Developer: Polygon Art
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS5
Genre: Action, Adventure, Simulation
Publisher: Aerosoft GmbH
Park Ranger Simulator is a first-person simulation game that turns players into park rangers who are responsible for maintaining and protecting a national park. The game has focused on realism, responsibility, and immersion in nature. The game is developed by Polygon Art and published by Aerosoft GmbH.
You begin as a newly assigned park ranger tasked with restoring and maintaining a large, scenic natural park. The park has been broken and disrupted, and you are in charge of restoring it. You clean neglected areas, repair infrastructures, and upgrade equipment. The main activities include picking up trash, cleaning campsites, repairing infrastructure, and monitoring wildlife. As you complete the tasks, you earn money and experience, which allows you to upgrade and unlock new areas. The loop can end up repetitive after extended play.
The controls are standard for a first-person simulation, with the usual controls and F to interact and the mouse wheel for selection of tools. The controls are beginner-friendly, but are stiff. To interact with objects, you must be extremely close, and the tool switching is not smooth. Overall, the controls are functional and not exceptionally polished.
The setting is mainly a park environment with your forested areas, camp sites, rivers, lakes, and hiking trails. The map feels open yet manageable. The foliage is detailed, with natural terrapin textures. The colour palette emphasises its natural tones, with deep forest greens, earthy browns and other different colours and moods to reflect the different weather conditions. The lighting in the game is a bit too striking, so that you cannot even look at items that are close. It gives a really good effect.
The sound design of the game might be its strongest strength. From the ambient noises of the birds, wildlife and flowing water to the subtle and relaxing music. The audio design allows for an immersive and relaxed play. We encountered many bugs and found the game difficult to play.
We were given a few codes to play the game. Some of the other players had their own comments on the game. First, Sapphire said the following: “There were a lot of things in this game that stopped it from becoming a good game. First, we had several issues with the connection and joining multiplayer lobbies, where it would spawn someone at the ranger hut and the pier at the beginning (which made trekking back to the pier a hassle). There were also several moments where players would randomly disconnect, or if they tried to respawn at the ranger hut, they would glitch out of the world. As a game that has been completely released, this game feels like it should be more in its Early Access phase, as a lot of things need optimisation and fixing. I personally did not like the fact that in multiplayer, if one person bought wood, another bought nails, and another bought a hammer, you could not progress forward with fixing the stairs, as only one person should hold onto all items. Things like this are unclear in the game, and with multiplayer, you would hope they would allow for items to be exchanged and whatnot.
I will say that I did like how the instructions for the assignments were, and you were given quests after another, which allowed the player to do things without feeling too lost. However, saying this, the assignments felt like quite a stretch and would lead to more bugs. For instance, we reached the ‘Clear Tourists Trash’ assignment, and after putting the trash bags into the back of our car, the car shot up into the tree. At that point, you just walk, and the walking drags. There were several moments in the game where we just could not progress further because of an odd bug, which made it annoying to restart again and again. I also just did not like the fact that interactions were just a simple tap, rather than holds, which felt clunky.
You do get a tablet where you get assignments, check your inventory, which is easy enough to use. However, going back to the assignments, most felt like boring tasks that were just a way to earn money that did not serve much purpose either. My first impression of the game was that we would be taking care of the park, but also managing animals; however, you hardly encounter any animals in the game, which was also a letdown.
That being said, the game’s visuals are quite nice. You can enjoy scenic views, and even the dynamic lighting from the change in the sky from day to night is done nicely. The animals have distinct features that make them look realistic. The visuals are, in fact, very beautiful, though the graphics can sometimes blur out the beauty. Additionally, parts of the town have unfinished areas. Like you go into the weapon store to buy a hunting rifle, and the room next to it is just all empty. Personally, I would not really recommend this game, mainly because there are so many things that just do not make for a fun experience.”
Vroggo said the following, “I played multiplayer with two other friends, and the experience was not great. The gathering of supplies at the beginning of the game made it impossible for us to progress since only one person could buy items with no shared inventory, and forced us to reset the game.
The scenery and vibes of the game weren’t that great either. Some views looked and felt good at some points of the game, but then you notice other things as you keep playing. As the towns felt like ghost towns, almost eerie with how there are no NPCs in the streets, you can literally see the transparency grid of the underwater floor, and seeing at night is either almost impossible or like you’re being flash-banged when the front lights of the truck are on.
The game is very buggy, to say the least. Like getting in the open space behind the pick-up truck or putting things in it makes it so that driving is just unpleasant, bumpy, and glitchy. At one point, the truck just launched itself up into the trees after we put some garbage bags in it.”
Park Ranger Simulator is a calm, yet grounded game that has somewhat delivered. The game is not revolutionary, but it’s peaceful.
Overall: 4/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
