My Favorite Franchise of All Time.
This game turned out to be one of the best sources of stress relief for me; from day 1... of the demo.
tl;dr: All in all, it's a really fun, and surprisingly-in-depth game. It has a couple flaws, but all of them are pretty much negated by how many different things you can do with what you have. I have gotten endless hours of play out of the game, even to this day... Despite Win8's distaste of old games.
Full Review: The peeps (people/customers) don't have all that much personality, the AI-pathfinding system is a little derpy, and the sprite-based graphics are a bit basic (even for their time). But the sheer amount of detail that went into what you can do with the rest of your amusement parks outweighs just about any negatives the game might have.
In this game, you play the part of an Amusement Park director. Your job is to make the best parks possible within the confines of various scenarios the game presents you. Some maps might be a desert, and others might be completely over water, and still others might already be aged, and falling apart.
There is no sandbox mode in the first game in the series, but you could play any of the included scenarios as if it were a sandbox mode. The game allows you to play after the established time-limit even if you fail your objective. However, the only way to unlock new Scenarios is to successfully complete the ones you already have.
You have control of everything from how many restrooms you have, to how much you charge for your burgers and fries, to where your handymen patrol and what they do on their patrols. You're in charge of path layout, ride placement, scenery, and anything you could imagine in an amusement park.
The main feature of the game is designing coasters. You can build just about any rollercoaster you could imagine, and then some. You have quite a few tools at your disposal for building, but since the view is locked at an isometric view, it can be tough to see where your track pieces are, and it can be tough to line up the ends of your coaster designs.Just because you can make it, doesn't mean the peeps will ride it though. As each peep has their own preferences for ride intensity, nausea resistance, and funds in their wallet. Some will even want to ride less intense rides to work up their nerve for the bigger rides. So as the manger of the park, you need to take all these things into consideration to build the best parks ever.
If you just wanted a review of the game itself, that part is done, thanks for reading. if any of this even sounds remotely interesting, you might want to consider buying the game, it's expansions, and possibly it's sequels.
I have a strong emotional connection with this game, and wish to share it's impact on me. If you are interesting in the musings of a complete stranger, please keep reading, if not have a wonderful day...
Personal Impact: When I was young, I used to be negatively impacted by any game where a character died on screen (even Mario stomping a goomba). Because of this, I tended to stick with games like Sim City, Monopoly, or Need for Speed.
When I first read about RollerCoaster Tycoon, it seemed like the perfect game for me. But because of how negatively some games affected me, I was nervous about asking mom if she'd want to spend money on a new game for me. After a bit more research I found the Demo (30mins of play with the first scenario). Mom said I could try the demo, and she'd keep an eye out to see how I responded to it.I played that demo repeatedly for weeks on end. There were no negative effects, and Mom ended up buying the game. I Still have it in my library to this day, despite Windows 8 not being able to run it as well as Windows 7. I've since bought every title in the series, and all the expansions for 1 and 3.
If you've read this far, I thank you very much for your time, and hope this review helps you out in one way or another. Have a good one. :)