'Park Beyond' Looks Like The Arcade Coaster Builders Of Yesteryear

Bandai Namco and Limbic Entertainment have officially announced Park Beyond - the pairings' take on a theme park management sim.

First revealed during Gamescom's Opening Night Live stream hosted by Geoff Keighley, the game is being made by the studio behind Tropico 6, and is currently in an alpha build stage after two years in development.

Check out the trailer for the game below:

We were recently shown a behind-closed-doors presentation to get the low-down on exactly what gamers can expect from Park Beyond, and what will make it stand out within the management sim genre. In short, Park Beyond describes its niche as "impossification".

Impossification is the made up word being used to explain the more, shall we say, eccentric ideals being encompassed by the game. Those ideals are to create parks beyond your imagination. While most park management sims (Planet Coaster, Rollercoaster Tycoon etc) tend to have at least one foot planted in reality, Park Beyond seems to be taking a vaulted jump into the inventiveness of its player base.

While community creations will undoubtedly become a major pull, the game will also have a well fleshed-out single-player campaign. Players will take on the part of a park architect, who dreams of becoming one the greatest theme park designers ever born. Lofty goals. Each campaign will have a set of missions that you'll be able to tailor-make depending on how you want to play. Want to focus on growing a teen audience? You can do that. Reckon you can stick a date on accomplishing that too? Go ahead. It seems like Limbic are really pushing player choice as one of their key mechanics.

Bandai Namco / Limbic Entertainment

For example - in the presentation (and indeed in the trailer above) you'll notice that not all of the rides are strictly, well, possible. We see multi-tiered carousels and ferris wheels that look more like cogs in a machine. We were even shown a roller coaster that has the carts being fired out of a cannon, before landing on a track safe and sound. It's utter anarchy. Roller coaster design will also be super intuitive, utilising a 'modular coaster editor'. You'll be able to design your creation, build it within your park and of course ride it in first person to test it out.

Breaking away from the more high-brow group of park sims could just be Park Beyond's trump card. Its arcadey aesthetic is underpinned by a complex series of menus and editors that will give the hardcore fans that immersion they desire, whilst keeping up a cheerful exterior. This could also be the game's major Achilles heel. In attempting to appeal to both a casual and dedicated audience in one package, it could end up satisfying neither, who will simply stick to what they know and love.

For my money, I'm excited. The general vibe really reminded me of Theme Park World on the PS1 which I used to love playing as a kid and I often struggle to wade through the granular management of management sims. I just want to build something pretty and sit back and watch it. So, if Park Beyond can deliver me that sense of creativity and satisfaction without sucking my attention too much into the abyss of micromanagement, I'll take one ticket, please. Park Beyond will release 2022 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Topics: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, bandai namco