Chris Sawyer has constantly been involved in some of the best strategy games of all time. Both the Transport Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon series have been some of the best enjoyed strategy games of all time. The original Rollercoaster Tycoon offered gamers the chance to build theme parks with the main aim to make money and attract as many people to it as possible. The main element that set this game apart from games such as Theme Park was its simple construction methods which enabled you to build huge great Rollercoaster’s from which you could scare your customers out of all of their money. In the end there were three add-ons which helped you to create a more realistic looking theme park. Right off the success of the original and its add-ons, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 is released.

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Rollercoaster Tycoon was such a hugely detailed and playable game containing every combination of ride, rollercoaster and shop. People still wanted more. I loved the original and played it constantly for days and weeks, I was still playing it right up to this release. The problem is that the game is already so good, how can you make it better?

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Game Play

The game play revolves much as the original did. You have a load of theme parks to make into a success. This time around the scenarios are split into different categories of difficulty. The scenarios can be played in any order now too, with none of theme being locked. This is nice, but because the game is so easy you can do the hard scenarios and have no real incentive to play the easy. I feel the difficulty in Rollercoaster Tycoon was too easy, but it was forgiven for its huge playability and fun. However I do feel the sequel could have offered a bit more for us hardened strategy fans. As in the original you can find yourself completing a scenario in the first year having just to wait for the other 3 years to complete it. I guess that because of the subject matter the game is aimed at younger children and not hardened strategy fanatics. However there are a large number of scenarios to keep most people happy.

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Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 does offer much more than I could have expected. There are more rides than ever before; I was even surprised they managed to find some new styles of rollercoaster’s. There are more ready built rollercoaster’s than ever before too, and the game has been updated so that scenery elements are included in with the ride design. This means if you build a ready built ghost train for example, it will look like a ghost train should. This means that if you don’t want to be bothered building your own rollercoaster the included ones look much better. There is a slight problem with this though. If you build a rollercoaster from one of the includes designs including scenery, when you come to delete the ride it only removes the rollercoaster. All scenery elements have to be removed manually even though it was included in the original design.

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There is now a ride designer included in the game which allows you to build a Rollercoaster without the constrains of money. As I mentioned before you can even add scenery elements so you can make your ride much more authentic. If you have seen the latest rollercoaster’s being built around the world you will notice the majority now seem to have a theme. Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 includes all the scenery from the original plus a few more themes allowing you to customise your ride more. The ride designer is a great inclusion but it is still better to customise your rides depending upon the landscape around and that can only be done in the scenarios themselves. Any designs you do want in the game can be saved and then used in the scenarios.

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Another inclusion in Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 is the scenario editor. This allows you to create landscapes and scenarios of your own to share with the online community. The original game succeeded because people could swap rollercoaster designs through the Rollercoaster Tycoon web site. I can see the sharing of scenarios being a good idea because the longevity of the game will be increased. When you have completed the included ones you can create your own and swap them online. Along with creating your own, there a number of included Six Flags theme parks both ready built and as scenarios. All the rollercoaster’s from these Six Flags Theme parks are includes for you to build in any of the scenarios.

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The overall game play elements of Rollercoaster Tycoon have not changed for the sequel. This is not necessarily a bad thing because the original was so well designed. There are some really nice touches which I’m not going to go into because it will spoil the fun for you. However I can’t help feeling that Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 is nothing more that an updated version of the original. There are more rides, shops and scenery to build, but nothing that really stands out to make you think, wow that’s really great.

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Graphics

This area is highly disappointing. The graphics as you can see from the screen shots are pretty much the same as the original. There is obviously new artwork for the new shops, scenery and rollercoaster’s, but everything looks the same as they did in the old game. Again this may not necessarily be a bad thing since it means it will run on low spec machines in high resolution and look great. The graphics are functional in that you can’t complain about them, but after spending another £25 I would have liked a bit of an update. 3D is not all that, but since it’s supposed to be a new game, the graphics should have been improved. The game is beginning to look a little dated even though the new scenery elements do make the theme parks look a little more life like and realistic.

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Sound

Again this is another element that hasn’t really been touched. There are a few more musical elements you can add to your rides, but nothing really improved upon. There were no problems with the originals sound, but again it’s the money thing. I’ve paid for a new game I expect something more than a few added sounds.

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Overall

Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 is a step forward and improvement over the original classic. There are many elements that have been improved upon. New scenery and rides help to make the game more varied and realistic looking, but in the end it just feels like an update and not a new game. The inclusion of the Six Flags scenarios and rides are nice, but don’t really add much to the game. Sound and graphics were disappointingly not updated, but the inclusions of scenario and ride designer is welcome. It’s hard to score the review since it is better than the original. However if you have the original there is not really enough to justify paying such as high price for what is really an update. If you don’t have the original I suggest you get Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 since it is better, but be warned if you already own the original.