Want to see Raider King content first? Add us as a preferred source.
On July 3, 2024, video game developer Texel Raptor will be releasing the deluxe edition of their 2018 Park Management game, “Parkitect”. This enhanced version of the game contains all of the previous DLC to add 10 levels, new themes, rides, and more to the already existing experience. The game promises a grand scale and features a campaign mode of 26 scenarios for players to complete. However, is this game worth picking up as someone who isn’t hardcore into the Park Management genre? Well here is a review from a casual enjoyment of the genre about if this spiritual successor to Roller Coaster Tycoon holds up to the test.
Gameplay – 8/10
The gameplay of Parkitect Deluxe Edition is a wonderful homage to Park Management simulators of old. You’ll be tasked with hiring staff, building stores/rides, and placing decorations to prevent customers from seeing the behind-the-scenes areas of the park.
While the gameplay is inherently simplistic, the gameplay loop of developing a successful park is very satisfying in how uncomplicated it is. Many simulator games can become overwhelming as they pile on a million things for players to micromanage, so having a game with only a few things to focus on is a nice change of pace.
This game lives and breathes on small details that make you happy throughout gameplay. From the small ching sound the game makes whenever customers purchase food to the slowly increasing number of customers in the corner, there is no shortage of small things to keep the player entertained even when their park becomes self-sufficient.
Outside of the free-build mode, the game also features several campaign missions to unlock new parks to build in. These campaign missions start simplistic to ease new players into the swing of things before slowly ramping up the difficulty as they go along.
The campaign also does a great job at encouraging players to test and try our new ideas for their parks as most stages in the campaign will limit what rides and shops will be available to the player at ant given time, giving you ample opportunity to see what does and does not please customers.
Overall, the gameplay of Parkitect: Deluxe Edition is an enjoyable time for newcomers to the management and simulator genre and will hopefully entertain veterans as well.
Visual 8/10
Parkitect Deluxe Edition isn’t the most beautiful game on earth, but it isn’t trying to be. The visuals of this game are incredibly simplistic, but they serve the purpose they need to. It’s fun to see these simplistic, low-poly customer models line up for your rides as you meddle with the inner workings of the park.
The game also features a wide variety of themes and decorations you can place around your park. I was utterly amazed when I opened the decorations menu for the first time and was greeted with over 500 options at what to place around your park. From multiple types of trees to more complex environmental decorations like a biplane. With all of these options a skilled creative can easily make their own unique park for all to see.
The game’s visuals also do a good job of communicating what’s going on in your park. From signs that indicate when a ride is out of order to pieces of flavor text indicating which of your rides are currently having an influx of customers, it’s always easy to tell what’s going on in your park.
That second example in particular is always fun to see, as like a true park owner you’ll find yourself praying to hear news of crashes in other parks solely so your own will see a surge of business. Or hoping that some social media post about your carousel somehow goes viral and attracts customers to your themed land.
However, while the visuals for the game are passable, there is one major issue the game has: the text size. Text in this game is extremely small and difficult to read, often requiring you to get close to your screen and squint to know the details of what you’re selecting. I can imagine this becoming a major issue with the game for those who have smaller monitors.
Performance – 5/10
While Parkitect: Deluxe Edition does not run poorly by any means, there are several technical issues with the game that need addressing before any recommendation can be given. This review was played on the PlayStation 5 version of the game and these issues will inherently affect console players over PC users.
The controls in this console port are very obtuse and the game does very little to explain them to you. The most notable example of this is when trying to construct a Rollercoaster for the first time. Even during the tutorial I fumbled for over half an hour trying to figure out what buttons to press to build the track, growing frustrated as nothing appeared to work. Eventually, I figured it out, but that initial frustration hung over me for long after the tutorial.
Another issue may occur when trying to set the price for your rides and park tickets, that is, if you are able to. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to select and adjust my ticket prices for this review, the game would either not select the prompt or would bring up the PlayStation keyboard for only a few seconds before automatically closing it.
I would later discover a fix for this issue by closing and resetting the entire game, however as this originally happened to me during the campaign I assumed it had a handicap enforced on me by the game which made the experience less enjoyable.
Aside from these control issues, the game also crashed twice in the time I played for this review. Both crashes happened soon after an autosave so very little progress was lost, but it should be kept in mind and I advise you to save your game frequently.
I would once again like to emphasize that these issues likely only exist in the console version of the game, as a proper mouse and keyboard control scheme on a PC wouldn’t have these issues. It is highly recommended you play this game on Steam over other platforms.
Enjoyment – 7/10
Despite my frustrations with the controls and the price issues, I persevered and enjoyed my time with Parkitect: Deluxe Edition. As I highlighted during the gameplay portion of the review, if you are the type of person who is entertained by small things like a consistent fictional cash flow and the sight of customers lining up for your rides, then you will enjoy your time with this game.
Thankfully, I fall squarely into the demographic of people who would be satisfied with such a thing. I like managing things without being overwhelmed with the smallest minutia as I create a self-sustaining money system. At the same time though, I struggle to recommend this game to people because of the technical issues I had with the game.
In the time it would occur to someone to save their game and close the software in order to fix something like the ticket price glitch, they may end up losing a lot of potential profit for their park. In addition to the obtuse console control scheme, this may lead to a frustrating experience with the game overall.
So while I can recommend the game as an enjoyable experience for both fans and newcomers of the genre, you must know what you’re getting into when buying this product and prioritize picking it up on PC over consoles in my personal opinion.
Parkitect Deluxe Edition
Bottom Line
Parkitect Deluxe Edition is a grand experience for both fans and newcomers of the genre which is only held back by some glaring technical issues.
