When Bandai Namco invited me to check out an unannounced game, ahead of its global reveal at Gamescom 2021, I truly would not have guessed Park Beyond. As a publisher, they tend to create a lot of anime related games and then they go and do other things like Elden Ring or The Dark Pictures Anthology, a theme park management was just so unexpected, until I got to see it in action.

The game is being created by Limbic Entertainment and while they might not be a name you know off the top of your head, the games they have worked on are quite well know. Their most recent game was Tropico 6, but they have also done countless Might & Magic Heroes games and even some original games, but the one element that they all have in common is that they are strategy driven, which is perfect for a theme park management game. But as the name suggests, this is going to be well beyond the average park management game, because not only will you have control over everything, but you can also build rides that would make Willy Wonka jealous.

The game even has a character similar to the aforementioned in the form of Phil, a man who wants the biggest and the best, though doesn’t understand that for each epic idea, funding needs to come in. That is where Izzy steps up, as she is the person responsible for finance, so if you want to build a new rollercoaster, then you had better have the budget for it. They won’t be the only characters that you will interact with, as you progress through the campaign, you will meet new folks, some will help you out and other will hope for your failure, but your task is to make the best parks possible, whilst ensuring they are profitable and become the legend of theme park designing.

The developers have a system to help you become the master of the park, Impossification, a term that they use when you combine crazy designs, with real world engineering, much like in the trailer above, it means you can have a rollercoaster that has a cannon in the middle of it. But it isn’t just limited to rollercoasters, flat rides (think a carousel or teacups) can also be modified in crazy ways, like taking a carousel and making it multi story. You might be thinking, hey what about that carousel at DisneySea in Japan, that is two stories and yes, that is true, but this is not just two separate rides, linked together, no this is one ride that you can expand overtime, to grow and becomes something truly insane.

Of course, no theme park creation game would be complete without being able to build and the ride your own rollercoasters and they have that here as well. Much like other games in this genre, coaster construction is straight forward, until you put a bend in the track of course, here you just need to place your cursor down, at least on PC and the game will fill in the supports and go from there. One interesting element is that you don’t need to have many different coaster types, for example, if you want to have water as part of your track, then go for it, the train itself will behave a little more magically and just transform to suit the situation needed. You will have noticed it in the trailer, when the train is shot from the cannon, it expands a set of wings, before turning back into a standard looking train.

In the footage that we got show, it was slightly sped up for time, but the system seems pretty powerful, because if you want, you can have your track go through existing scenery, like a house for example. When you want to ramp things up, you can add in the Impossification modules, like the cannon form the trailer, or if you want you can add a ramp and just have your train jump from one side to another. The basic physics of coaster construction must be adhered to of course, you can’t have your train leap off a ramp, if it has no speed and if you have no lift hills or small inclines, you won’t get it. The system looks like it will be fun to mess around with, so as long as you take the time to think of the basics, it should be fun to create some unique attractions.

All that sounds great of course, but what about goals for your park, well the team have that as well, before you start digging up the ground and placing supports, you will need to have a meeting with Phil and Izzy, where together you come up with a set of goals to work towards. The goals can be as simple as building a shop or 10, but they can also have multiple levels, like building multiple rides and having the guest reaction positive, while having a set number of guests in the park, something like that is much later in the list though. All of that comes together in the management portion of things, it is there you will manage how much a drink will cost, satisfaction levels of rides, salaries, land purchasing and more. Limbic did say that they are aiming to have the management be suitable for multiple levels of skill, what that looks like is unknown, but if all that sounded daunting, hopefully their plans come together.

Park Beyond may not have the most understandable name, but when you think about it and what the game is attempting to offer, it does make sense. This isn’t just another park management game, where you need to keep adding fancy rides and that is down to the management and campaign. How it will come together is hard to judge right now, but Limbic have such a strong pedigree in management games, that I am crossing my fingers for it to be great and hey, if it needs it, we can always add some impossification to it later.

The game is coming sometime in 2022, to PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5