Screenshot / #fbf: Islands of Enchantment
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11-March 16
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Islands of Enchantment
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Possibly the most underrated spotlight of all time.
IoE has probably been copied more than any other spotlight in existence, with the possible exception of RoB.
Not sure what it is but the 2004-2005 era RCT2 spotlights just don't do anything for me. They all just seem similar and feel like a mess of ideas without much thought or refinement put into them. The styles dont really seem to differ all that much either to set any of them apart. I could probably look at a small portion of IoE, Isole, PoM, or Bijiou and not be able to tell them apart. Bijiou is definitely the most unique of the three, its much less detailed than the others and lacks a lot of the content as well.
Kind of represent a transition period in my mind, and probably one of the crucial times in NE development. Just a blur really on the spotlight timeline, especially when it comes to RCT2. Both the parks after and even before these are much more distinguishable in my mind and are much more uniquely memorable.
It's almost like attempts to best RoB by increasing the detail level and using more unique theme's that seems to bring the parks down. RoB just masters the balance of every element much better than these parks did, probably due to detail requirements imposed by the builders on themselves.
Really the only areas that stand out are oddly the two Intamin Mega coaster areas in artist's spotlights. The Dino area in IoE is definitely my favorite part of all 4 of these parks.
Not saying these parks are bad, just for me kind of a weak era in RCT2 spotlights for me. I specifically say spotlights because parks like SW Brisbane, Mamba Kilima, Slime Meridian, Solaris, and many of the slightly earlier LL spotlights are among my favorite parks ever. For whatever reason I kind of prefer the Steve and Faceman "ripoff" versions of this architecture and parkmaking style.
^ I'm on the other end of the scale G-force, I like this better than the realism trend that hit rct2. I'm impressed by the realistic builders, and what they can do, but IoE style is right up my alley. I'm building in the wrong decade!
yeah I prefer this style to the middle-area stuff like watkin's woods, spellbrook shore, etc. I used to spend a looot of time checking out these parks so they're also high on nostalgia I guess
Chris is a nice guy and was a skilled active parkmaker, but imo one of the most overrated. The guy was a copy machine and changing his member name from Nemesis Chris to Artist was really a joke.
Still, I really enjoy IoE and do think it's a great park (tho PoM is the worst RCT2 NE Spotlight ever). I mean he does use a lot of influence from JKay, John, Turtle and sloB in IoE, but he mixed it up and got creative enough to make a real worthy NE Spotlight winner.