[typing] [reggae music]
Water Park Tycoon,
developed by just a small team at Astragon
and published by Excalibur Publishing on May 23, 2014.
I retails in the UK at £9,99
which currently comes to almost $17 USD.
And, yes, it comes in a box, but it's a download
no mater what. It's just a card inside here.
Water Park Tycoon is a management sim in the vein of Theme Park,
Roller Coaster Tycoon and various other business simulations.
What attracted me to this one was the water park theme
because it's currently summertime here,
and I love water parks.
I was also a fan of the Soaked expansion for Roller Coaster Tycoon 3,
so a full game dedicated to the idea seemed great.
And I'm gonna cut straight to the chase:
if you're expecting a game even slightly comparable
to the depth and polish of the RCT games,
turn back now.
Water Park Tycoon is a low-budget game from beginning to end
and that's apparent even from the options menu.
There is no sound in the game whatsoever,
just a few canned musical samples that play over and over,
and there are no graphics options beyond resolution and enabling shadows.
You can dive into the free play mode right away,
but it'd be a good idea to just play quest mode first,
since it unlocks new content for free play and provides a tutorial.
The tutorial is a bit of a waste of time, though,
since it doesn't show you how to do anything at all.
It simply tells you that certain features exist
and you should probably try to find out where they are
and what they do by yourself.
Once you finish the tutorial, it's on to one of three quests.
There's only one map to play in the game,
but your objectives at least give you something to do each time.
Usually, it's stuff like reaching a certain level of approval,
having a certain number of people that come to visit you,
and making sure you're flush with cash and debt-free.
So basically the same stuff most people want to accomplish in real life.
You'll start off by placing pathways, restrooms,
changing rooms, and food stands.
And eventually you'll build pools, water slides,
and more elaborate attractions,
all while managing staff members,
promoting your park,
and keeping up with things like risk of injury to guests
and the overall attractiveness of the place,
referred to here as "ambience."
It's all incredibly straightforward if you're familiar with these types of games,
and I had a blast creating bigger and better parks,
unlocking new items to place,
and figuring out new ways to boost profits.
At least, I had a blast when it worked,
but sadly, that's not very often.
Sometimes the UI will disappear entirely,
sometimes it will just not let you click on anything,
sometimes the game will just crash and burn,
and sometimes THIS will happen
if you try to place rides.
Beyond that, there's the creepy absence of any sound effects at all,
various graphical glitches,
and the unruly zooming in and out with the mouse wheel,
which acts more like a a raising and lowering of the camera
rather than a proper zoom.
Then it's not long before you realize that the backbone of the game,
this simulation of supply and demand itself,
is overdependent on spamming the same few items repeatedly at best,
and is entirely broken at worst.
These types of games thrive on the thoughts and desires
of the people currently in your park,
and here it's like their needs never actually scale
with the rating and size of your park.
And it's not long before everything just goes stagnant.
Beyond this, there's no way to speed up the simulation at all.
So if you've taken out the tiny 10 grand maximum loan,
eh, you're often stuck with literally nothing to do
while you wait for more money to trickle in.
And yes, this also happens in free play mode,
which you think would have unlimited funds
like a sandbox mode, but nah-uh.
And you might think, well, at least you can dick around
with customization and micromanagement, but no.
About as much as you get is being able to change the color of one of the water slides.
You're not gonna be adjusting the individual food stand condiments or prices,
much less adding in any custom signs or music.
You can't even change the name of your park.
And that's it for Water Park Tycoon, and
I desperately wanted another great amusement park management sim,
and I would seriously love one with water parks as a focus,
but this is NOT that game.
It at least looks kinda nice. I'll give 'em that.
I mean, not great for a game from 2014, necessarily,
but it looks nice enough for a budget title.
But when games from a decade ago that cost less
still outshine this in every single way,
and you take into account the dull gameplay and numerous glitches,
the asking price of $17 seems absurd.
Drop it down to about five bucks and I'd say give it a shot, if you're really bored.
Otherwise, Water Park Tycoon is just a washed-up title that drowned
before it ever got a chance.
And that makes me sad.
[music plays]
And if you'd like more reviews and
other impressions on games
and whatever else I happen to cover that may or may not make me sad,
then why not look around my channel.
I do more videos every single week,
so, of course, subscribing is an option, if you're here on YouTube.
Makes it easier to be notified when more stuff exists.
And you can also check out other things that I update far more often
and interact with the community a little bit,
like Twitter, Facebook and Patreon.
All are appreciated, as is your viewership in general.
And as always, thank you for watching.