The Park

This game was so asinine, I couldn't get past the first 5 minutes. Apparently, it's about some crackhead mom having to find her kid in a closed amusement park. But she's the one who LEAVES THE KID ALONE in the car for him to get kidnapped or, as in this game, leave the car and wander into the park. The game is ENTIRLEY the main character's ignorant thought. The voice acting was awful. Again, 5 minutes in I said "I'm out." and I will be returning this for a refund.

No Spoilers Review The Park is a walking-sim horror game developed by Funcom. It's an interesting idea, a mother searching for her lost son in an amusement park late at night. Meanwhile the park itself has a hidden past of its own. Unfortunately the execution of this game is not as interesting. I've played and enjoyed many games of this type in the past but found this one to be incredibly bland and boring. None of the scares ever really landed effectively with me plus nothing of note ever really happens. The story never really grips you. The first part of the game basically follows this pattern: - Walk to the next amusement park ride on the linear path. - See your character go on the ride while some talking goes on. - Exit the ride. When you reach the last section, you end up walking through a series of rooms which mutate (Layers Of Fear style only not quite as well done) every next time you go through them. Again nothing of note, nothing gripping, nothing scary is ever really there while you're doing this. Then the game ends. There's nothing more I can really add. It's a pretty nice looking, samey, non-scary, boring bland experience. Not recommended at full price. Wait for a sale. A good sale at that.

The Park showcases what a walking sim can be. If you boil it down you really don’t do much but it is a great experience. You wander through the park and as you get to certain places and ride certain rides while looking for your son more of the backstory to Lorraine as well as the park is revealed. So while you don’t get much actual gameplay you get one of the finest stories I have seen in games as well as a fantastic atmosphere that allows the game to be very creepy while not having more than a couple actual jump scares. The Park uses lights; shadows; music; as well as the mind of an unstable character to manifest a feeling of dread and uncertainty. The voice acting was top notch as well. The graphics were above average as a whole. The water detail was awesome and the foliage detail was good. The fire; lighting; and object detail was decent but not as impressive as the others mentioned. The mechanic where you can call out for your son was a neat one as it not only can be used to show Lorraine’s state but it will also highlight where to go if you’re stuck. That being said the game was very straightforward about where to go. Graphics Settings Used: 6x AA; motion blur off; Ultra detail; v-sync on; 80 FOV GPU Usage: 70-100 % VRAM Usage: 1908-3265 MB CPU Usage: 11-25 % RAM Usage: 2.5-3.6 GB Frame Rate: 46-144 FPS AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 21.3.7 | Manjaro Mate | Kernel 5.16.14-1-MANJARO | Wine 7.4 | DXVK v1.10L

Warning: small spoilers ahead! "The Park" was something I wanted to put between two other games to have a slight distraction. How wrong I was. The game takes you on a disturbing journey through the mind of a depressive and fully delivers the anxiety and stress. The design and technical execution are very good and help to emphasize the atmosphere. Although the game is a great experience, it could have been so much more. At last you are left a little bit diasappointed, when the game is over after approximately 1.5 to 2 hours. Even when examining every corner and object, you can't spend more than 2.5 hours in it. You should definitely give this a try, but wait for a discount.

The graphics are wonderful, the sounds, and the storytelling is pretty good! However, the problem comes in with the jumpscares. I only got scared once while playing the entire game. The tension and build up wasn't the best throughout it all which disappointed me. The jumpscares got very predictable after a while. The ending is up for your interpretation which left me baffled and gave me the wrong idea but that's probably because there's no indication of this being a tie in game to "The Secret World" MMO apparently. I'm a sucker for some spooky ambience and sounds but it ultimately ended up giving me a headache in the end. The company/creators of the game nor the description tells you that there is VERY BRIGHT FLASHING at all. If your a bright light or just light sensitive at all epileptic please do take this in consideration for your own safety. The flashes take place when you get on the steep sloped roller-coaster. Please update the warning section in the description at most.