Build Yourself a Theme Park
That is always what Roller Coaster Tycoon games have been about. You have a park and it’s your job to fill it with rides, attractions, shops, and stalls to entertain hundreds—perhaps thousands of guests. The general fanbase also talks about purposefully crashing coasters, charging for bathrooms, and putting “No Entry” signs in front of the park exit, but more on that later.
Roller Coaster Tycoon World is shaping up to be a return to the wonderful world of building your own amusement parks, completing the objectives, and moving on to the next park. You will truly be a Coaster Tycoon.
So, let’s see what this game is all really about.
1. First and Foremost…
Is that a double-decker teacups ride?
Your job will be to design that amusement park. That’s what the game is about. There’s no one right way to do it, which is both a pro and a con.
Generally speaking, as the park manager, you’ll need to keep an eye on what the guests are looking for. When they say that they want to go “on something more thrilling” that means you need to build yourself some roller coasters and some designated “thrill” rides. In the past, rides that classify as “thrill” rides are things like bumper boats, bumper cars, enterprises, river rapids, and go karts.
Likely, the concept will be the same in Roller Coaster Tycoon World. In your build menu, your rides should be sorted into several categories including: transport rides, junior rides, gentle rides, thrill rides, coasters, water rides, shops and stalls. If your guests want something more thrilling, build accordingly; same thing if they want more gentle rides.
Your goal is to find the balance to boost your ratings, your park value, and your paycheck. Because you also have a staff to pay and rides to upkeep.
Sounds complicated? Perhaps. But it’s a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.
2. Change the Terrain to Meet Your Needs
(From RCT3) Adjusting the landscape to fit the rides is often necessary.
In the first Roller Coaster Tycoon game, you could adjust the landscape however you wanted, so long as you had the cash to do it. For some reason, in Roller Coaster Tycoons 2 and 3, you found yourself limited for no discernable reason.
The developers are promising a completely deformable terrain again. So you can move around land and water as you please to allow for your rides and attractions to go wherever you want them to.
3. Architect Mode
The new way to build coasters.
One of the major frustrations of previous Roller Coaster Tycoon games was that designing your own rollercoaster while in your park became a tough job if you were struggling financially. The games did have “sandbox modes” where you could build coasters to your hearts’ content without money being a factor. Or space for that matter.
The problem came when you went to build those in your park later only to find that they didn’t in with the previous attractions or scenery, or they became too expensive to build in one shot anyway. Now, in Roller Coaster Tycoon World, you’ll be able to have the sandbox elements of building the coaster—but still in your park so you can make it fit. You’ll pay for it after it’s complete, not as you’re constructing it.
So, now you’ll have the fun of building a coaster without a lot of the hassle.
4. Build Coasters Using Spline System
Still from the reveal trailer.
In addition to the previous ways you could build coasters in Roller Coaster Tycoon parks, Roller Coaster Tycoon World will feature the addition of the spline-system. The track will have nodes that you can grab onto and manipulate in 3D space. This will simplify coaster building and modification to get you back to managing other areas of your park, if that’s what you want to do.
You will also be able to switch between the spline system and the older system of building tracks seamlessly to maximize your coaster building thrill time.
5. More Cohesive Theming
Quaint Western Theming.
In previous iterations of Roller Coaster Tycoon games, there were options for theming: “space,” “jungle,” “abstract,” “snow,” etc. However, all it did was just look pretty if you bothered to do it. The theming had no effect on the guests more than them saying “nice scenery.”
Roller Coaster Tycoon World features four main themes: Americanna, Western, Pirate, and Space. Your rides, shops, and other attractions will all fit into these themes. Now, your park can more resemble Disney or Six Flags instead of a mishmash of whatever rides you were able to fit into a space.
You have your options to stick to a single theme, or mix and match a little bit if you please. The menus are designed so that way you can find everything that fits within a theme and plop it right into your park with no extra hassle.
Likely, with the release of expansion packs will come even more themes to add to your parks.
6. You Can Be a Horrible Manager
That is actually a themed ride, not you being a horrible manager.
The sadists who play Roller Coaster Tycoon (and there are many) enjoy various ways of –ahem- torturing their guests. Some people enjoy designing coasters to crash, deleting path under guests while they’re above water, charging for bathrooms, and putting “No Entry” signs in front of the Park Exit.
These actions will do horrible things to your park rating, but if you really just want to let out some passive aggression, here’s the way to do it. What is perhaps most surprising, is the amount of people who do enjoy torturing the guests in their parks. They exist in large numbers.
And if this is not your cup of tea, don’t worry, there are plenty of other ways you can enjoy yourself. Perhaps by working towards completing park objectives or building the craziest coaster ever (but not one that will crash on purpose.)
7. Ride Your Own Coasters
‘Cause you know you want to.
This was a feature introduced in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and it’s nice to see it make a reappearance. Roller Coaster Tycoon World will let you ride any ride you build from multiple camera angles should you so choose. That way, you can pretend that you’re in your own park and enjoy it like your guests do.
It’ll be a nice way to relax after you spent all that effort building it.
8. Visit other Parks
Welcome to someone else’s park.
A new feature of Roller Coaster Tycoon World will be the ability to go to other people’s parks and wander around as one of their guests. You can connect through Steam or Facebook, make friends, and visit their parks. They can visit yours as well.
This can give you ideas for what you can do to make your park better and you can give them suggestions if you so choose. There will be a feature to rate coasters and the overall park. The whole point is to be able to connect and enjoy yourself while watching your friends’ park grow and improve.
Additionally, you can share blueprints of rides you created through Steam and Facebook. Naturally, the flip side of acquiring blueprints of rides someone else has made is also possible.
9. Collaborate with Others
You control the “Space” area, yeah?
This is the online collaborative portion of the game. You can work with up to four other people as you create yourself a park that all of you share with each one of you controlling a different section. The developers promise that if someone else starts slacking, your park rating won’t show it.
Online mode is also completely optional. If you want to play by yourself, by all means do so. Roller Coaster Tycoon World is about giving you options about how you want to run your dream park.
10. Winning the Game
Because, that matters too.
In previous games, you won individual parks by completing objectives. These objectives ranged from having a certain amount of guests in your park, to getting a high park rating, to paying off your loan and having a certain park value, to any other number of variables. Sometimes, you had to get it done within a time limit, sometimes it was just whenever the numbers lined up.
Likely, Roller Coaster Tycoon World will be no different. You’ll be successful if you build a good balance of rides and attractions, pay off your loans, and keep guests happy. You should be happy too.
So, what are your thoughts about this upcoming game? Leave them in the comments below.
Related Articles:
http://www.gamersdecide.com/pc-game-news/15-must-play-pc-games-decade
http://www.gamersdecide.com/pc-game-news/sims-4-gameplay-10-things-you-need-know
