Xbox One Review: The Park

Is it worth the price of admission to this amusement park?

The Park is a psychological thriller set in an amusement park. A mother has lost her child there and has to go through a number of rides trying to find him, while dealing with visions, broken memories and some pretty dark stuff to reach the end.
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Let me start by saying The Park is an incredibly short outing. I completed it in just over an hour and there’s little reason to revisit once done, unless you somehow missed one or two of the game’s achievements…the rest all come just from playing through. Your journey will take you around the park in more or less a circle, before heading through a witch’s mouth to enter a haunted house of sorts, the last place you think your child can be…

But as the game goes on, you can see this is no standard mother. She clearly has issues, more than likely psychosis combined with post-natal depression. I hear the game’s setting is based on Funcom’s own MMO “The Secret World” but since I haven’t played that, it’s hard to tell how much it ties into it…all I can say is that there is some really creepy stuff going on here, not all of it is your standard jump scares, although they do pop up from time to time.
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I can’t help thinking that The Park would have benefited more from a few extra rides, the actual area isn’t all that big and you’re more or less done in no time. The ending will divide and confuse, but I suppose it’s open to interpretation. It’s definitely a powerful game in that respect, I just wish the experience lasted longer.

The Verdict

The Park is one hell of a ride, it’s just a shame it’s such a brief one. It tackles tough subject matter that has only been hinted at in very few games, they’ve been very brave to attempt it and I think they’ve succeeded in that aspect. It would have been nice if it was longer, even just throwing in a bunch of collectibles around the park itself would have been welcome. That aside, it’s worth a visit to this park…despite it’s lifespan.

Score: 8.0