RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 - Triple Thrill Pack

Daily PC Game Review Score: 9 / 10
Game Category: Simulation
Date: 17 Feb 2011

I have always admired RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 (RCT2) as the definitive game when it comes to a business simulation. Developed by Chris Sawyer way back in 2002, this game is still one of my favorites. The community for the game has not gone away too, and there are still quite a number of websites out there dedicated to the game.

RCT2 contains outrageously cool graphics and cute animations, amusing and life-like sound effects, wonderful musical tunes that you can hum to, and of course many many scenarios for you to play with. It seems for the second release of the game, the developer went one step further by providing a whole range of editing tools. Added to the game were the much lauded scenario editor, roller coaster designer, track designs manager plus the added ability to convert your saved game into a scenario; you could possibly just spend the rest of the year playing the game.

The Triple Thrill Pack also adds the two expansion packs - Wacky Worlds and Time Twister that were released by Atari shortly after the release of RCT2.

The rollercoasters are fun to build

There are four simple buttons in the main menu to RCT2. They allow you to start a new game, load a saved game, play the three non-interactive scripted tutorials, and access the editing tools that I mentioned earlier.

Starting a new game brings you a sub-window with five tabs.

The first three tabs allow you access to Beginner, Challenging, and Expert difficulty levels. Beginner parks have much simpler objectives and allow you to get the hang of playing the game. The difficulty for Challenging parks lie somewhere in between Beginner and Expert difficulty. While, the Expert parks are the most difficult of all, these require careful thinking and planning on your part and can be quite difficult and time consuming to meet the required mission objective.

But there are other rides as well

The last two tabs allow you to either play with pre-built Six Flags parks or to build these Six Flags parks from scratch if you so desire. It's only logical that Six Flags decided to license their namesake in RCT2. Some of the rides that were added resemble their real life equivalents.

Most of the scenario objectives require you to either meet a targeted number of visitors, or to attain a certain amount of cash, or even to have rides meeting some criteria, and sometimes all this must be done within a limited time frame.

A Six Flags theme park featured in RCT2

There are a total of 15 scenarios in RCT2, 17 scenarios in the Wacky Worlds expansion which feature themes based on landmarks from various countries, and 14 scenarios in the Time Twister expansion which focuses on different time lines in the past or even the future. The two expansions provide even more graphical eye candy and building options. They are definitely worth the inclusion in the Triple Thrill Pack.

There are also 5 populated Six Flags parks and 6 empty Six Flags parks for you to start building from scratch.

The various sub-windows

Gameplay revolves around building rides in RCT2. You have to start off by choosing a ride type, building an entrance and exit, designing the rides themselves, connecting paths from the entrance/exits to the rest of the scenario map, and configuring the rides.

Ride configuration may involve (taking a roller coaster as an example) adding more trains, adding more cars to the trains, adjusting wait times, tweaking chain pull rates (for a faster trip to the highest point of the roller coaster), maintenance schedules, paint schemes, admission pricing, and more.

A list of pre-designed track layouts to choose from

Additional rides, shops and stalls, and new themes can be researched over time if you have the cash to do so.

Various sub-windows can also be opened to show status of rides, read the comments and thoughts of your guests, see what your staff are doing, and more. Staff whom you can hire include handy men, mechanics, security guards, and entertainers.

A pre-designed landscape loaded in the scenario editor

The scenario editor is a joy to use. There is a wizard that helps you go through each step in building a scenario. You can choose the rides available in your game, load a landscape or edit it from scratch with rides, trees, objects, and more. You also get to pick the rides, shops, and stalls that have already been researched, as well as enter in game information and select conditions for winning the scenario.

Lots of maps to play with

There is a lot of value in RCT2: Triple Thrill Pack that I must confess that this review only touches the tip of the iceberg. This game is highly recommended and definitely worth all your time. I suggest you get it now if you don't already own it.