RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

[Sirian]

OK, so when I read about the new "CoasterCam™" feature, I'm thinking "That's probably lame, but as long as the gameplay is decent, I won't care."

Well, chalk one up for 3D. In a word: Wow.


OK, some background. I loved Railroad Tycoon, Transport Tycoon, and A-Train -- the early "Tycoon" type games. I've been busy with other games, though, so I never got around to trying RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 or 2. Sales seemed to be good, so I decided to, ah, "hop on the train" for the third ride.

I bought Roller3 in the same batch as Half Life 2, so it's been sitting around for about six weeks. I tried it on New Years Day. It's been a blast! Although the gameplay differs, the flavor is very much like the old Transport Tycoon gameplay. (That's a Very Good Thing™. I will have to dig deep to see whether Roller3 suffers the same kind of balance-problem issues as the old Transport Tycoon. No sign of any problems as yet, though.

Now me being a "graphics don't matter" kind of gamer, games like this might start to spoil me. This is a really bang-up piece of work here.


Let's have a peek. Here is the first game in the campaign, with me about halfway through. This is a very open-ended scenario. You pretty much just need to make decent money and you win. There are a lot of ways to get there and lot of little touches on how you can customize your park. Gameplay is simple but not redundant, which is always a winning formula.



The park is populated by "Peeps" -- no not the marshmallow chicks, but a host of AIs, "customers", folks who simulate merriment-seekers. The peeps got a lot of attention: many faces, hairstyles, clothing, and some careful attention to behavior, as well. This is probably the most "living" game of any type that I've played. It lacks the hard edge realism of Half Life 2, but that is a scripted game. This is open-ended, and thus in many ways more impressive.

The real treat was designing my first rollercoaster from scratch, though, and then soaking up the good vibes as it quickly became by far the most popular ride in my park. Hey, gotta love Peeps with good taste!



So there's most of my creation, and now a look from the CoasterCam™:



The best part of the game is riding your own coasters. You really get a feel for the impact of your design choices, including some fairly impressive game physics. Subtleties matter! I'm eating this up. 8)


Here are some more looks at my park, including right before obtaining the Gold victory level. (Three levels of victory per scenario, just like in Railroad Tycoon II.)





The gameplay seems as good as the graphics. I think this title has a legitimate shot at earning a coveted place among my "time tested" favorites list. Too soon to tell, for sure, but it definitely has me excited.


- Sirian

[LKendter]

Well I may have to take a look. I played the original version until I hit the wall with a park that I simply couldn't figure out how to deal with the parking lot on the other side of the road. I banged my head for ages and never figure out how to get there. Since it was a secondary game it got lost on the shelf.

[Occhidiangela]

1. Would you say this game meets the Sirian KISS principle? "Keep it simple and straightforward." I read your MOO3 critique, finally, and it made me wonder if another version of KISS, much harder to implement, is "Keep it Simple and Subtle." I think that what some of the console games, and some of the RPG's have done, is add "just the right amount" of subtlety to reasonably simple games to give them a particular flavor.

2. My kids liked Roller Coaster Tycoon. I wonder if RCT3 will capture their fancy.

Occhi

[Sirian]

I can only offer early impressions at this point, and those are glowing.

Manipulating the terrain is the only thing so far that has caused me to have to back up and reload -- twice. There are a lot of terrain tools, but some of them are, ah, a tad imprecise. Others are better, though, so it's a learning process.

One can make mistakes with the custom built track-rides (coasters, etc) but backing up is fairly easy. And if the design process were too simple, it wouldn't be any fun, so "just the right amount of subtlety" seems like a fair description.


- Sirian