RollerCoaster Tycoon is not only my favorite tycoon series, but also one of my favorite games ever. I admit I was a bit iffy about the entire 3D concept in RCT3 (I love my 90 degree isometric view for some reason), so only recently I tried out the 45 minute demo available at the official site. It didn’t take long for me to change my mind about the 3D aspect of the game.
Although the demo is actually pretty good, it doesn’t even begin to show the true potential of RCT3. The day I received my copy, I didn’t get off my desk except for eating and using the bathroom. I decided to start with the Scenario Editor (which is basically where you build whatever you want, with no money limit and set some objectives to it) to browse all the rides and scenery available, and I was completely blown away by what I found.
My favorite rides and themes from the previous RCT games were there along with a ton of new rides and scenery that I couldn’t wait to try out and see it in action. The experience became even more intense once I found out what the anti-alias levels did. After turning it on, it didn’t even look like the same game anymore and even if it was just on level 1, everything looked a lot more realistic.
So after a couple of hours of playing around with some rides and a pirate theme complete with animatronics, I moved on to start my career game. There are 12 stages to complete, each of them with 3 difficulty levels: amateur, entrepreneur and tycoon. After that, there are an aditional 6 stages that will unlock as you beat the other ones. As you complete the goals for each scenery, you will also unlock new rides.
The rides… I don’t even know where to start. There are generic rides and then there are the themed rides, which are simply amazing. Now you can have a twister ride which looks like a skull and bones in your spooky theme, a spiral slide that looks like a snake for a desert theme, even a ferris wheel with carriages fitting a western theme.
What I really like about it is that the game is reminiscent of the original Theme Park, where you can control the quality of your food and drink, plus the traces of Theme Park RollerCoaster, where you could experience your rides from a first-person point of view.
The game is very dynamic, as it includes a day-night cycle and realistic weather conditions. You just know night time and a storm complete with lightning turns out to make the perfect setting for that spooky-themed park.
There is also a lot more managing involved than in previous RollerCoaster titles. Now and again you might see messages like “Mechanic 3 is thinking about quiting.” or “Janitor 1 has quit”. Your staff will eventually become unhappy and lazy, so you have to keep an eye on them and reprimend when necessary or train them.
TIP: Want to make gameplay a bit easier? Here are the two must-have cheats:
- $10,000 cheat: rename a guest John D Rockefeller to add 10k to your money total. You can have multiple guests with this name.
- No breakdowns cheat: rename a single guest Frontier and your rides will never break down.
There are a few other game modes aside from the Career that are interesting to explore. Playing the Tutorial first will help you get acquainted with the interface. In the Sandbox, you can build your dream park on a gigantic map, without worrying about funds or goals. Here, everything is possible and it’s up to you to make it happen. The Custom Scenario option lets you play your own scenarios or downloaded ones.
In the Tools menu, there are a few trinkets to play with as well. The Peeps Designer lets you create your own visitor groups from 3 age groups (child, teen and adult) and set their ride excitement preferences. What is really funny and a cool little detail is that when one of the user-created groups goes on a ride with a photo option, these will be saved in your RCT3 images as screenshots.
The Scenario Editor lets you create a park and set some goals for all three career levels. The Coaster Designer allows you to make your own rollercoasters, and there’s this cool auto-complete feature that finished the ride for you. As for the Building Designer, it lets you explore scenery objects to create decorative buildings for your parks.
You can also import your favorite coasters from older RCT games, upgrade them with ride events (like a volcano erupting, a truck exploding or a shark attack) and then experience the rides yourself from a first-person view.
TIP: Are you tired of riding your rollercoasters and having someone’s balloon blocking your view? Here’s a quick fix, double click the balloon to pop it.
Another cool customization option is the Fireworks MixMaster which lets you create amazing fireworks displays and synchronize them to music. And that’s where the other customization treat comes in: you can import your own music to the game and have your rides and fireworks shows play your favorite mp3 files.
RCT3 has completely reinvented RollerCoaster Tycoon as we knew it, only to make it better, and it is now an important part of my “favorite games ever” list.
Special thanks to Ann Mangold and the Highwater Groupfor Atari for providing a copy of the game.
Minimum System Requirements:
- Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
- Pentium III 733 MHz or compatible
- 128 MB RAM (256 MB for XP)
- 600 MB free
- 4X CD-ROM or faster (8X or faster recommended)
- ATI Radeo or GeForce 2 with 32MB or higher
- 16-bit sound card
- DirectX 9