The Park Review

<p>Survival horror has been slowly fading away as newer console generations have been released&period; The mainstream survival horror games have been laughable at best and generally aim towards the action route anyway&period; It seems that the best way to get your survival horror on is through lower budget almost indie style games&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;layers-of-fear-review-not-an-onion&sol;"><em>Layers of Fear<&sol;em><&sol;a> was a nice little sleeper hit for me&comma; and <em>The Park<&sol;em> seems to be following in its footsteps&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m glad we have these little tidbits of horror&comma; but I cannot wait for another <em>Until Dawn<&sol;em> to stumble my way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Park<&sol;em> begins as a benign enough tale of a mother searching for her son&&num;8217&semi;s teddy bear&period; As you take control of Lorraine&comma; you learn that this tale is much different than what you were expecting&period; In search of the bear&comma; you talk to the person behind the information desk that sees your son&comma; Callum&comma; dash into the closing park&period; Being the good mother you are&comma; you follow in suit&comma; which begins our tale&period; A long escalator rides awaits you&comma; and as you slowly ascend&comma; the park changes around you&period; Stepping off of the escalator&comma; you enter a world of horror&period; Gone is gleeful happy park from earlier&semi; now you are lost in your own nightmares&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110714" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110714" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-110714" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;31002910&sol;the-park-screen-01-us-ps4-27apr16&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;THE PARK - FUNCOM GAMES&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110714" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>THE PARK<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; FUNCOM GAMES&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The park&&num;8217&semi;s and Lorraine&&num;8217&semi;s backstory is told as you search for your son&period; Controlling Lorraine is the standing first-person control set up&comma; and you use X to interact with things in the world and circle to call for Callum&period; When you hit circle and are near an item of interest a visual cue can be seen on the screen&period; The cue looks like a giant teardrop has hit your television set&comma; and as you get closer to the item of interest&comma; the drop grows&period; The items of interest are usually notes&comma; bills or pictures from the past that tells about the building of the park and Lorraine&&num;8217&semi;s life&period; It is a unique way to learn about where you are and who you are playing as&comma; but I kept wanting to find more and more notes to learn about this mysterious park&period; I did figure out the ending about twenty minutes into the game&comma; but it was fun nonetheless to actually get there with Lorraine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since this is a downloadable game&comma; I went in thinking that it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be a very pretty game&period; I was wrong&semi; the game looks great and carries the haunted theme park atmosphere very well&period; I jumped a few times with some cheap jump scares&comma; but for the most part the game kept you creeped out&period; Every ride I had to get into was sinister in someway&semi; the rides not only made my skin crawl but helped me learn more about the park and Lorraine&period; The nicest touches that I saw while playing are the nods to H&period;P&period; Lovecraft&period; Callum&&num;8217&semi;s tee-shirt has a drawing of Cthulhu on it&comma; and there are various nods to Innsmouth in notes that Lorraine finds&period; I love little things like that&comma; especially since I&&num;8217&semi;m still waiting for my sequel to <em>Call of Cthulhu&colon; Dark Corners of the Earth<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110715" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110715" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-110715" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;31003019&sol;park&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;THE PARK - FUNCOM&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110715" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>THE PARK<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; FUNCOM&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>While the game is generally scary&comma; it feels like it is on rails&comma; there is not exploration allowed other than what is scripted&period; This aggravated me a tad seeing as I wanted to explore this haunted theme park on my own&comma; without chasing some child&period; I also finished this game in one very short sitting&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t even know if I broke the hour mark to be honest&period; While I played for that hour&comma; I did enjoy riding the maddening rides and chasing after a Cthulhu loving child&period; I just wish there had been more meat to this game&comma; I have no plans to replay it&semi; I&&num;8217&semi;ve seen all I wanted&period; For those of you looking for a quick scare and an easy game to knock off a list&comma; I suggest this title&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for something that will take you a long time to beat with lots of in-depth exploration&comma; then I&&num;8217&semi;d look somewhere else&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em>2 PS4 codes of The Park were provided by Funcom for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;