Review: Get A Clue Games - Adventure Park

RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 14:32

A covert mission to get an abandoned roller coaster back on track has a lot of ups and downs.

Story

You heard an interesting rumor about an abandoned amusement park and wanted to check it out with a group of your friends. Legend has it that a great storm destroyed much of the Park and the owners never had a chance to rebuild before they passed. You and a group of your friends went exploring in search of the park and finally found the entrance hidden among boarded up doors, locks and overgrown weeds. Once you find your way inside, you realize the doors locked behind you. The Day Pass you used to enter the park was a one-way ticket. In order to get out and win the game, you must finish the park and escape before getting trapped inside. You have 60 minutes to bring the park back to life and open the doors.

Generally speaking, when a much beloved theme park goes bankrupt, shutters its gates and becomes destined to be reclaimed by weeds, it would be considered bad news. But, with Adventure Park in shambles, it is the perfect opportunity to perform some light breaking and entering all while looking like a true hero after restoring the amusement center to its former glory. Wins all around for one lucky group of misdemeanor-prone roller coaster enthusiasts looking to hog the local spotlight!

Scenic

Aspiring operators start at the entrance of Adventure Park, a relatively small room that consists of two ticket booths, garbage cans, electric boxes and of course, the shuttered gates, boarded up just enough to prevent entrance. “Warning” and “do not enter” signs are posted all around. These might read as foreboding if it wasn’t such a bright and sunny day.

After successfully opening the front gates, it’s time to see what this play land has to offer. Unfortunately, in terms of scenic quality, not much. While the thought of an abandoned theme park had us conjuring up all sorts of visuals that bounce between whimsical and creepy, the end result is much less exciting and all together flat.

Literally.

With the exception of a single rusty roller coaster car unceremoniously shoved into the corner, all of the rides and games of Adventure Park are conveyed by compact, nearly two dimensional representations affixed to the walls of the room. While we appreciated that some audio effects were pumped in to up the immersion factor, the sounds of roller coasters whizzing by, complete with screaming riders, really betrayed the idea that this was an abandoned theme park.

Puzzles

Despite the compressed nature of the park’s attractions, true to the quest at hand, each one requires several tasks to get them up and running. It is here, within the process of bringing each ride up to operational snuff, where Adventure Park really comes to life.

Some of the steps required to get these ancient attractions back up and running, such as deciphering old wiring diagrams, made complete logical sense. The vast majority, however, are merely content to have a general connection to the world of theme parks.

Even though we wished that the puzzles felt more in line with the storyworld, Adventure Park packed in plenty of tech that operated smoothly and kept us on our toes, eager to see what would pop open next.

Our favorite puzzle involved the use of a classic carnival fairway game as well as the requisite prizes used to entice passersby to shed a few dollars. In these moments, the artifice of puzzles for puzzles sake felt totally appropriate and, dare we say, fun.

Overall

Who hasn’t spent a day at an overcrowded theme park and thought “wouldn’t it be great to have this all for me and my friends?” For us, Adventure Park answered that question with a resounding, middle of the road “eh”.

The experience never quite lived up to the potential of the premise. We found the flow to be a bit uneven. Our modest group of three had multiple bottleneck moments, patiently waiting for a one-person task to be completed before moving on. Don’t get us wrong, we had plenty of fun with the majority of the puzzles. Some of which even invoked some satisfying “ah-ha!” moments. But the lacking scenic elements makes it easy to understand why Adventure Park wasn’t able to bring in the crowds and keep the lights on for the long haul.