The Park

The game was just my speed! Due to the game art emphasizing the park's chipmunk character, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was some kind of Five Nights at Freddy's animatronic jumpscare game - it's not. Instead, it's more of a traditional 'walking sim' as much as those can be considered to have traditions.

You're playing the perspective of a mother running after her bratty kid who ran back into the park after it closed. You are walking along, exploring, and reading as the story unfolds. You don't have to RUN for safety, and you're not in danger if you take a leisurely pace to explore the creepy park. It's pretty intuitive where you need to go, following the path, and towards the end, there's a brilliant sequence going through a portion of rooms repeatedly as little things change each time, revealing more of the story and getting scarier.

It took just about an hour and a half to beat with all the achievements, and most of them were unlocked by naturally exploring the different areas. I only returned for one or two, which I missed at the end. It was a great break between long 100+ hour jrpgs. Give it a whirl if you're looking for a short, creepy tale to unfold.

The Park is a horror walking sim, set in what seems to be the late 1970s (or early 1980s). Worth noting that while this game is a spin-off game to the MMO The Secret World, which I've played a bit and found very fascinating (I have however not played the quests that ties into the story of this game), it is completly stand-alone and can be enjoyed without any knowledge of it.
You play as Lorraine, having visited the Atlantic Island Park, as her son runs back in to the closed park looking for a Teddy bear. As you get into the park, you right away notice that not everything is as it seems. The park is now abandoned, and has seemed to be abandoned for years. Finding notes you slowly put together what has happened, and maybe why the park shut down. And her son Callum? He seems to be still missing. The story takes various turns, and is at time quite heavy - dealing with topics as such abuse, grief, family trauma. However, the ending might fall a bit flat if you don't pay enough attention as it isn't always fully clear what's going on.
The gameplay is quite simple, you explore the theme park as you also find notes and sometimes equipment. To progress in the game you also ride all the attractions in the theme park (or at least visit them) which I honestly found pretty fun. There's also a few cheap jumpscares here and there, which honestly did get me at times - but it could be good to know that there are no actual enemies and no way to die in this game.
I enjoyed this game more than I thought I would, despite it maybe not being the best horror game. I felt it played too much into certain tropes at times, but at the same time getting through the message of the story worked out. It's definitely worth a play if you like these types of games but don't go in and expect a Silent Hill 2 or similiar masterpiece.

Bought while on sale, its a decent horror game but you're in no actual danger while playing. The fact it ties in an MMO or some kind makes it...hard to recommend at full price. It is a walking simulator in the end with some horror elements and I will admit I jumped a few times playing this but I finished it in three hours. Do not buy this at full price, wait for a good sale and then give it a go. In the end, recommended when its on sale, NOT recommended at full price since at best you'll get four hours of it and that's if you REALLY take your time.

The beginning started relatively slow and the gameplay is very linear with very little explore beyond that. There isn't much deviation you can do, since one action triggers the next. You mostly find out about the characters and lore from the notes you read and from some of the dialogue. Personally, this game wasn't too crazy interesting until the last part of the game. It gave off PT-esque style of gameplay with disturbing (and sometimes funny) notes and a creepy atmosphere. I wish I could have seen more of that instead! It really helped bring the game alive. The main character doesn't have any likeable qualities since all she focuses on is how much her kid ruined her life. The ending was also strange and it felt rather unsatisfactory. Overall the game was still fun to play and the graphics were beautifully made. I enjoyed some of the mystery, too! If the devs can do something similar to the last part of the game and develop a story that is carried more by the characters than notes, that would help improve it significantly. I would get this game only if it's on sale!

This should be read as a neutral review except there's no such option; I would be inclined to say I like it overall, I don't mind that it's short (you probably want to only ever buy this on sale though), I don't mind that it's a walking simulator (it's just a visual novel in 3D with extra steps, really (pun not intended)), I enjoyed the atmosphere and storytelling and visuals and sound design and I think that was all well done.
I do almost kind of feel like it was two shorter games stapled together in a way, and it definitely loses points for the overly long Hansel and Gretel sequence early in the game. And it does somewhat feel like the plot is not _quite_ finished, which some like in a horror game if there's mysteries left unsolved or things are left open to interpretation… until you find out that the reason it feels that way is because it's a spinoff of an MMO, and there was supposed to be a time limited event in that MMO which was a mini-sequel to this.
Well, that doesn't work now that it's 2024 and I think the MMO in question (The Secret World) isn't even a thing anymore, much less that event. It also wasn't going to work for people like me who were never going to play an MMO even if the bogeyman forced me to.
So, one can only review the game as though none of that happened, and just as a standalone experience. Which should be fine and I want to say it's just a flawed but fine game, but it's hard to not feel cheated.

A trip just in time for Halloween. Fun for the whole family, my son loves it here.
Atlantic Island Park were kind enough to give us the whole place to ourselves too. Chad the chipmunk was a great guide, all the rides were free (shock therapy was my favorite) and I even got this bloody ice pick souvenir too.
Tell your friends, bring your kids.

I like this very much. A creepy tale of finding a lost child...only to discover the narrator is unreliable. Not much replay value unless you are an achievement hunter. The first time listening to this while paying attention to all the details of the character model and notes you find along the way make a big difference.
2 hours to play once and then run through to complete things you missed.
Overall rating: 8/10