Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 - Soaked!

The first expansion for RCT 3 is also one of the best RCT expansions ever!

Review By Mimi

OK! So we all know how great of a series RCT is, however the expansions for these games are mostly average, with one real standout. Loopy Landscapes, for the original RCT was the best expansion ever, that is until Soaked was released earlier this year for RCT. Why is Soaked the best expansion since Loopy Landscapes. Simple, just like Loopy Landscapes perfected on RCT 's formula, Soaked perfects the formula of RCT 3. While there is another RCT 3 expansion coming out in a few weeks, I don't see it beating this one when it comes to sheer fun.

STORY: The RCT games don't really have a story, hence the 0 rating. If it had a story, I'd rate it, but this is a theme park sim. Do you really need a story?

GAMEPLAY: This is where this game shines. The game play in RCT 3 was pretty much perfect, but this game perfects the game play of RCT 3. We all know that in the RCT games, you're tasked with building and managing an amusement park. However what we've got here is the addition of water parks, the first for an RCT game. While their here have been elements of water parks in past RCT games, they won't really the main focus. However, they are here, and it's done beautifully. 

You got the option of building pools, water slides, and a whole bunch of items for both of them, as well as special stalls designed for this game, such as a Sunscreen Stall. But, when it comes to building pools, you have items such as a Wave Machine, ladders, Hot Tubs, Diving Boards, showers, and a light to place in your pool that glows when the game shifts from day to night. You have loads of other items I didn't even touch since I'll leave them to you to find. There are also various types of Water Slides, which don't have as much items for them, as the pools do. So I'll talk about those in a later section.

SOUND: This is the worst part of the game. There are no good music tracks in mu opinion. All the good music tracks from Soaked were already in RCT 3, which is why I won't mention them. Wait, though, why did I give it a 5 if the new tracks aren't good? A simple answer: custom tracks. As long as you have music on your hard drive, you can put those songs from your har drive on in the game. All you need to do, is do a search, while playing the game, for the songs on your hard drive, or you can transfer the songs from your har drive, into the RCT 3 Soaked folder, while not playing the game. Cool, eh?

GRAPHICS: The graphics were superb in RCT 3, and they're still superb in Soaked. They haven't really changed between the two title, but that's ok! The 3d graphics used in RCT 3 fit perfectly with this kind of game. They're very cartoon-ish, and bright, but not realistic. So don't play this game if you're looking for realistic graphics in games such as Doom 3 or Half Life 2. Cuz, you won't find them. There is one problem with the graphics however, but I don't experience it, since I have a hig end PC. If you have a low end PC, the game play tends to slow down if too much is happening in your park, which is a result of a low end PC, and 3d graphics. So be wary if you have an average PC.'

CONTROLS: Remember how I mentioned that the Water Slides are handled differently in this game earlier in the review. Here's where I'll talk about them. The Water Slides have no items to add to them. It's just a matter of choosing which one to build, and to finally build them. To start, you need to have the entrance of the slide and the exit to connect to the pool. The entrance to the side, the exit, in the pool. 

This controls very weird however, and that's where my 9 score for controls come in. Building a slide is a lot more frustrating than anything else in this game, due to a lot of trial and error while building them. Building them also feels a little clunky, which is part of the reason why they're hard to build. But, everything from the pools to ths slides to the roller coasters are all done using the mouse. You only use the keyboard to name them. It's very simple to learn and use [except the slides, but I think that's more of a design issue, than control issue.] Simply put, everything besides the slides requires no trial and error. The controls are almost flawless.

RIDES: The rides in this game are perfect! From the roller coasters, to the thrill rides, almost every ride is perfect. To add to the rides, you can also ride all of them after you build them. You can't swim in the pool however. And also, some of the gentle rides, such as the Haunted House, would have been hard to implement the player riding them. So, you just sit on the outside of those rides. Bummer, but luckily, this happens to very few rides.

OVERALL: That's it. This is a near perfect expansion pack, and one you should buy if you own RCT 3. You won't be disappointed!

NAME: ROLLER COASTER TYCOON 3 - SOAKED!

SYSTEM: PC