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First impressions of Thrillville: Off the Rails demo

Posted Oct 1, 2007 at 1:22PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: Activision, Frontier Development, LucasArts

With the demo of Frontier Developments' theme park-managing video game Thrillville: Off the Rails (Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PS2, PSP, PC) recently becoming available for the Xbox 360, us writers here at QJ.Net finally succumbed to temptation and gave it a spin. Verdict? It's everything we hoped for and more, with not only a host of promising mini-games and construction options for your very own theme park, but the added perk of being able to interact with the people you're catering to: your customers. Read on and find out more about what makes Thrillville: Off the Rails charming and addictive.

First off, the game visuals and audio dissection. On the visuals side, things are looking reassuringly bright and solid, with a consistent cartoony graphic that makes everything run at a very smooth clip. There's activity everywhere you look, from the hordes of customers that populate your theme park to the rides themselves. There's literally not one dull moment in Thrillville: Off the Rails, and it's almost dizzying.

Sound also does its job in making sure the player feels like he or she is in the middle of a bustling theme park crowd. There's a constant soundtrack of rather humorous songs, with a DJ that's certainly easy on the ears. The voice-acting here also shines, although a bit wooden as the customers you talk to regularly remind you that since it's just a demo, you can't talk to them for very long.

Sound effects, while effective, falls a bit short in the department it's needed the most - which is in the rides. No jarring crashes in Bumper Cars, no skull-shaking rail rattling on the Rollercoaster - it doesn't have that much impact, but as far as emulating the actual sound of the ride, it's pretty close.

In any case, let's move on to how the demo goes like. The game starts you off by letting you pick Thrillville's latest manager from a bevy of pre-made characters, each with their own voices and archetypes. You can customize them even further by tinkering around with their looks and clothes, as well as give them a few neat accessories. When you've finalized your very own avatar in the game, i.e. the theme park manager, the game sends you off to manage Thrillville.

One hidden quirk we found in the demo: choosing a female character gives you the ability to scream during rides by pressing the A button over and over again. There seems to be only one screaming voice for all the female characters, however, but it's still fun to hear (and to annoy fellow QJ.Net writers with).

You hit the ground running - literally - as the game puts you right in the middle of things, with Thrillville already bustling with activity. Thrillville: Off the Rails starts you off with your theme park already equipped with a roller coaster and a few rides, all of which you can customize, manage, and even try out. The Bumper Cars mini-game is definitely worth a play-through.

Even though your theme park looks like it's taking care of itself, there's still a lot that needs to be done. Thankfully, everything a budding theme park manager is mapped out to the X button, which opens up the toolbar that pretty much lets you build, create, and manage everything in Thrillville.

It's in the toolbar that you can make the star attraction of any theme park - the Roller Coaster. The best part about this is, you can make your very own in a process that's not only intuitive, but opens up a whole lot of possibilities in terms of making the most exciting, gut-wrenching roller coaster in the history of roller coasters. I won't spoil it for you, but it's definitely another aspect of Thrillville: Off the Rails that you should check out.

What else is there to like about Thrillville: Off the Rails, you ask? The fact that you can see the changes you've made affect the theme park in real time. Making your avatar walk around and talk to random customers would get you an idea of what you're doing right and what you need to do better more accurately than any graph or bar. Your own custom roller coaster is rendered into the park, and you can look at it through the eyes of your own avatar as you built it. Definitely awesome.

We haven't really heard much from Thrillville: Off the Rails, but this demo certainly says a lot. A next-gen Rollercoaster Tycoon? Probably. A great theme-park managing game that's going to have you playing for hours upon end? Definitely. Enjoy the demo!

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