The Park Reviews
The Park is a psychological horror narrative adventure that takes place in the creepy theme park of Atlantic Island Park, and it is featured by Lorraine, a mother desperate to find her son Callum, who seems to play the game of cat and mouse with her inside the park. The easy fright will evolve into a more psychological and distressing terror as we discover the truth of what happens in The Park. It is a pity its outdated technical section and its duration so short, but still enjoyable if we find it very cheap.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Park is a tale of tragedy that takes you on a literal and metaphorical roller coaster. Although the game lacks in the graphics department and sticks to the bare minimum in terms of gameplay mechanics, it is one that story seekers will probably want to check out. Get your box of tissues ready.
The Park's best moments come from the sense of dread and uneasiness in an abandoned amusement as you search for your kid. I wouldn't call it a scary experience, although there are a handful of jump scares, it's more unnerving than anything else. The climatic area drove home the narrative; however, if you were rushing to the end, you may not appreciate the message it is trying to convey.
Generally, though, The Park is an effective experience. It avoids the first-person horror genre’s worst habits while conveying an engaging story. It leans hard on horror tropes (and fails to interrogate well-trod stereotypical presentations of mental illness) but manages to unearth something potent in the process. Your mileage will certainly vary; roller coasters are thrilling for some, nauseating for others. I enjoyed this ride.
Undeniably a bit weird and creepy, unfortunately just doesn't make for many thrills with too much walking
The Park looks like it was a more of a test than a game itself. It's confusing, simple and UI is useless for console players. You can't enjoy the story, because you will get lost. You can't enjoy backstory, because you need to stand against your TV to ready anything in-game. It's a quick completion though.
Review in Polish | Read full review
The Park is an interesting experience, and one I feel glad to have had. Somewhere within it, there is an extremely good horror experience, and with some narrative changes it could be a truly excellent game. However, The Park fails to reach these expectations, which is a shame given how good some aspects of it are.
A chilling story about simple horrors, strong art design, and voice acting help tie together this horror short into a package worth checking out for horror fans.
All in all this game was fun but it could definitely use more content and substance
The Park is an absolutely terrifying game, but what's continued to haunt me about it long after I've put the controller down isn't Chad the Chipmunk, or the Bogeyman, or the Witch – it's how distressing and real the game and its themes are once you peel back those monster story trappings.
Ultimately this is a bland experience with a runtime less than some actually scary horror films.
Having recently reviewed Layers of Fear, a game which also dealt with the themes of mental illness and horror, I was expecting a lot more from The Park. Walking around a fun fair for an hour with a shouty, sweary woman who is only interested in herself is about as much fun as it sounds. I suggest you save your money for a ticket to a real fun fair and hope you get stuck on a rollercoaster for an hour. That would be much more thrilling than The Park.
The Park tells a dark and very disturbing story, the park itself is a joy to explore, and the voice acting is top notch. I've played a few horror games already in 2016 but The Park is so far my favorite.
The Park is a great piece of psychological horror, one that doesn't dip into jump scares or excessive grit. Instead it introduces a playable protagonist you can't rely on, in a discomforting situation that smartly paces itself and holds back from excess. For anyone who wants to feel perturbed and have a hard time sleeping immediately afterwards, The Park is definitely for you.
At the end of the day, The Park has some really nice set pieces going for it. The mood it's looking for mostly achieves, and the voice work really hits the nail right on the head. The way the game moves isn't a chore like so many other First Person Experience games tend to be. It does some things right, just not all of them. If your expectations are in order, taking a trip to Atlantic Island Park may not be such a scary proposition after all.
The story at the heart of The Park makes it a worthwhile trip if you've got £9.99 to burn
The Park is a bit of an oddity. A walking simulator with an incredibly brief runtime – 90 minutes at a leisurely pace – that nonetheless has some fun ideas sprinkled in. Actually riding the amusement park rides is a lot of fun – and effectively creepy in a couple of instances – but the rest of the game has nothing to offer other than walking really. Toss in some less-than-ideal performance hiccups and mediocre voice acting, and the title doesn't feel like it comes anywhere near justifying its price tag.
There will come a day where The Park is available on PS4 for peanuts, and that day is when I'd fully recommend trying its fresh, but flawed, brand of horror out. Until then, the price of admission is too high for the brevity of the ride. Especially for one that has more than a few nuts and bolts missing from it.
Exploring the destructive psychosis of a plaintive individual is a noble, if not precarious, responsibility. The Park, however, can't decide if its manic behavior is either a means of identifying with its troubled protagonist or a symptom of its own decent into chaos.
The Park succeeds in being an unsettling jaunt into madness, but could have been much better if its developers had done more with their premise. As it stands, though, this is a title worth playing, so long as you're okay with a short runtime and little replay value.