Halloween in The Park · 11:18pm Oct 29th, 2015
Just a couple days until Nightmare Night!
For many of us, it is also less than two weeks before the arrival of Fallout 4, and we're looking for games to kill the time. Which makes Funcom's release of The Park particularly timely.
As a fan of The Secret World, I was particularly interested when they announced this little game, especially since TSW's haunted amusement park is one of my favorite places in the game. The amusement park is overflowing with potential that makes a perfect setting for Funcom to turn into its own full game -- a haunting little funhouse ride just in time for Halloween.
WARNING: This video contain content which could trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy.
This isn't quite the park that players of The Secret World are familiar with. The rides are all there, but they are spread across an overly gracious amount of space. Everything is grander and darker. Of course, there are no zombified carnies, no chainsaw-wielding scarecrows or any of the other inhuman monsters scattered about for you to kill. None, that is, save for the bogeyman. Oh he's there. But you're not going to kill him with a shotgun or some magic. The Park isn't that sort of game.
Atlantic Island Park as seen in The Secret World
In fact, I would hesitate to call The Park a game at all. Rather, it is an interactive story. There are no real choices. Correspondingly, there are no 'good' and 'bad' endings. You move through The Park as an experience, not as a game... and the only control you really have is whether you miss out on some of the content or not.
Atlantic Island Park all grown up!
I was planning on reviewing The Park on Wednesday after playing it Tuesday night (after dark, with my headphones on, as is most appropriate for this sort of game). This blog was delayed an extra day because I had to play the game twice. I played it wrong the first time through and wasn't able to enjoy The Park for what it is. Instead of embracing Funcom's character and treating the game as a movie, I tried to roleplay the game as if it was a game like Fallout or Metro, playing my version of the character and trying to make choices I wanted my character to make. That doesn't work here.
I found myself hitting roadblocks because I was avoiding side exploration that made no sense for a good mother to distract herself with while desperately chasing after her son. At one point, I was confronted by the game wanting me to do something that would be absolutely insane and stupid under the given circumstances, and which held no evidence of accomplishing anything good. Worse, I could hear my (character's) child begging me not to. At that point, I simply refused. I shut down the game and went to bed.
I had to sleep on it, and psyche myself up to going through the game without playing it in order to actually go through the game. Once I had done that, everything went smoothly. My second was far more enjoyable.
The Park excels at atmosphere. Aside from walking and looking around, you aren't able to do much. You can interact with a very select few objects in the game, mostly floating them in front of you and twirling them around to examine them. (I wish I had realized sooner the value of flipping over books that I picked up. Reading the backs of the book covers is worth it.) But there is no combat, no inventory. The only real mechanic is your ability to shout. And Funcom makes splendid use of this by infusing the game with top-notch voice acting. As you go deeper and deeper into the park, the protagonist's deteriorating emotional state comes through expertly with these shouts. The game is best played with headphones on so that you can get the most out of determining the direction responses seem to come from. The game is also best played at night in a dark room... for obvious reasons.
The whole game has a creepy sense of unreality that permeates it from the very start, with the man at the Lost & Found saying "I think your boy just ran into the park. Hold on, I'll unlock the gates for you." You just saw him run in... but you can't run in the same way because the gates are locked?
The characterization in The Park is strange. As mentioned before, the actions you will find yourself taking don't make sense if you lend the situation any realistic urgency, and are sometimes exceedingly odd for additional reasons. The increasingly stressed and terrified mother that you hear as you run around the amusement park clashes with the inner monologue that she delivers at times (usually while locked into one of the rides). This disconnect helps enhance the already dream-like feeling of the entire experience. Often while simultaneously alienating you from the woman you are experiencing things through. This could very easily be a negative or a positive aspect of the game for any given player.
The Park isn't scary. Sure there are a few jump scares, but that isn't the real heart of the game. Instead, The Park is disturbing. And it may be a bit too much for some players, particularly those who have suffered abuse in their youth.
The Park is also short -- about the length of a motion picture. I clocked something over three hours in-game, and that was with playing the game twice, stopping the first time only halfway through. Having played it to the end, I have uninstalled it. I enjoyed it, but there's nothing there to make me want to revisit it again. I've experienced it all (save for the backs of a few books). As such, the game is probably not worth the cost for anyone not also playing The Secret World. But if you don't get the game this Halloween, keep it in mind next time a big Steam sale comes around.
art by BlueMoon2343
The game looks awesome.
Sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out.
Seems interesting... But I'm not a huge fan of the genre, so I'll pass on purchasing it myself. Maybe someone will do a let's play of it or something.
Played it. Its okay to me. I would much prefer to play Outlast for Halloween because it was scarier. But that's just my opinion.
Seems like a game that is played for the story immersion rather then the gameplay itself. Rather it's it's more like walking through a book then playing through a game. Interesting game.
Sounds like "everyone's gone to rapture" gameplaywise. The way you discribed the setting makes me think of that old arcade shooter "carnevil" those types were always fun while waiting before a movie.
I didn't expect the name at the end of the trailer. It was disconcerting to hear a woman calling my name like I was lost, in such a motherly, caring way.
That amusement park was the most disturbing part of Solomon Island for me!
Ahh. I kind of had that problem with Dust: an Elysian Tail. Many games have this sense of urgency driving you on that somewhat (well, often completely) contradicts the side exploration the developers intend you to do as part of the full game experience. It's a rather annoying paradox, and in Dust it resulted in me originally confronting the boss hilariously under-leveled, and dying like an idiot until after I'd gone back and explored everything.
When I played Deus Ex: Human Revolution I'd learned that lesson, thankfully. It's another one of these games where the storyline often frantically drives you on, but the gameplay urges and rewards exploration.
3506297 Reviews I've read on Steam do indeed compare it to Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone. I tend to think of such pieces not so much as games, but as art pieces (or "walking simulators" as I call them in my less charitable moments). I didn't enjoy Dear Esther, so I'm wary of this (especially if there are jump scares; those suck).
Sounds like a creepy Dear Esther, where you just go around exploring the world built. Bit sad its 10 euro, if it were around 5, i could buy it and enjoy the experience
I gave the game a shot and no, it's not scary, but it does have a great atmosphere. I'm sure I'm missing out on plenty by never playing The Secret World, but I was certainly intrigued by the narrative and backstory of the game. I'm always a sucker for the more emotion-centered stories.
It's definitely gotten me interested in TSW, so I might give it a chance at some point in the future.