H2H7 / [H2H7 Round 3 Match 1] - Itallian Stallions vs Manual Laborers

Babylon-

 

The actual hanging gardens area is outstanding; perfect colors, great texture use, clean detailing, amazing foliage.  You really needed to pull the gardens off for the park to work, and you guys executed it flawlessly.  I love love love how great a job you did at using different plant objects with different textures, a lot of builders don't recognize that you can essentially have a bigger color palette just by using a mix of objects, but you exemplified that as well as I've ever seen.  This was definitely the highlight of the park, but sadly a lot of the rest didn't quite stand up to the gardens.

 

I didn't much care for the large brown tower overall; the detailing was nice, but it looked like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a diagonal building or a perpendicular one (I don't know exactly how to describe what I mean here, with the grid I guess?). I think had you committed to making it diagonal rather than have many corners it would have worked a bit better. I do like the visual queue underneath, though. 

 

Other buildings throughout looked a bit unfinished and under-detailed, which I can understand because of time constraints, but it does hurt the overall park.  I'd say the weakest area of the park was the corner with the canoes and Tiamat, it just doesn't look like it fits with the overall theme, and the buildings don't really come together for a great composition.  

 

Unlike some others who have commented, I really like Ishtar.  I don't know jack about flow, but the colors contrast both the gardens and the light brown tower very well, it really does a good job to connect the 2 areas in the macro, and those interlocking loops are very nice.

 

Overall, this park is very good.  Certain spots are absolutely brilliant, but it just doesn't hold that same quality throughout.

 

 

 

Meizhou-

 

My first thought upon opening the park was "wow that's epic!" and when I zoomed out it looked even more impressive.  But as I looked more, I felt a lot of the same things I felt when looking at Bermuda: I just don't really like the macro colors very much, but I think I figured out why.  It's the combination of grey rock base land, brown vertical faces, and grey brick (plus I despise that mkx tall cc grass object), which combine to make for a dull, drab big picture, although that may have been intentional.  Fortunately the buildings are amazing and make up for the lackluster landscaping.

 

The architecture was phenomenal; you guys used roof trim colors very well to make your buildings pop.  The park layout was damn creative; it literally rose as guests advanced through the park, excellent height variation kept things interesting for a long time.  And the details.  My goodness, everywhere I looked there was more to see.  I really love the flooded city, you pulled it off tremendously.  I also really like that you kept the architecture near the ferris wheel shorter, it made it feel much bigger than it actually was.  At first I thought it was a hacked wheel because it looked so big, it wasn't until I zoomed in that I realized it was the default ride.

 

Yuji is by far the best ride in the park, it has a nice color scheme and the way it flows around the building towers is just great.  

 

I have to agree with someone above about the puke, though.  It's such an easy fix even without handymen that it makes me believe it was intentional.  And if it was intentional, I just don't get it.  

 

Overall, this was also a very good park.  The skill level was much more balanced throughout, but I don't like the lack of vibrancy, my eyes are aching for some color.  I think a readme would have clarified a lot of your inspiration and ideas, because to me the ride names could be totally random and I wouldn't know any better. 

 

 

This is probably the toughest vote yet.  I'll have to do another look around each park before I'm ready to decide.

Why does Trav need a helper to defeat Tim in the coliseum, worried he can't beat us?  

But seriously, one of the closest matchups, love them both a lot. 

I must first say that the Italian Stallions park very much impressed me, and being that expectations are probably the most vital aspect in judging any production.  Therefor my vote and review is probably biased as a result of that, for which I apologize.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon:

Perhaps its my love for history, including ancient history that made me love this park.  The entrance area was wonderful, great atmosphere, architecture, and layout.  I especially enjoyed the building housing the King Nebuchadnezzar ride, which really captures the eye and represents the center of the park.  The blue gate was also a great addition, not only it is true to the real gates at Babylon, it breaks up the brown and whites of the area.  The hanging garden area was excited almost perfectly, the foliage was superb (as was it through the whole park), the flume ride had very interesting elements such as the multiple waterfalls.  Theming of the canoe ride was also very well done, although the layout was a bit odd.  Got to say my least favorite area was the tower of Babel section, the colors simply don’t fit RCT, and I think there was potential missed with the structure itself, maybe a spiral staircase or use of arches as seen in Pieter Bruegel's paintings.  The tower was integrated well into the park, I must say, as was the Arrow coaster, which was probably very difficult given the theme, which I must applaud you for.  Oddly, a PoE vibe was present for me in the park, as PoE featured a river through the center, IOA feel, and similar color scheme for some sections.  This was definitely a much more refined and clean version (and honestly better, very sorry Zach).  What a wonderful park, definitely the best park your team has produced this season, possibly the favorite of mine this season.
 

Meizhou Rising:
 
"Return of the Pagoda (among other things...)" perhaps best describes this park.  Definitely up there with the other great eastern theme parks, not only for its architectural style but for its "uniqueness" and style.  Sadly, the main problem with the park is not the park itself, but rather the other parks of this season.  Boats, again, more boats, water, sunken boats, islands, water...  I wish that these parks would be more isolated in terms of their reception or judgement, because this is obviously a very good park, but I can’t help but say I've seen this before, last week actually.  Sunken boats, also done in Bermuda, Terrain based coaster, Bermuda, you see the point?  I guess this park is essentially the opposite though of Bermuda, which was a tropical city built into and below mountains, where this is an Eastern city built on top of mountains.   Upon viewing the park, I took it upon myself to remove all the water that I could to get a better look at what in my opinion is the strongest aspect of the park, the sunken city.  Much credit is deserved to whoever did this section, as it was my favorite, just a shame it’s covered up by water.  Probably never before has the best part of a park was underwater, so I give the builders credit for that.  It’s just a shame this has been done before so much this season, perhaps I would have liked this much more before H2H, as it is really a quality park for many reason.
 

In the end, with the match being so close, I need to give my vote to the park that well, is simply a better theme/amusement park, if that makes sense.   Maybe it’s the nature of H2H to create the most un-park parks in RCT, which isn’t really in my taste, as in the end, it’s a game about Theme/Amusement Parks before anything else.

Wonderful work by all builders, as we are getting into the heart of the regular season, it’s a good to see each of these teams at their best.

Meizhou Rising

My jar dropped when opening this park... Then I zoomed out and my jar dropped even more! The awesomeness is over level 9000... What's there to say? Don't know, I really really enjoyed this beauty of a park. Archy is topnotch, superb. Atmosphere, every corner of the park has a huge amount of atmosphere. Foliaging and especially landscaping are phenomenal. Coaster layouts are great, the Huashan Edge pops out of course. There's so much to see, I can just keep staring at this park and it doesn't bore me a bit. Kudos for Version1 hating his boat, very funny detail! This park is just... phenomenal...

 

 

Hanging gardens of Babylon

Well it's cool that the opponent of Meizhou is also an atmospheric park and not a random realistic themepark. Also one of a very high level. Archy is also topnotch, just like the foliage and landscaping. That Babylon tower was crazy! For being such a big building it's made so interesting to look at. Ishtar is a great coaster, funny how those interlocking loops look way better in RCT2 than in real life. The hanging gardens look so nice, could imagine myself walking and enjoying the gardens. The darkride was cute, though a bit short but that's understandable you can't spend more tiles on that ride. 

 

 

 

Dayum, best match-up for me... In football, this should be a draw! Which wouldn't be fair either because both these parks deserve to win... This is the hardest one to chose, really don't know. Both of them were amazing and both of them deserve to win. I'll have to think about it. 

Looks to be an awesome matchup! Will hold off on posting thoughts until after voting.

Man both Parks are really great. I like both themes and both teams did an overall impressive job. Meizhou managed to have a lot of water without having a overdone CSO Boat floating around. And it may be the first time I got mentioned in an H2H park. Will probably look at both of them more closely in a video review.

Great matchup roght off the bat!

 

The thing that I liked most about the stallions park was that it was beautifully laid out and the architecture and ride placement was spot on. My biggest problem with the park was it's lack of identity for me, it kinda felt as if it was a fantasy park trying to be built in a realistic fashion and this was very confusing to me. Someof the support work felt very borrowed (the arrow) and that took away a little of the great execution because it was obviously taken from a stream we all followed.

 

overall a great park but I felt like the concept was a little loose on the format, it felt like a realistic park but it didn't hit home on that front and it didn't feel like a truely fantasy style park. this brought it down just a little for me combined with the arrow supports.

 

but other than that a great park that the entire team should be very proud of.

 

Manual laborers

 

ok this was way more clear in what it wanted to be. no pretence of realism, just an all out asain wonderworld that rose from the sea. I loved things like the giant eal, the sunken city parts and everything that was scattered in the water. The diver was cool, had a decent layout and good colour choices, the swinger was cool but missed a little viewpoint clarity although I think that was the aim. the best ride was the launcher, it was beautifully constructed and themed and to this day fallbacks are one of the single hacks I cannot perform myself so tutorial please after this. The tarantula was another great custom peepable flat that I've come to search for in this team's parks. the architecture was stunning in my opinion, I'm a sucker for asian themes and always will be. I have to say though the bridge with the 2 green towers was my favourite bit of the park in general architecture. I also like the fact that you took the asian style and took to another level with more height and daring placement than any real-life counterpart I've seen it's cool that the style inspired you guys instead of opting to copy it alltogether.

 

again a great park from you guys and you guys are starting to become the surprise of the season for me.

 

voting will be very tough for me personally and I don't often have that problem so congrats to both teams for this matchup

And it may be the first time I got mentioned in an H2H park.

Now you can die in peace, knowing you´ve reached everything you wanted in life

 

Meizhou Rising

 

-Great coasters! I liked Huashan Edge the most, but the setting of the Arrow coaster is just awesome. The Divecoaster lacks speed in some places, but the firstdrop looks incredible. Around that tower and through the ship... great work!

-The architecture is amazing, although a bit "too much detail" in the entrance area.

-The landscaping looks fantastic, but I think it may have looked even better if some of the 1k-ruin-things had another shade of brown or some grey.

-Not much foliage to be seen, but I liked what was there. Maybe one or two more shrubs and bushes on the cliffs would have improved the overall look a bit.

-The giant eel is awesome.

-Didn´t like the rapid ride. Just I´m missing the watersplashes and whatever else a rapid ride needs. This looks more like a themed boat-ride to me. The part through the vulcano looks amazing though. It´s just not a rapid ride. If you know what I mean? :/

 

Hanging gardens of Babylon

 

-I really like the coaster! The colours work great on the ride and I really like the layout. Yes, it´s a bit of a one-trick-pony, but I guess of your pony could do a back flip that would be okay with you. The second half of the ride is a lot stronger than the first half though.

-The LogFlume is awesome. Beautiful interaction with the buildings and the foliage. Not sure if it was a good idea to make the part after the big drop invisible. :/

-The gardens looked absolutly flawless. Walto basicly said everything I would have said, so I´ll spare you my version. The only thing bothering me, is the music of the carousel. For me it destroyed all the atmosphere you had in the area. Looks like a beautiful garden, sounds like a amusement fair (Kirmes in german, dont know if fair is the right word here).

-I really like the tower and it´s surroundings. Like in the laborers park, I think a little bit more colour (darker brown mostly) could´ve made the backdrop look better. Right now it´s just a brown tower infront of brown stones, if you know what I mean. That said, the tower itself is amazing. The same goes for the buildings leading up to the tower

-The TopSpin is awesome. Reminds me of Talocan

-The buildings near the harbour look great

-The big buildings in the middle between the harbour and the entrance look great, but out of place. they dont really fit into the rest of the park I think.

-Another problem was, as BelgianGuy said, the mix between being a fantasy creation and adding details of a realistic park. Now it´s neither a pure fantasy map, but it´s not really working as a theme park either. That killed a lot of the atmosphere for me.

 

Overall a great matchup! Both parks had some awesome things to see and everyone working on these parks should be proud of themselves.

Overall great matchup!

This one seems to be very hard to choose. Two very good parks. Will post reviews when I explored both parks some more.

I don't find it hard to pick a winner. While both parks are very good, Italian Stallions' park, while flawed, is in my eyes clearly superior.

 

Meizhou Rises is of a very high technical level but it doesn't do anything to me. It didn't hold my attention really long and after going around the park once I didn't really feel like visiting again. Huashan Edge was the only thing that really interested me. Really cool concept and execution. Overall your park just felt a bit samey overall. Areas didn't really distinguish from each other.

75%

 

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon though, was a really cool concept and a very good execution. Honestly I wasn't too fond of the two layouts in your park, which was the only downside for me. The Log Flume had some interesting parts but that large underground part was a bit of a cheat. Ishtar just felt too long.

85%

Meizhou Rising
Concept:
Asian temple theme meets lost island isn't done often, but basically this park is mixing Lijiang with any lost island theme, so I'm not sure it works. The concept of being partly underwater is good and helps the park being a little more inventive concept-wise. But still I think more background-info would be good.
Macro (Park Impression):
The park looks really impressive from afar, with a lot of pagodas and dramatic elevation changes. The colors give it a slightly dark, menacing feel to it (maybe because of the huge amount of land spikes and black roofs). More foliage and less buildings would have helped to add at least a little bit of green in there, plus some more colored buildings like you had already.
Rides:
Huashan Edge was a nice little ride, love stuff like this! A little bit undersupported and glitchy because of the many track types, but still an awesome ride. Loved the little island it sits on and backward loops are always great! Queue was a bit short and hidden but it worked, whereas Fenghuang's queue was really nice going in and out the mountain. The lifthill, curve, firstdrop and diveloop combo around the scenery was really spectecular and well done. The clearances could be a little bit wider (it's a dive machine after all), but that's ok. Great rockwork and solid coaster layout. The colors of the coasters were also very nice. Yujiwas the least exciting ride, but still had a nice feel going around those massive towers. Queue was nice but short again. The rapid ride was nice but missing some kinde of rapid elements or a somewhat realistic channel. I also disliked that the mini coaster was visible. The custom flat added something unique to the park and was a nice idea. A shame some of the rides don't have ratings (avoid this by hacking rides that don't return to the station last).
Architecture:
I think there are too many temple buildings on this island, making it difficult to focus which part is more important than the other. Some sort of normal non-pagoda or temple buildings would have been good IMO. I mean the architecture was really impressive, but it was nearly too much in some parts (especially near the suspended coaster), you couldn't really tell if you're looking at one or two buildings because of the isometric view and the similar colors and forms they had.
Micro (Details):
I really loved the sunken structures, the harbor area and the towers, although there were a bit too much I think. The entrance tower was massive and I liked that little storage underneath. What I also disliked was some of the naming of the park and the feeling of missing the concept/idea behind it in the park itself. Why did the water rise? What's the backstory? Also the naming of the staff and some of the rides & stalls didn't really shine IMO. Poor rowing boat guys

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Concept:
Not really a new concept either, esepecially since it's been done nearly to perfection already. But still it had a modern approach to it and seemed to be part of a theme park.
Macro (Park Impression):
The park has a nice mix of colors of brown from the tower (the main eye-catcher), orange and teal of the coaster (which worked nicely) and white and green of the hanging gardens.
Rides:
Ishtar was clearly the main ride of the park and it was nice to see something else than a B&M to be the main coaster. I loved the support work of it and the interlocking loops as well, although I think placing them over the path isn't such a good idea IMO - I think this element works best being placed in a pit, over water or a canyon, but that's just my preference. Great how you timed the loops when opening the park (should be on every circle, though). Layout and ride details like transfer track were really nice - the queue as well. Good job! Babylon was a solid log flume - maybe a bit too long and the queue was a bit lackluster, so it has room for improvement. The little canoe darkride on the other hand could have been longer and maybe use 2-3 more scenes, but it was nice nontheless. Tower of babylon, the circus and the simulator rides added to the theme and were nicely executed. I didn't really like the other flatrides, they could've stand out a bit more IMO. But the custom ship was nice although nothing new again.
Architecture:
The palace building was nice but a bit too much like the darkride in Tivoli from H2H6 in my opinion. The souvenir building was really nicely done, was my favorite in the park IMO although its entrance could've been more prominent. Some of the other structures were a little bit cluttered but well crafted I think. I really liked the tower of babylon and the hanging gardens, they really stood out IMO. Also good idea to show some interiors.
Micro (Details):
The park was filled with nice ideas to explore for a longer time than Meizhou did. Stuff like the construction of the tower, path details, interiors and the custom sign (although missing an 'h') were really nice touches. Also the attention to detail in terms of naming of staff and stalls was better.

Good work both teams and one of the harder matches so far.

"MFG"

I opened the Italian Stallions' park and was blown away. Then I opened the Manual Laborers' park and now I can't decide. Thanks Obama.

Time for my point of view

 

Meizhou Rising:

Positive:

-The drop coaster is brilliant, nice layout and beautful colours. One of my favourite coasters I've seen this H2H

- Atmosphere I find very important in RCT2, and this park definitly has it. I admire the way how the style and architecture in the park is very consistent, yet every building has unique features and looks different. From my personal experience, I find achieving this very difficult, so everyone who accomplishes this, my compliments.

-Huashan Edge is an amazing example of hacking, I know for sure I wouldn't be able to do something like that. First I thought "another launch coaster...", but I was pleasantly surprised when at the and of the track it started going backwards... Awesome!

 

Negative:

- Some people complained about the vomit. Not really a big problem with, yet when I saw what they meant, I do have to agree.

-Again, like others said, a backstory would really have helped. The names are not very clear, nor the fact why some of the buildings are submerged, and others are just standing on a huge rock...

-And now I'm just nitpicking, but personally, I think they've overused the argonath splash object. Not really a big drawback, but sometimes it just looks a bit weird.

 

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Positive

-Talk about great coaster interaction! Wow, I've never seen two loopings interact like that! That was just brilliant! Also again, big fan of the colours.

-The execution of those gardens is amazing. They've managed to make a big part of the park prettymuch just foliage, without making it boring, by adding tons of details, and nice architecture. Well done!

-Unlike some other people, I really do like the tower. I didn't expect to see it, and it was a nice feature. Also, the colour of it is fine.

-The log flume was a pretty nice, and very well integrated into the whole.

 

Negative

-I don't know how to look at this park. It seems to have a bit of an identity crisis. Is it realism or fantasy? I would say fantasy, but then I see things like game galleries, a transfer track and a shop for onride photos... I'm a bit confused.

-Personal nitpick: not a fan of unneccesary layers on coaster. Why the other layer on the arrow? It just looks a bit weird in my opinion.

 

Conclusion: this one is going to be very difficult to vote on, as both parks are very well executed, and each one has a very different setting, feel and form.

Maybe because I know the backstory I was a little too quick to think of it as obvious. Although the park description does say "The sea swallowed the island. Meizhou rose." and that's kind of all the backstory you need...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSif7L0_dfI

These video reviews are basically like a full scale aerial but even more detailed, aren't they? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that you do them but they might be better after the voting process, same as the aerials.

I spoke to the admins before the contest started and we agreed on doing the videos as soon as possible.

If they change their mind, all they have to do is write me a message and we will stop/delay them, or whatever the problem is.

Okay, then I havent said anything

 

Reviews are coming later

I would have just cut the first 2:10 or so... kinda awkward...