Summary
It took me far too long to play Parkitecht. Some of my friendsstronglyrecommended it to me when it first hitPCa few years back because they know I love a good theme park. For the right theme park,I am willing to almost get into a fight with a man with the ability to kill me in front of his child. If I’m visiting your country and there’s a roller coaster anywhere nearby, I am wasting a day on it. Yes, I could find a famous Michelin star restaurant in an exciting new city, but those are more expensive and they don’t take your photo at the moment you’re about to throw up. Theme parks are great. And even better than theme parks aregameswhere you build theme parks.
My friends promised me that Parkitecht was the real successor toRollerCoaster Tycoon(or more accurately, the real successor to RollerCoaster Tycoon 2). And yes, as you’d expect, I’m obsessed with those games. For years I was utterly terrible, but still put in hundreds of hours into failing, confusing theme parks that were less likely to provide guests with fun and more likely to provide Scooby-Doo with mysteries. Yet I ignored my friends’ recommendation for years. This was a mistake because Parkitecht is a very,verygood game. Now that it’s suddenly onPlayStationandXbox, I must beseech all of you: please don’t sleep on this game.
Parkitecht Is A Worthy Successor To RollerCoaster Tycoon
Parkitecht is easily one of the most breezy fun tycoon games I’ve played in a very long time, and it’s definitely one of the few times in recent memory that I’ve gone from the light of the day into the dark of the night and back into the light of the day in one sitting. Now it’s basically available everywhere but theSwitch(a shame, since it’d be perfect there). So, I’m going to once again request you to avoid my mistake. Buy this game. I don’t get a cut if it succeeds; I put my own money down for my copy. But I’d love there to be more!
I do understand why you, like me, might have ignored Parkitecht. Or never even heard of it! There are approximately a thousand different games ‘inspired’ by RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, including RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. Which is a fine game! It’s fine! Absolutely fine. But there area lotof theme park games covering a lot of material: Roller coasters, zoos, dinosaurs zoos, uh, underwater zoos, you name it. And, of course, there’sPlanet Coaster, which is a great sandbox but somehow felt a little too easy to me, the least-skilled player on Earth. That’s all to say, there are games inspired by RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 -and open source takeoffs of the game- but Parkitecht is the first one that’s made me feel the exact same way I did with RCT2. It’s so good it’s become myreplacementfor RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.
Sure, Planet Coaster is better for designing a bigger, more beautiful Tomorrowland, but Parkitecht iscompelling. Like RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, the business element isn’t just set dressing. It’s important and unforgiving. Not hard! Not unfairly difficult! But, like RCT2, it’s a game that requires you to really consider what park guests want over whatyouwant. You’re running a business that can and probably will fail. Yet all of this strategy is easily digestible. You can throw up some rides and get a park open within minutes. I’m stupid as hell, but even I can understand coordinating gate ticket prices with individual ride prices while using hedges to hide all my maintenance workers. Perhaps it’s the fact that, like a lot of classic tycoon games, the isometric(ish) view makes it easier to assess everything at once. Or I’m just retconning reasons to love this game more.
And I want to be clear: Parkitecht isn’t just a RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 knockoff. That game still exists and has a very active fanbase. If I wanted to just play RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, I could do that right now with plenty of mods to enhance the experience. But Parkitecht iterates on RCT2 while keeping that same feeling - up to and including the calliope music that might slowly drive you to criminal deeds. But in Parkitecht there are slightly more options and a few more things to consider. While the tutorial isn’tfantastic, the game itself feels a little bit more intuitive and natural than RCT2. Which it should be, because it’s been decades. Building a roller coaster in the game is slightly more forgiving. There may be a bit more infrastructure to lay down than in RCT, but the team clearly put a lot of effort into making everything as transparent and accessible as possible (within the context of a business game).
So yeah, I’m asking all of you to not sleep on Parkitecht. I need all of you to make this game succeed so we get more of them on consoles. This is your job now. Quit your real job and do this one. I’ve only gone as far as I can. If you like RollerCoaster Tycoon or RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, this brings back those feelings. If you hate RollerCoaster Tycoon or RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, I’m sorry that you weren’t raised right. But this isn’t aParadoxstrategy game; you’re not going to have to spend years of your life figuring out in-game metallurgy so you can build good rides. You’ll pick it up fast. Trust me. I know the logo looks like it’s for a mobile game that you accidentally downloaded and somehow can’t delete. Perhaps the name ‘Parkitecht’ doesn’t roll off the tongue the way they hoped it would. None of that matters. Modern consoles now have the closest thing possible to RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 and it’s going to ruin my life.
