Park Beyond preview - Learning to build the wildest, craziest theme park

Park Beyond is an upcoming title from Bandai Namco, scheduled to come out in 2023. In it, players manage a theme park, which is a popular category of the “tycoon” simulation games. I’ve never really immersed myself in this gaming genre, so I was very excited to see how intuitive and easy it is to get into.

As part of this preview, I was given access to two missions in the game and the sandbox mode, where I could build and create as I pleased. The first mission was all about learning to build a rollercoaster, whereas the second mission was about the finer points of managing and building the park itself.

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Park Beyond is silly but incredibly easy to pick up

I was only given a few days and a brief peek into what players can expect in Park Beyond when it drops in 2023, but so far, I’m pleased with how the game works. It’s very over-the-top and silly when it comes to the story introduction, but that’s exactly what I was expecting.

As I’ve stated, I don’t have much experience in Tycoon games, but I do love good strategy games. That’s essentially what Park Beyond is. Instead of managing an army, you manage an amusement park. You also get to become quite creative when designing your coasters.

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What can you do in Park Beyond’s preview?

The first mission was simple enough and expertly guided me, a beginner, through the process of building a rollercoaster. It’s more than simply slapping some tracks together however you want. It has to make a little bit of sense.

For example, you need to ensure your carts have enough momentum to keep going, so you can’t just scale upwards constantly. You can do some genuinely ridiculous things with your cart, though. Personally, my favorite part was being able to add cannons! In Park Beyond, you can periodically set cannons on the path to launching your cart over gaps in the tracks.

Park Beyond is pretty fantastic when it comes to customizing your park, that’s for sure. In the second mission, you learn about Park Management. It would be best if you determined what your park’s demographic is going to be, as well as the theme.

A successful theme park isn’t a slapdash affair, either. Things have to make sense and be enjoyable for whatever your demographic might be. This means having the right rides in place and other miscellaneous structures to keep your fans entertained.

You’ll also have to manage your employees, get the right people doing the right things, assign tasks, and set prices. Park Beyond seems like it’s going to let players get pretty deep into the management of their theme park.

There are many little things to consider, like the rides' prices or ensuring there's a way to get in and out of the ride itself. Don’t forget toilets, either, because cleanliness is vital when running a theme park.

Mission 2 shows that there's more to the game than building neat rollercoasters (Image via Bandai Namco)

The only problem I had here, which I’m sure will be corrected by launch, is that I could not seem to activate the heat map in Mission 2. It slowed down my development during that mission. While the two missions have specific objectives, you have far more free reign in the sandbox.

Park Beyond’s sandbox does have objectives and goals, but you can fulfill them as you see fit. Once I got started here, I really started to have fun. You place flat rides, food/drink shops, and craft rollercoasters where you want them. As the rides gain popularity, you can do what’s known as “Impossification.” This enhances the look and enjoyability of the ride. Some of these rides can even evolve more than once.

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What’s the verdict on Park Beyond?

Though my time with this game was brief, I genuinely had a lot of fun trying to figure out what I wanted to do. You can build whatever you want and target the park to a few different demographics. Just remember, everyone has to have fun.

While building your dream park is one of the major parts, the other is running a successful business. That might be the most challenging part of Park Beyond. I appreciate the difficulty, however. While I’m new to this genre, I see the appeal of being able to craft a theme park that is wild, over-the-top, and fun for everyone. Ultimately, this was a satisfying experience, feeling easy to learn and hard to master.

Park Beyond is coming in 2023 and will offer a whole new way to experience the theme park tycoon genre.