategic meat on his bones compared to Frontier Uneven Planet Coaster – a Park Beyond game apes a lot, especially in terms of the feel and functionality of its extensive customization and creation tools, from its modular construction to its sausage path.

The possibility that Park Beyond could eventually land somewhere between Planet Coaster’s incredible creative flexibility and the depth of genre grandfathers like Rollercoaster Tycoon is certainly appealing, but right now it all seems a little safe in terms of ambition. and range – a bit of a shame when indie developer Texel Raptor beautiful parkitect felt like a true breakthrough of the genre with its significant additions around intra-park freight logistics and facade aesthetics just a few years ago.

I have a few other issues with Park Beyond at the moment – Limbic has, for example, made the classic mistake of mistaking accessibility for infantilization, and its cloying, cutesy presentation is a little off-putting, which might be a blow to his history campaign – but there are certainly signs of a solid foundation for management fans here. Add that inessential but undoubtedly appealing gimmick of impossibility, and I’m cautiously optimistic that Park Beyond will eventually arrive on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime next year.