Come and Play a while

Theme Park World for the PS2 was released into the UK in May 2002. Based on the highly popular PC version, this classic simulation game has been updated with better 3D graphics, different islands and slightly different rides. But does it cut the mustard?

*** Getting started ***

What attracts me to PS2 games is the fact that nothing has to be installed. You just put the game in and off you go. You obviously need a controller and memory card because these allow you to firstly play the game, and secondly to save it.

At the beginning you first see video clips as an introduction like with most games. I personally find these boring so you can skip them by pressing the ‘start’ button on your controller. That’s another difference to the PC version; everything is played using a controller not keypad (an obvious fact but still one to point out).

Then you choose what language you want to play in. There are three languages to choose from, English is the obvious choice here in Britain so you click on that. Next you are presented with a screen asking you whether you want to load a game, start a new game or options. The options aren’t anything special though so they aren’t worth going on.

Once in a new game you will find that it tells you everything and at the top right hand side of the screen you will find a picture that looks like the controls on your controller. It then shows which button to press for each option. This is there all the time no matter how experienced you are at the game.


*** Controls and ease of use ***

The controls for the game are simple enough. The game guides you through the controls as soon as you start so that’s extremely helpful and makes it really easy to play. I didn’t find any difficulty with the controls all throughout the game. If you do get stuck however, the instruction manual is really helpful.

*** Object of the game ***

The object of the game is to make your park as popular as possible. You have three goals on each island, when you pass one island the goals get a little more difficult. The goals are:

1) To get a certain amount of money
2) To get a certain amount of visitors
3) To keep the park running well for a certain amount of time.

The goals stay the same on each island but the amount of money and visitors that are needed tends to go up the higher the level/island you are on. There is a message section in the game that shows up in the bottom left hand side of the screen that reminds you what your goals are and also gives vital information about your park. Below you will find more information on the messages function.

*** Messages ***

As mentioned above, the messages you get are vital clues as to what you have to do to improve your park and whether or not your visitors are happy. Don’t get this confused with the stats section though! It tells you the important vital information, not overall statistics.

Your park guide sends the messages. I’ve found they can be extremely annoying especially when they come up saying the same things all the time. It gets annoying not being able to turn them off too and although they are there to help, I feel after a certain amount of experience with the game, the messages just aren’t needed. Also you have to remember to delete messages. If you don’t, you are left with quite a lot in your message inbox and not enough time to delete them and see which ones are important etc. Some message examples are:

1) Your park is getting messy; you need to get your cleaners to tidy it up.
2) Your visitors think your entry price is too low
3) Your visitors are getting hungrier, build some more shops

So the messages can be helpful as you can see but after a while you’ll figure everything out without them. The main three messages you need to really look at are the goals so you can see how far you’ve got to go before you meet them.

*** Goals equal golden tickets ***

So I’ve mentioned about the goals of the game but what exactly happens once you have met them? Well you get a golden ticket.

You need the golden tickets to move on to the next island. At the beginning of the game you get the chance to choose which island you want to do. At the beginning there is just one island to choose from. However when you move along the map you will see more islands but these need more golden tickets to be able to access them. Therefore it is vital that you complete the earlier level goals in order to be able to progress.

It’s not just goals that gain you gold tickets however as you can also get them by winning awards for your park. Winning awards for the bets kept park for example, will boost your reputation and also gain you a golden ticket.

*** Islands ***

There are four different islands I have found so far and they are:

* Prehistoric
* Halloween World
* Space Zone
* Wonderland

Each has a different theme and different rides and shops. Not all rides and shops are different though but they have new ones in each level to fit the theme.
The islands are a great addition to the game I think and it adds to the excitement of the game.

*** How to achieve the goals ***

In order to achieve the goals to reach the islands you must be aware of what the visitors to your park want. The messages section helps you out here and so does the visitor section in the laptop (more on that shortly). Basically though I’ve found the main ways to keep visitors happy is to:

1) Build as many rides as possible
2) Build as many shops as possible
3) Have plenty of toilets around
4) Research more things for your park
5) Have a couple of entertainers hired in your park

If you follow those tips you will probably still go wrong, but you’ll keep your visitors happier than they would be if you didn’t do them!

I’ve found visitors are extremely hard to keep happy. It’s quite a tough game in that respect but if you do follow the above steps I’ve found I manage to pull through just about and earn profit too which goes towards your other goal.

Now as I mentioned earlier, the laptop option on the main screen can be extremely helpful. So now, here’s a little rundown of the laptop.

*** The Laptop ***

This is where you will find all the information you need to play the game. You will find it on the top right hand side of the screen. It even tells you which button to press to get to it.

Once on the screen you will find options to:

1) Build and Hire
2) Research
3) Park statistics
4) Financial information
5) Game options
6) Close Park

** Build and Hire **

There are two options available here and those are items and staff.

Under items you get to see how many rides, shops, sideshows and features you have left in stock. This is useful information because if you run out of anything you have to first delete an older one before you can get another in stock.

In the staff menu you get to see how many staff you have hired and if you click on each sub category you will see the staff individually and how much you are paying them. From here you can choose to rain them up, give them a pay rise/reduction or to sack them.

** Research **

Research is a very important part of the game if you want to improve your park. I’ve always loved the research section, it stems back to when I used to play it on the PC.

You can research new rides, shops, sideshows, features and upgrades. Each will be explained later.

I have to say I am disappointed with the research in this game. I find you can’t research as many things as you could on the PC version. I don’t find it as exciting and I keep getting to the point where I have researched everything there is to research which either means to me means the game is too easy and there aren’t enough research options.

** Park Statistics **

I mentioned earlier not to get confused between the messages and the park statistics. The actual statistics are a really important part of the game. They tell you visitor information, statistics, park finance and awards.

The main important feature here is the visitor information. It tells you how many people are happy in your park, how many people are unhappy and how many people are undecided. Your aim is obviously to make visitors happy and personally I’ve found this extremely hard to do.
It also tells you what the visitors main thoughts are and looking at my screen right now, they are mainly hungry and thirsty. There are god knows how many food and drink shops there but that doesn’t seem to make them happy!

There’s also information on how many people have visited your park (you’ll need to know that for one of the goals), and from here you can change your ticket prices.

** Financial Information **

This gives you a rundown on your current financial situation compared to last year’s financial information (depending on how long your park has been open). It seems this year my park is doing worse than last year. This is useful information because it lets you know whether you are doing anything wrong and if so you know you then need to change it.

It also shows you an overall balance, which shows you how much you have earned and paid out on everything.

** Game options **

Here you’ll find usual options such as music volume, sfx, Save game, and quit game. You can also turn off the tutorial from here too, which is handy if you get sick of it when you are an experienced player. It doesn’t seem to stop the advisor popping up though!

So a lot of options there that cover most of the game. There are still loads of things to mention but in order to keep this review to a suitable length I’ve decided to just mention a couple of points about the most important things I have left out. The rest of the information you will find in the manual.

*** Rides and Shops ***

There are three types of rides; track rides, tour rides and normal rides. Under track rides you will find roller coasters and kart racing etc. I’m not sure what the tour rides are yet as I haven’t come across any but there are quite a few normal rides that can be researched. Speaking of research, there’s also ride upgrades you can get that will make the rides safer and more exciting. You can change the settings on the rides once you have placed them to make them faster and to hold more people. This can make the ride more dangerous though so be careful!

The shops I wasn’t too impressed with. This was because when you have placed a shop, you can choose few options for them. My favourite shops with the better options are the food shops. You can choose how much salt the visitors get on their fries for example. The more salt you add the less money you have to pay for the stock. There aren’t as many shops as there are rides, which is a little disappointing. Another disadvantage with the shops is that on the PC version you had to reorder stock when it got low. On here that doesn’t happen, stock never seems to get low. I preferred that option though and would have liked to have seen it on this game to make it slightly more challenging.

*** Sideshows ***

The sideshows are worth a little mention because I have found these make the most profit. They don’t lose you anything apart from the price to buy them at first and the more popular they get you’ll find you can higher their price. They have definitely been my main income earner!

*** Staff ***

It is vital to hire staff to keep your park going. Cleaners, security guards, entertainers and mechanics are all needed. This does use up quite a lot of wages though so it’s best to hire around one of each at first until you start raking in the profits.

When hiring look through the list carefully so that you can see which staff will cost you the least amount of money for example the staff expect a certain minimum wage. Some will expect more than others so look carefully!

The thing I tend to do with the staff is just plonk them anywhere. The advisor doesn’t really like this though and I am forever being told to set patrol areas for my staff. That way they each do a different part and it all gets covered evenly. I still don’t bother with it as much as I should though!

The final point about the staff is that they need a staff room. They need to be able to rest when they get tired otherwise they will quit. After all, when you’re at work don’t you need a break? Put one there for them and they’ll be generally happy (until they want a pay rise or they threaten to quit!).

*** Graphics ***

The graphics I find are quite good. I like the 3d graphics instead of the flat ones as in the pc version. I also love the fact that you can now go into visitor mode where you can ride on the rides and go around your park seeing things from a visitors point of view. It can be quite fun!

*** My overall opinion of the game ***

I feel this game is mainly for younger players even though all ages do enjoy it. This is due to the fact that the game gets very repetitive and quite boring after a while. The music is also a little on the young side and I tend to turn it off because otherwise it gets on my nerves.

All in all for the following I’d give the game:

Controls: *****

The controls are extremely easy and there’s no complication there whatsoever like I mentioned before. So they get 5 stars from me.

Playability: *****

The game is really easy to play and suitable for most age groups. No problems here so 5 stars from me.

Sound **

The sound wasn’t really my thing. It annoyed me and it seems to be aimed more towards the younger audience so it’s great for kids. 2 stars out of 5.

Enjoyability ***

Before getting bored of the game I actually found it really enjoyable. This didn’t last for too long though so 3 stars out of 5 from me.

Options available ****

Although there weren’t as many options as I’d have liked, I still feel there is plenty to do so 4 stars out of 5 here.

Well there you have it. I hope this review has helped you make up your mind whether or not to buy the game. I feel it was a little disappointing compared to the PC version but it’s still ok to have in to play every now and again. If you do fancy picking up a copy you can buy it new from game shops for around £15 or you can buy second hand from ebay or amazon (like I did) for £4. As with all things, prices vary depending on where you shop!

Aimee xxx