Roller Coaster Tycoon is a theme park sim that is quite simply a blast to play
RCT consists of a few dozen scenarios, in which you are given an amusement park and an objective. Sometimes, you'll have a small park with only a few rides in it, sometimes a massive expanse of land, filled with dozens of rides and stalls already. The objectives range from easy (have 250 guests in your park within three months) to moderate (have 1500 guests in your park within 4 months) but overall, the game is relatively simple to play through, and it is rare that you will fail a scenario. You will also have a park rating between 0-1000, and your objectives will sometimes refer to that as well. It commonly seems that your rating is falling for no apparent reason, and the game will notify you that your guests are getting lost or a roller coaster has crashed. However, I've found that there is little you can do when your guests are too stupid to find their way out of your park, especially if it is a large park.
Building Roller Coasters is probably one of the most fun parts of the game. You can implement split second turns or series of consecutive loops, but be careful- upon it's first test run, your coaster will be given a rating in Excitement, Intensity, and Nausea, and if either of the latter two are too high, your new ride will not be very popular. There are also pre-built tracks that you can place in your park if you don't have the time or energy to build your own, but if the land is not level it can be finnicky to place them.
In addition to Roller Coasters, there are your regular amusement park rides such as merry-go-rounds, bumper cars, sight-seeing towers, or train rides that you can build. Transport rides (such as monorails or chairlifts) can be built to ferry guests around the park. You can also place food stalls, bathrooms, and information kiosks around your park. These will affect guests' moods and actions, For example, if a guest eats some popcorn, the salt will make him thirsty, which will make him want something to drink from the beverage stand, which will, in turn, lead him to a bathroom.
Guests are all pretty much unique. They all prefer different levels of intensity in their rides, they all come in different moods (ranging from happy to tired to sad to mad), and they all come with different amounts of money. You can name your guests, read their thoughts, and even track their actions if you so choose.
Roller Coaster Tycoon just has so much detail, is so full-to-bursting with life, that it is hard to organize it all into one review. Things such as clicking on flying ducks to make them quack, seeing the water shimmer in the sunlight, or hearing guests scream as they fall over a drop on your newest coaster just give the game an amazingly polished feel. You are sucked right into your park. You'll find yourself frowning if your park rating drops even a mere ten points, or grumbling to yourself if Guest 563 seems to be unhappy no matter what you do for him. You'll be building fountains and food courts amid secluded groves in an attempt to create a peaceful setting for your guests. And, when you've finally finished the last park, you'll scroll back up the list of scenarios and replay your favourites. You'll spend hours trying to build the perfect coaster, or just have fun messing around, building tall towers with winding paths leading to a burger stand on top. All-in-all, you'll play RCT over and over and over again, simply because it is a damn fun game!
This is an instant classic, and any self-respecting PC owner should have it in their collection.