Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 (RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (PC))

Name: iamthebest

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (PC)
Date:	26/02/07 (760 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great gameplay

Disadvantages: None i can think of.

ROLLER COASTER TYCOON 2

What a great game for all of those tycoon lovers. There are so many tycoon games out there in the world but I think that this one has got to be one of the best that I have ever played. It allows you to do so much and leaves you playing for ours on end.

So what is Roller Coaster Tycoon? It’s a game like many others which allows you to build and design your own theme park. It’s so much better than all of the other games. The first Roller Coaster Tycoon was very basic and didn’t really allow for much interactivity with the park and the graphics being really basic didn’t really make for much of a good game but now Atari is back with so many extra features and so much more interactivity with the customers etc.

There are several different modes in which you can play the game. Free play which allows for you to just play and build your own park with no objectives to fulfil. There is the scenario section where you will be given a location with a specific theme and you have to fulfil goals that are set. There is also the option to create your own scenario. In here you will be able to choose the size of your park, what rides and attractions will be appearing in the build menu and other various features that allow for great game play.

------------------------------------
HOW TO PLAY THE GAME.
------------------------------------

When you have chosen which scenario you would like to do or after you have created your own scenario you can then start to design your park. There are various buttons located on your screen all meaning different things but they are all clearly identifiable with a clear picture. For example the image of a handyman and a mechanic show that that button is for your staff and a ride is where you will find your attractions. It’s all very simple once you get used to using the buttons.

When you start each scenario depending on which one it is you will be given a set amount of money and also an objective that you will need to meet by the end of a given month and year.

All rides and attractions come with an excitement rating and other statistics that will help you choose what ride you will want to by. I always find that starting a park is quite hard, but once it is up and running it then becomes easier and you have the ability to do whatever you heart desires considering you are making money. If you’re ever struggling for cash there is always the option to have a loan which you have to pay back 5% interest. I think that the biggest loan you can have is £35000 which can be quite a lot considering the prices on some attractions.

As well as actually building all of the rides you have to build all of the features like food and drink shops, toilets, information kiosks, balloon shops and many other kinds of shops that you will be able to research once you have selected appropriate funding.

Whilst building all of this you have to think about whether a customer would like this, try thinking as if you were visiting this theme park and see if you would like it. Once you have produced a good sized theme park with all of the needed attractions you have to think about the staff that you will need to mantinece the park etc. there are four categories of staff that you can hire. These are a security guard, janitor, entertainer and a mechanic. The staff do come at quite cheap prices but as the park gets bigger and bigger the costs of all of the staff do mount up leaving you with less money than you thought.

So . . . moving on once you have actually accomplished all of the above things you then have to think about making sand keeping all of your customers happy. This can be done by the use of entertainers, having a good selection of rides, low prices on the rides and in the shops and also by having lots of scenery and a clean park. This all adds up to make your customers happy and make them spend more money in your park.

So as you can see the game has escalated quite a lot and there are endless possibilities as to what you can do.

----------
MENUS
----------

So let’s have a look at all of the menus that are available for you to use. In total there are 16 different menus across the top of the screen. They are all very easy to use and you should have no problems using them at all. The first one isn’t a menu as such, it’s just a button. A pause button that is allowing you to pause the game if you need the toilet etc. the bad thing about having the game paused is that you cannot build and change options whilst the game is paused.

The second menu is a picture of a floppy disk which has the following options – Save game, Load Game, Options, Screenshot and quit. All of those options are pretty much self explanatory so not really any need to explain them. So the third and fourth buttons along are the zoom buttons allowing you to zoom in and out of your park. This makes viewing your park all at once a lot easier and zooming all the way in will help you place some of the smaller items like flower beds so they all have their uses. Although I only gave examples for two zoom levels there are actually about five and instead of clicking on the buttons all of the time you only have to turn the wheel on your mouse. This makes for quick and easy zoom in and out.

Well moving on across the buttons the next one allows you to change the angle in which you look at your park, each time you click the button it rotates the park 90 degrees so you an see all aspects of your park. The next button is the one that I find very useful at times. It has many options allowing you to make the rides see through, the scenery see through, the supports see through and also make the people invisible I find this very useful when I am going round my park to see if all of the litter has been swept etc. there are also two other options which allow for an underground view and height marks on the land this makes it easier if you are constructing your own coaster structure etc.

Moving on the next button allows for you to easily and quickly delete all of the scenery selected. You can change the size from 1 square to 25 squares depending on the space that you are working in. still moving on the next button is the picture of a spade which allows you to change the height of land, you can make the land higher or lower, this option as with the scenery you can change the amount from 1 to 25 squares. The next button is exactly the opposite of the land button. This icon allows you to raise and lower the water levels. This where all of the menus start to get interesting the next button is the scenery button where you can select from hundreds of different trees, flowers, themes, benches etc. it just adds that extra bit to the park making the customers feel happier.

The next button is the path button allowing you to choose from around 12 different styles of plain footpaths and queue lines. So lets start building, the next button is where all of the rides and attractions can be seen there are so many different rides and shops that you can choose from. All of the rides are split into different sections such as water rides, thrill rides gentle rides etc. so when you click on one of these categories there is a selection of rides for you to choose from. Some of the rides such as coaster rides if you click on them a list of all of the designs appear that you can choose from. There is the option for you to make your own design but if you would like the park to be developed nice and fast then it would be better for you to choose one of the designs that are already there.

Moving on still button 13 of the list, this allows you to see what is happening with all of your rides at a glance, there are options as to what you can sort them with i.e. profit or status. This makes it easy for you to identify what rides need their prices changing or if they have broken down etc.

The 14th button in the sequence shows all of the park details such as how many attractions you have and how many staff you have employed. It also allows for you to rename the park and also open and close the park. As you are getting further into the game you may find that you are becoming short of space. Well also from the menu you are able to buy more land and also buy the building rights of un-owned land. This makes the park better because extra space can never be turned down.

Well to make your park run even better you should really hire some workers, this can be done using the next button. All of the workers of the same category are the same price and you are able to see all of the staff that you have hired at a glance to see what they are doing. So that your staff work better you can give them a patrol area which means that they will stick to that area doing their jobs. This enables you to set different staff to different areas for effective work.

The last button of all across the top of the screen shows a crowd of people. This is where all of your customer’s views can be seen. They say things such as this park is really clean and tidy or sometimes negative things such as this path is disgusting. It gives you some idea as to what to do with your park. What I thought was really good of the game was that each and every customer had their own unique name. Not that it makes the game much better.

So now moving to the bottom of the screen. There is a small box which shows all of the money that you are making if you were to click on this box it then shows up all of the stats figures for the last 4 month, whether you have been making a profit or a loss for that month and you can see what you have spent you money on where it be ride construction or landscaping etc. with this menu there are tabs across the top which let you view different graphs so you can see whether your customers have increased or your company value has decreased etc. it all makes for a good well run park. Also in this same menu there is the option to market the park. Meaning that you can advertise for certain rides or even advertise for the park. There is also the option to give free tickets for a ride or free food and drink etc. this will make the customers in the park soar and help you make more money in the game.

To help you along in the game there will be little announcements that will be shown in the bottom of the screen this will say things like you have won an award or a certain ride has broken down so that you are always in the know about your park so you can run it more and more effectively.

--------------------------------
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
--------------------------------

The graphics and sound in this game are quite good. I have seen games with better graphics but there will always be something else that is better. But the graphics are quite good considering that this game was produced in 2002. There is a lot of detail involved in the game such as all of the detail that is used in the rides and also in the people.

As with the graphics the sound in the game is quite good. There are a few different themes that are played and you can choose whether each ride plays a song and when you hover above this ride you can hear the sound playing form that ride etc.

So really the sound and graphics are quite good.

-------------------------
EPANSION PACKS
-------------------------

If you do manage to complete this game and find yourself doing the same things again and again I would advise you to get one of the expansion packs. From what I know there are 2 expansion packs, one called wild and one called soaked? These are very good and allow you to play in more parks and have a bigger selection of rides and features etc.

----------------------
SPECIFICATION
------- ---------------

Operating system: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
Processor: 300MHz
Memory: 64 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 120MB Free
CD ROM Drive: 16X or higher
Video: 4MB Windows 98/ME/200/XP compatible video card
Sound: Windows 98/ME/200/XP compatible Sound card
DirectX: DirectX version 8.1 (included) or higher.

There is a manual for you to view when you are installing the game, this allows for you to get to know the game and what features it has. When you load the game there is the option to have a tutorial so that you know what all of the buttons do in detail, although you will probably not need to since you just read this review.

In my opinion the game is so easy to use end lasts for endless playtime. There is so much to do making your own parks. Every single park that you make will be different in some way.

The game can be purchased from most good game stores for around £15.00 and the expansion packs are around the same price. I rate this game 10/10.

So in conclusion I think that this game is incredibly good and I would recommend it to any potential buyers as it is a great game.

Thank you for reading my review and I hope to be hearing from you soon. Cheers.

Summary: Great game with ongoing gameplay.