Reviewed: August 8, 2005
Reviewed by: Dave Larson
Publisher
Atari
Developer
Frontier Developments, Ltd
Released: : June 23, 2005
Genre: Simulation
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
6
7
6
9
7.0
System Requirements:
Recommended System:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
In this first expansion, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3: Soaked! brings a whole new range of themes, rides, toys and tricks this expansion gives new life to a triquel that was received with lukewarm attention from fans and critics alike. Obviously focusing around water themes, Soaked! is more than an expansion pack; this welcome addition adds a lot of fixes to the oft-troublesome RCT3 and makes sense of customers and rides again.
Soaked! works just like the other Tycoon games. You are given a choice of three scenarios, in which you try to meet various basic goals, such as getting 1,000 people in your park or attain a high enough park rating. If you can meet the basic goals for that scenario, a newer (and usually harder) scenario will be available for you to play. You may also try for some of the advanced goals, which will open still other scenarios. Be warned: some of those advanced goals are pretty challenging.
In these scenarios, your goals are to work with water slides and rides, underwater walkways, and aquatic “waterscaping” tools to make your park the best in the land. There are musically coordinated laser-light shows that you can mix and design to impress your customers, or “peeps” as they are called. And if those are either too happy or getting on your nerves, don’t worry! Just dunk ‘em in the water or knock them down with a water cannon. Honestly, I spent more than one hour torturing my peeps. I think that says something about me, but my therapist says I’m not ready to talk about that yet.
This game utilizes a button-and-menu driven screen as the toolbox for you to build the park of your dreams. The buttons are more than a little confusing. Prepare for a significant learning curve to get used to the interface. I wound up accidentally deleting almost one-third of the stuff I built, especially paths and landscaping. I could almost feel my peeps thinking “What the hell?” as my roads appeared and disappeared right in front of their eyes. Oh well, they can see the manager.
Despite the awkward interface, it’s amazing what you can accomplish if you can figure out how to go from idea to reality. The best way to see what you can do is to open up a few scenarios and see what they start you with. I never had the knack for getting a whole package put together, but I can take some pride in designing a good roller coaster. Which, as it turns out, is a good thing because there are a whole lot of different types of coasters and water slides in this game. If you are like me and enjoy building individual rides, then this game will keep you busy for quite a while.
Secretly, though, the best part of this game is the fact that the whole process now makes a little more sense. The best change is the fact that your peeps react somewhat logically. With RCT3, I would literally watch my ride go from having lines a mile long to serving about 10 people all day. It was mystifying. I kept checking to see if someone hid a dead fish in one of the cars or something.
The corollary to this is the fact that their thoughts make sense. You can click on a peep and it will tell you something useful. The riders in the old game were all reminiscent of Ralph Wiggin. Now, they like or don’t like things based on price, intensity and aesthetics rather than the fact that their cat’s name is Mittens.
On top of things making sense, a lot of the bugs have disappeared. I still noticed a few. I had peeps disappear into the park furniture and environs. It was actually a little creepy to see a chair eat my guests. But yes, I still enjoyed it. Soaked! Really does a lot to help the overall game. A lot of this stuff should have been fixed before RCT3 was released, but it’s nice to have it right now.
I’m going to say something that might get me in trouble. This game might have the best water ever. You can make it move and splash with your mouse. Water in this game drips, ripples, splashes, sprays, falls, runs, swirls and pretty much anything else you’ve seen water do. Since this expansion is all about the water, I’m not surprised they put so much work into this, but they really succeeded. They also have some rockin’ laser light effects (that also reflect off the water—have I mentioned the water yet?) and the people and items in the water look cool too.
Despite the success in the water, though, there are some struggles elsewhere. The weirdest thing was the “light bloom” effect. I don’t fully understand how that works, but when that effect is on, practically all of the lighting in the park changes. And, when it does, it fuzzies out a lot of detail that makes it hard to see what exactly it is your looking at or doing. Luckily, you can turn that off, but it’s something I definitely feel wasn’t well tested before release.
The other struggle was the aforementioned error where people get eaten by the park. I’m not sure what it is, but I generally solve the problem by dunking the poor guest in the drink. Now that’s customer service.
This game has awesome, poor sound. Confused? I know I am. The sound effects and noises in this game are absolutely fantastic. If you have surround sound, take this game for a spin. It will show you what games should do with surround sound. You can hear almost everything, and the sound does an awesome job of following you and your cursor around the park.
So what’s bad? Have you ever gone to a concert, and gotten that deep-in-your-belly thrill when you see the rows and rows of speakers and electronics? Then you start to get hyped up, and the crowd start getting feisty? And just when you are ready to be blown out of your mind….
Michael Bolton shows up. That’s right. Michael Bolton. The music in this game is really lame. It’s like Yanni bought out Six Flags. I might be exaggerating somewhat, but it’s obvious that the management team for this game is a bunch of middle-aged men and women having midlife crises. Last time I was at a theme park, they played music that people liked. There’s a lot of New Age bunk in this game. I highly recommend turning most of the music off and playing a few custom MP3s in the background for your enjoyment. Just make sure you leave the special effects on.
Soaked! has quite a lot to offer fans and newbies alike. There are a lot of scenarios to open, and you have the option of beating them with the basic goals or playing the ones you like for a long time to achieve perfection. This game, like all tycoon games, is geared towards micromanagers. You really need to be aware of a lot of things going on: your finances, your guests, the facilities, staff and landscaping are all just part of the things you need to keep an eye on.
If you enjoy the challenge and victory of beating scenarios, then this game is still for you. There’s plenty to keep you occupied regardless of what aspect you use. And for MSRP of $39.95 you can easily make the $1 per hour goal I use as the acceptable limit of gameplay value.
Soaked! is a must-own expansion for tycoon-style gamers, especially if you bought RCT3. It improves the original game enough that you will love the changes, without having to fight the whole new learning curve of the menus again. That not withstanding, this game definitely gets you enough gameplay time to make worth investing in. Many expansion games ride their new features and don’t give the players enough new plot to spend any reasonable time playing.
But with some great water and sound effects, improved gameplay and a great new look, Soaked! really comes through as an expansion. So if you’re looking for a piece of summer to get you through the winter, then keep this game loaded past Halloween.