Sim Theme Park

"Maybe Maxis would do it better..."

Well, I live in Brazil, so the games are very expensives. But when I saw Sim Theme Park (STP), I bought it.

Gameplay - 6

Ok, let's start with the controls. They are simple, and remembers Theme Hospital. No problems here.

Fun? Hmmm, seeing all those children having fun in the Roller Coasters really makes you happy. But see children vomit in the path is really bad. But it makes part of the game, and proves that is really realistic, right?

So, why 6?, you ask. Simple: this game is incredibly SLOW. Gosh, the frame skip of this game is very HIGH, and the framerate is LOW. This results in LESS fun. And then you ask "Hey, I have a good computer. Isn't this your problem?". I awnser "NO!!". I have a AMD-K6II 400mhz, 64 Mb RAM, CD-ROM 48x, Diamond Viper 770 overclocked and 5.4 Gb free in the HD. So, what do you say?

The rides are fun, in the beggining. When you move to other parks, you see the same things, with different layouts. Okay, it's really cool to ride your own attraction, but, do you like to ride in slowmotion? Speed is a crucial factor in 3d games, and in this game, it really sucks. I wonder how the people with 200 MMX (the minimum requiriments) can play it...

Audio/Video - 7

The sound is really good. Qsound makes the park more realistic, you can even hear the shouts of the children and the vomits (argh!). Combine this with a Sound Blaster Live! and a Surround sound speaker set and it really rocks!

Now, the graphics. The children, janitors, guards, etc are drawn in 2d, with 8 sides, so, there's nothing to worry about. And all the other things are in 3d. Cool, huh? BUT, as I already said, it's VERY slow. This makes the Score drop some numbers...

Reality Level - 8

Now here is something good!! It's incredible. The game processes the actions of each child in the park, while making the rides animation and the children moves. If you see, each child have a number (ex.: Child #1468), and each employee have a name. The game process the happyness, time in the park, money left of each child.

Also, like in any Park simulation, you can control the prices, amount of salt, amount of ice, sugar, quality of the ingredients... I think the only bad thing is that the terrain is too small, and you can't buy more.

Replay Value - 6

That depends. If you really liked the rides and wanna try a different track, go ahead. But if you really feel that you threw away some money to see a slow game, hmm, you're like me.

Resuming: Bullfrog made an excellent game in Theme Hospital. But STP was really good too, and I just gave an 6 Score because the low speed really finished with the fun. But if you don't mind with the speed, or you have a better machine than I, go ahead, it's an excellent game! But I still think that Maxis would really do it better...

Btw, I never played RollerCoaster Tycoon before. Some people say that this game really rocks and it's better than STP. I'll buy this game then write a review for it, and compare with STP.

Oh, sorry for my English. I'm brazilian, remember?

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/99, Updated 12/11/99