If you know what a theme park sim game is like, then you know what to expect here. It doesn't break the mold in any grand way, but it accomplishes what it sets out to, and does it well. It's a good game, and one that I would call the true successor to the RCT series, but limit your expectations. Once you start making money you won't go bankrupt, even in the hardest difficulties. There is a lot of micromanagement to be done, but it's all about min-maxing and adding to your profits, not succeeding overall.

The campaign and any challenges presented within, or in other modes, are overly simple, and mostly just a way to earn small cash rewards. Since cash is usually overflowing, it's not much of a thrill. In general, there's not much of a feeling of accomplishment to be had in this game, outside of making your park look nice. The positive about that is that the game looks really good, so making your park look nice is fun, and rewarding in it's own way. The negative is that there's no place to design assets outside of playing the main modes in a park, the game could have greatly benefited from an asset/blueprint building mode. I always intend to build assets as I go, but then I get caught up in the park management part of the game, and think 'I'll come back to it'... I never do. :P

I also feel that a major issue is the slightly meager offering on set pieces. A few dragons, a few knights, a few pirate, a few soldiers, every category has a very finite amount of set pieces to use before you'll have to start re-using them. So not only does it feel like each theme is lacking on set pieces, but that there aren't exactly a ton of themes anyway.

Luckily free content updates are slowly fixing this issue, and the ability to make your own assets and download some from the workshop helps a lot. Just don't expect it to be the ultimate fix, there's only so much you can do with the given pieces, and the fact that you can't scale a lot of the pieces to fit your needs boggles my mind. Take a restroom sign for instance. If you want to use it you have to use it exactly as it was made, there is no making it bigger or smaller, you can only rotate and move.

(IMPORTANT EDIT: Free content updates are gone, paid DLC is here to stay. I always feel kind of bamboozled when I buy a game that seems like they're going to be doing all free updates to address issues like the lack of set pieces, and then they whip out the paid DLC once they've garnered the sales. I do understand that continued development has related costs, but the game was LACKING those set pieces to begin with, so the DLC feels like you need it to complete the experience.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the paid assets ruin the workshop. If you accidentally use a workshop item that uses a DLC part, then the game will lock you out of saving your park. There's no warning attached AFAIK, you're just screwed. And of course the most hardcore and extreme creators will be using those DLC assets, because the base assets are limited. If the DLC wasn't so vastly overpriced, I may have let this slide... It's now clear that they're planning to milk their new cash cow for everything it's worth, playing off of your nostalgia for theme park sims, and then charging you extra for the full experience. The two-faced attitude post release is disgusting

Highly disappointed, would refund if I could, and changing my review.)

But yes, while it has it's issues and limitations, I would (NOT) recommend this game to people who like theme park sims. It's not a major leap forward in any area aside from graphics, but it will scratch the itch for this particular genre pretty well if you can deal with the lack of challenge. The question you really have to ask yourself is, do you really need to upgrade, or will heading back to an older game that accomplishes pretty much the same thing do it for you? Mostly this game is an upgrade in the graphics department, so if you're unsure you might want to wait for at least a $20 price point before jumping in.

If you know what a theme park sim game is like, then you know what to expect here. It doesn't break the mold in any grand way, but it accomplishes what it sets out to, and does it well. It's a good game, and one that I would call the true successor to the RCT series, but limit your expectations. Once you start making money you won't go bankrupt, even in the hardest difficulties. There is a lot of micromanagement to be done, but it's all about min-maxing and adding to your profits, not succeeding overall. The campaign and any challenges presented within, or in other modes, are overly simple, and mostly just a way to earn small cash rewards. Since cash is usually overflowing, it's not much of a thrill. In general, there's not much of a feeling of accomplishment to be had in this game, outside of making your park look nice. The positive about that is that the game looks really good, so making your park look nice is fun, and rewarding in it's own way. The negative is that there's no place to design assets outside of playing the main modes in a park, the game could have greatly benefited from an asset/blueprint building mode. I always intend to build assets as I go, but then I get caught up in the park management part of the game, and think 'I'll come back to it'... I never do. :P I also feel that a major issue is the slightly meager offering on set pieces. A few dragons, a few knights, a few pirate, a few soldiers, every category has a very finite amount of set pieces to use before you'll have to start re-using them. So not only does it feel like each theme is lacking on set pieces, but that there aren't exactly a ton of themes anyway. Luckily free content updates are slowly fixing this issue, and the ability to make your own assets and download some from the workshop helps a lot. Just don't expect it to be the ultimate fix, there's only so much you can do with the given pieces, and the fact that you can't scale a lot of the pieces to fit your needs boggles my mind. Take a restroom sign for instance. If you want to use it you have to use it exactly as it was made, there is no making it bigger or smaller, you can only rotate and move. (IMPORTANT EDIT: Free content updates are gone, paid DLC is here to stay. I always feel kind of bamboozled when I buy a game that seems like they're going to be doing all free updates to address issues like the lack of set pieces, and then they whip out the paid DLC once they've garnered the sales. I do understand that continued development has related costs, but the game was LACKING those set pieces to begin with, so the DLC feels like you need it to complete the experience. As if that wasn't bad enough, the paid assets ruin the workshop. If you accidentally use a workshop item that uses a DLC part, then the game will lock you out of saving your park. There's no warning attached AFAIK, you're just screwed. And of course the most hardcore and extreme creators will be using those DLC assets, because the base assets are limited. If the DLC wasn't so vastly overpriced, I may have let this slide... It's now clear that they're planning to milk their new cash cow for everything it's worth, playing off of your nostalgia for theme park sims, and then charging you extra for the full experience. The two-faced attitude post release is disgusting Highly disappointed, would refund if I could, and changing my review.) But yes, while it has it's issues and limitations, I would (NOT) recommend this game to people who like theme park sims. It's not a major leap forward in any area aside from graphics, but it will scratch the itch for this particular genre pretty well if you can deal with the lack of challenge. The question you really have to ask yourself is, do you really need to upgrade, or will heading back to an older game that accomplishes pretty much the same thing do it for you? Mostly this game is an upgrade in the graphics department, so if you're unsure you might want to wait for at least a $20 price point before jumping in.