The Park is an interesting experience. It’s a psychological horror game where your main objective is to explore and piece together the story through the documents you collect. The premise is quite simple to begin with. You are at a theme park with your son who gets lost among the attractions. You have to find him. What starts off as a simple follow-the-character mission becomes more of an exploration of the mind. The park represents the psychological state of the main character and it’s your job to piece together what really happened to her son.
The graphics and gameplay are taut. You walk around the open-world environment and read notes, newspapers and letters. Each writing gives you more information as to what’s going on and serves as another piece of the puzzle. The visuals are impressive and look gorgeous. Effects like shadows and lighting are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Usually when gamers think of indie titles, the first thought that runs through their minds is probably the notion that it won’t be visually impressive. The Park shatters that stereotype.
The controls are easy to learn and precise as well. Usually in games where you have to select certain objects and documents, it can be quite challenging trying to place your reticle over something. One famous example in the horror genre that comes to mind has to be Layers of Fear. It was near impossible to select some of the items in that game because the controls seemed very floaty and clunky. Thankfully that’s not the case in The Park. It might be because the frame rate was stable throughout the experience and didn’t fluctuate like the aforementioned title.
The only major complaint I have with The Park has to be its length. The game is only about two hours long if you go for total completion, as in you find every collectible there is. I managed to finish it in an hour and managed to get almost all achievements. I’m sure I missed some documents but despite that I think I understood the story. There really isn’t much replay value here unfortunately so make sure you explore every corner before you head towards the final area.
Another aspect that surprised me about the game would have to be its ending. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced an ending to any game that’s as shocking as this one. It’s bold and fits really well into the story and you will be talking about it for days. Without giving any spoilers, it’s not for the faint of heart.
Summary
Overall, The Park is a fantastic game that everyone should experience. While it’s quite a short title, the fact that it’s only $13 on the Xbox Store somewhat makes up for that. If you’re looking for a quick yet excellent horror title which delves into issues revolving around mental illness and what stress can do to families, you should buy The Park. You won’t regret it.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.