Rollercoaster Tycoon 3

Stomach-wrenching or thrilling, Sam decides...

There must be some compelling power, numerative determinism if you will, about the number three. Games which happily espoused their delights in a simple two dimensional manner inevitably feel the pull of shifting over to the flashy third dimension. And when they do strap on that extra plane it is so often for the second sequel. GTA 3 did it, along with Warcraft 3, Metal Gear Solid, Prince of Persia and the venerable Duke Nukem 3D. Now it is the turn of the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise to add the number three to the end of its title, an event which is made more significant by the game tying a rope around its waste and jumping through the shimmering wall and into three dimensions.

Like the similar move by the Sims (which were very impatient and jumped to 3D on only their second outing) one of the first things that will concern many fans of the series is whether or not the new and improved RCT will work on their machines. Like the suburban living simulator many fans of the RCT series are casual gamers who often do not posses the mammoth gaming rigs that modern 3D games cry out for. The Sims 2 was a real resource hog yet its buoyant sales suggest there are a lot of Sims fans willing to play the game in a very low resolution, slide-show style. Well, fans of RCT that have yet to shell out a few hundred notes for a graphics cards will be pleased to hear that RCT 3 runs very smoothly. I threw everything on to max and my machine (2800XP, 1 gig, 9800pro) did not bat a logic gate. So people with lesser specced machines should be able to enjoy much of the graphical finery without being reminded of the flip-page animations they doodled in the back of their schoolbooks.

Apart from the immediately apparent change to three dimensions, the Rollercoaster Tycoon loved by many essentially remains the same. Conforming to the old adage RCT 3, will feel like an old friend who's been the fortunate recipient of an Oprah-style makeover. However, if you are new to the series or have only been a casual player in the past, the new look is not sufficiently complete to disguise the horrific mess that is the game's interface. The sheer number of buttons, switches and icons is enough to require a full day's audit. There are some fairly comprehensive but wordy tutorials to lay down the basics but trying to remember where the control you need to open the ride or how to hire new employees will, frankly, be your biggest challenge for the first few days with the game. The overwhelming number of icons also means that much of the information is presented in overly compact form, so an LCD monitor is highly recommended if you don't want to suffer from a terminal squint. To cut them some slack, the developers do have an awful lot to present to the player and as the other easy option would have been to dumb the game down I have to begrudgingly give them some points for keeping things complicated. Still, maybe next time they can get a good interface designer in to spice things up.

The basic gameplay is identical to before. Build rides of suitable variety to entice the peeps to stick around your park all day and empty their wallets. Spend some cash on research for new thrills and try to meet the requirements which will bump you up the challenge ladder. Each of the game's scenarios has three challenge levels to complete. Wisely you only need to beat the easiest level to triumph over the level as some of the top-grade trials are really hard. RCT 3 also has a full sandbox mode for those who cannot be bothered with time and money constraints. It's also a handy place to test out the worthiness of your own ride creations. The move to three dimensions has made this part of the game a little bit fiddlier then it was before. In general the camera is well behaved, and the amount of zoom is suitably generous, yet when it comes to building new coasters it can rather difficult to judge where the track is going, especially so when trying to match up different heights. Fortunately there's now an auto complete feature, which while not perfect, can certainly do its very best to sort out coaster creations that have out-done their creators ability. Still, if you happen to have any lying around you can even import custom rides from either of the previous 'Coaster titles, giving you the opportunity to judge for yourself just how fun that coaster was that you spent an entire summer perfecting back in 2001.

The rides themselves are jolly little numbers. There are the obligatory coasters, of course, which come in a wide variety of styles and construction methods. To add range to your park there are also many other kinds of rides, from gentle kiddie rides to dodgems, carousels, bungee catapults and all kinds of wild and inventive rides. Not only can you assign the pre-packaged tunes to individual rides you can import your own choice of music. Hop onto a ride and the music will fade in and out as the ride dips and turns away from the station. The new coaster cam is a lot of fun. You can ride any of the amusements, often with a variety of different angles available, and this part of the game is most enjoyable and could well be worth the upgrade on its own for fans.

However, all is far from perfect. RCT 3 is one of the buggiest games I have the occasion to play for a long time. Even after the release of the first patch (the reason for this review's delay - the game was practically unplayable before its release) there are a number of bugs, glitches and plain old mistakes that hamper the enjoyment of this game. One of the most frustrating issues I had was with my labour force. Now on the whole they seemed keen and competent enough but getting them to stick to their assigned patrol patterns seemed like an exercise in futility. Rather than hang around the breakdown-prone carousel my mechanics seemed intent on exploring the park and taking in the heady air of spilt ice-cream and vomit. If words were lights my annoyance would have made for an impressive fireworks display in itself. The patch has gone some way to fixing this problem, but until the majority of the issues that plague the game have been ironed out I suggest those with short tempers or possessed of the weird idea that a product should only be released in a working condition would be best off waiting a while longer.

This is a real shame. Like a certain other sequel David Braben was involved in RCT 3 is a good game hidden underneath a fiddly interface and stricken by numerous minor flaws and bugs. I'm afraid it is yet another title which has suffered in the Christmas rush. Give it a few more months and all the bugs should be ironed out. And while the interface will remain the enjoyable and engrossing game that is currently struggling to be recognised will blossom like a snowdrop.

72%

By Sam Gibson