Round Robin

The diegetic underground: Shadrach Stuart's secret subterranean sanctuary, or: a study in themes canonically indoors for the modern amusement park, featuring the impossible Underwater Base; the dazzling Glowing Forests; and the mysterious Yellowstone Caverns...

VS

Logan's Brewery

Review time as i got a moment.

 

Manlabs way to long name so im not going to even try typing it out...

- Hilarious CUSTOM1.wav so are the sounds once you get past the audiobook.

- Great scenes:

-- the whale & lobster are cool.

-- Geyser Cave Mine Inc is nice

- Deep Sea explorer is nice as is the

Drafonfly River (woodlands) is the weaker part, but overall still very nice

 

 

Logan's Brewery

- Smart land-layout helps the park feeling

- Awesome static railyard (Jappy will drool)

- Amazing architecture (im a sucker for the brick look)

- overall the park feels so natural, Realism works here very well

 

 

I dont know guys. this one is a tough one. Both are great entries. and i will have to revisit before voting later

The -blablabla didn't read too long park - Manual Laborers

What's up with the name ^ ^ But the way too long name is my only complaint, as soon as I opened the park I knew I was gonna love it. Have to say the custom music - aka mini podcast - is a great way to exlain the parks idea. The first thing that caught my attention are the insane sculptures of the whale and giant squid! Really awesome work on that. That museum hall is a great hub to all the zones which all look spectacular. The western is really nice, there's so much going on there and even walking around there would be a ride on its own. Great landscaping too in the park and also the foliage makes it so good. Maybe one complaint: I wish Deep Sea Explorer was a bit more visible, it's a bit too hidden away imo. Awesome park and def up with my fav parks of H2H9.

 

 

 

Logans Brewery - Logans Run

Another proof of the batshit high quality this H2H. Archy is topnotch, very detailed with interesting textures and yet amazingly clean. A prime example of how archy should be done. I applause you guys for doing a Gerstlauer infinity coaster a la Karnan. Gerstlauer gets way too less love so I find your choice to do one quite brave. I also dig the green colors a lot. Extra kudos for even adding the Karnan lift effect! Whoever didn't notice the lift of this coaster, keep an eye on it please   I also liked the woodie and the log flume was great. Overall this park is so clean yet with much details. 

 

 

This match is impossible to chose a winner from, none of these parks deserves to loose... I decided to give my vote to Man Lab because the theme is a bit more daring and harder to execute which they did great. 

Mrs walto reviews r4m3

Hi friends, if there's an award for reviewer of the year, vote for me. I don't have much else to add today, hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Diabetes Underground
- (laughing at audio)
- (laughing at audio)
- (cracking up at audio)
- their laughing makes me laugh
- Disney executive needs a bit of help
- it looks like Bioshock!
- hahaha where's mickey gonna fit in this?
- vote for us hahaha he might have just convinced me
- so I have several comments on the audio. It make me laugh out loud several times (no further comments)
- hold on I gotta get high first. Ahh coffee and THC oil, breakfast of champions
- oh look a little museum aquarium
- I like the whale
- the voiceover really made the park for me, cause it feels like a bunch of different themes that don't go together, but the voiceover made things make a lot of sense
- Bioshock, Greek bath, Yellowstone, none of those things go together but I like it
- hehe Ryan industries, nice, they should have said would you kindly vote for this park
- if they built a big daddy I would've laughed
- cutaway view now.. not quite as much stuff as I thought there would be, random garage, I wonder why that is, some things happen I guess
- this park is fun. The voiceover makes it, otherwise I wouldn't really know what they were going for

Loganbrau
- hehe I like the sign
- oh a little dog cutout.. woof
- first impression is this is really polished
- interesting rock elements, not sure I like them but that's nitpicky
- let's go inside using our favorite: cutaway view
- really nice architecture
- little cafeteria, waiting in line, plane inside, okay little brewing tanks with the little beer, little outdoor area, okay
- I'm a little underwhelmed by the brewery interior
- it feels polished, i'm not sure what it's missing if anything... Too many buildings that aren't doing anything? (Guess she's not a realism fan)
- little movie theater, okay there's some detail in here
- what's the word for when it's too polished? I like it but it feels too on the nose. Maybe I'm being too harsh on this one, it just didn't quite strike for me and I'm not sure why
- it's good but I'm bored. It's parks that look too much like cities and not enough like parks, a main town that's mainly architecture is okay but I wish it felt more alive
- it feels like I'm looking at SimCity and not rct, I want it to feel more alive and fun

Title so long it goes underground:
 

A neat park, you managed to combine 3 areas (and an entrance) in a convincing manner. Each of the themes were pretty clear and well done. I thought the spinning coaster was a bit on the long side but that's ok. The roof inside the indoor park I thought was questionable but it worked compositionally so I can't fault that. I see some parallels to what Spacecrabs was trying to achieve with Ghibli Studios, and I think everyone will agree this one has a bit more breathing room.

 

Logan's train museum:

These are the most detailed trains I've ever seen, and I particularly liked the Disneysea trams, although I question whether or not a brewery would be able to snag Disney rolling stock twice. The tank car also stood out to me. The food stands in the boxcars were odd because their floors are 4' above the rails, and I don't see a platform for people to stand on and order. The logflume layers was cool too. That said, it felt a bit lifeless for some reason, and that inhibited it a lot to me.

The Diegetic Underground

-EXCELLENT landscaping.

-Brilliant interactive moments throughout, especially the spinning mine coaster wrapping around the oil-derrick tower thinger.

-Sea creature sculptures are very nicely done

-Coaster layouts are very flowy! It's just hard to see them at some angles.

-The foliage at the back of the map is super lush, I love the extra effort in those trees.

-The Atlantian area is ace. 

Logan's Brewery

-Kärnan 2.0 has a freaking siiiiiiiick layout. And those custom supports? Sheeeeeeeesh.

-Mini GG coaster has a nice lil' layout! A great supporting coaster.

-Log flume is EXCELLENT.  Second-best water ride this entire contest imo, and those custom vehicles for it enhance the experience a little too well.

-The overall architecture is just stunning.

-The little restaurant hiding under Kärnan 2.0 is both well executed and extremely well placed.

-Those custom trains and vehicles duuuuuuuude.

 

Doggo's Beero was a bit more safe, but it was executed so well, in addition to the interactive coaster layout and custom vehicles, which is why it got my vote.  I feel like this is going to be a great matchup!

A park themed to beer - great way to kick of the weekend.

I feel the park was was rather built on the safe side, which is always a little dangerous in H2H. Good coasters, good architecture, good supporting water ride, great railway wagons - and everything on its own is certainly on a very high quality level. To me the atmosphere and the alive feeling was missing a little bit, which is the only downside of the park to me.

 

The underground park - I am not sure you guys missed we have readme files. No need to put the full readme into the file name.

When first opening the park I saw these WW/TT landscaping objects - probably the #1 object on my personal dislike list. You managed to make them look really good though which comes as a nice surprise.

The general park layout is very clever for a H2H size map. I really liked the theme and the atmosphere of this one. Some areas were a little hard to follow, but this did not take away from the overall atmosphere for me. 

 

Voted the park with the probably longest name in NE history. 

Man, you guys just don't make it easy. This was by far the most difficult vote of the contest so far for me, I thought both parks were excellent: creative, super detailed, refined, and loads of fun to explore. I hate that one park is going to lose because they're both great.

 

 

Diabetic

+/- I had to rename the zip file to open the park, but the super long name fits with the theme

+ I thought it was really clever to break the fourth wall the way you did. It feels freeing to not focus so much on a grand idea, but instead to build a park that reflects how it might be used/received in real life. I bet it was a blast to build, totally unencumbered by cohesion, guided only by imagination

+ Despite the themes themselves being somewhat random, I thought the overall design came together surprisingly well. You can tell it's an indoor park with distinct areas, it feels very much like the type of rct park we'd see in the early days with all the added bells and whistles of today's game. I love it

- it's super dense and finished, but there wasn't as much to see as I expected. A not insignificant amount of the park is rocks, empty theming, or trees, when it's peeled away the skeleton is fairly basic

+ the audio file is brilliant. It's so funny and entertaining while doing an incredible job at describing the park. I can feel the motivation for it: "it's a fucking cool park with random ideas, here's a story attached, get over it, I'm tired and wanted to build something cool without thinking too much" I wish I could use that approach for lots of things in life

+ awesome whale and squid sculptures, that whole atrium area is awesome, I can totally imagine being there in real life

+ The architecture is so good, there are so many distinct styles in each area but you've managed to nail them every time

 

 

Logan's Brewery

+ I wish this place was real, everything about it is so incredibly charming

+ Incredible main street architecture, love the beer glass sculpture, the backstage areas are believable, I love the repurposed train cars

+ the main brewery building itself is stunning, really lovely exterior design. Rooftop area is believable

+ Believable is really the best word for the entire park, this is exceptional realism. Everything about it is spot on, with tons of well-placed small details and beautiful design choices throughout

+ Keg spin is so cool, so clean, no idea how you did it. Love the main train entrance sign. Fun cameos for the first three LR parks

+ I'm struggling to find any real critiques of the park, it's so incredibly clean and detailed, it feels like something we'd see from Pac or gee, this is up there with best realism I've seen.

- I guess one thing is that it feels a bit lifeless. 800 peeps isn't very many for a park this size, main street feels way emptier than I imagine it would in real life, likewise the interiors are nice but don't have much going on inside. Hard to imagine a place like this not overflowing with happy drunks

 

 

Like I said, this was the toughest vote of the contest for me. I loved Diegetic, it was so much fun and I admired the liberating style, but Logan's Brewery was just right on the nose for me. The colors, detail, cleanliness, and atmosphere are outstanding, I'll probably come back to this one over and over again for inspiration.

Once again a great match up. Two very evenly matched parks imo.

 

Logan's brewery

This park is really great and I love how it's not overly filled to the brim with crap yet still has a bunch of nice details. My favourite part about this park was probably all the little trains and that subway car on the raised track to the right of the park entrance. They were very well done and look cute. I also thought the airplane which can be viewed with the cut-away view in the brewery was pretty cool. The coaster layout of the Karnan insipred layout was very cool. I like how the first drop has windows in this case, which the real life counterpart does not have. My favourite bit of the coaster was probably the turn around around the light house. Just made for a very atmospheric scene. The log flume area was cool although maybe a bit messy texture wise.The wooden coaster was cool but it also felt like it did not really contribute much to the overall map. The biergarten on top of the brewery was super nice as well as the signage there. If I would have to point out one flaw in this park it is that some parts of the map feel kind of dead because there are no guests in these areas. The aforementioned biergarten is an example, there are almost no guests walking around there. Same for the area with the river boat, there are just no guests there.

 

Dieglectic underground etc.

This park is really cool also albeit a bit overwhelming in places. My favourite thing on the map is probably the whale sculpture. It reminds me a lot of when I was in the Natural history museum in New York city and it looks great overall. The rest of the park is super busy but filled with fun things to watch. My favourite area was by far the yellowstone area even though it reminds me absolutely nothing of yellowstone and it reminds me more of something like the grand canyon or the national parks near Moab in Utah. I thought the coaster was super cool and unique and the crane with the log flume also looked really cool. The avatar area was also super cool with the giant dragonfly and the small robots. The trees were also very well done here, which says a lot for me because I usually think these large trees look very poorly when made in rct. The underwater area is cool but a bit too messy for my taste. It is too difficult to see what is going on in a lot of places and it becomes hard to read. The submarine was however excellent and I also love the Gondola loading platform. I think the way you made the cutaway view for the building was quite well done. It looks like a believable cut-away view and it looks very realistic. I thought the readme being in the custom music was super funny, although I do think that near the end it was devolving into too much of just laughing and random stuff too the point where the funny aspect kind of wore of for me. But overall it was very funny. Only minor nitpick is that you can see the entrance building for the ride that plays the custom music from one angle.

 

In the end this was a really difficult choice for me as both parks are really good and they are about evenly matched for me. But in the end I decided to go with the manlabs park.

Man, this vote is almost impossible for me.  I absolutely adore Logan's Brewery, feels like a place I'd totally want to visit and spend $7 on a awful IPA while chilling on the rooftop bar on a sunny n sweaty night not too different from this one.  Combined with some wonderful coasters and rides, a trendy little main street (which is a fantastic addition to a brewery like this) and some lovely frontiery style buildings to explore, it just creates a fantastic little product.  Didn't even mention the trainyard which is just a fantastic little idea that the instagramers would probably love.  Perhaps it would be a bit too touristy for my linking though, could almost feel the tacky little tours and sticky menus percolating in the map here.  Which makes me think that that that awful IPA might be closer to $10 than $7 which makes me kind of sad and hate the whole idea because that's just way too much for me when I can get a wonderful Leinenkugel Summer Shandy on draft next door to my home for only $5.  However, then I notice how theres really not many guests here, honestly its kinda empty peep wise, the paths are a little dull too and even empty, which sorta hurts the atmosphere charm and believability the longer I look at things.  But then I remember it might still be Covid times wherever this brewery is located so it make a bit more sense I guess.

 

All in all, despite all that fun, RCT wise theres some great stuff here, and some more averagey stuff here so I'm not too sure if I actually like it a whole lot as a H2H park.  Its a great little concept with tons of cool ideas, perhaps just not executed as well as the park it's going up against.

 

Anyways, moving on too the other park, which I'll just call the Dense Indoor Park for now.  I loved the audio readme, just a much better way of actually getting the experience for this kinda park than a text one, since I can listen and view the park at the same time.  Personally I can't read a readme and view the park at the same time so as a whole I definitely prefer the combination you've chosen.  Maybe a little goofy but suspecting who the main builder was here it makes a ton of sense, and I kinda love it.  Just fun that you could take such a standard staple of high tier RCT and make it fresh and fun.  If it was just a normal run of the mill readme I'd probably not even consider it during my vote, so good on you guys there.

 

Moving onto the park itself, while its not something I can connect with on a conceptual level quite as much as its opponent, its got some absolutely fantastic bits of RCT.  Loved the little bioshock nods, something I've always wanted to see in RCT and very glad we've gotten a bit of both of those worlds during the last two rounds.  The more naturey area in the back is probably some of the best micro I've seen in any park (honestly can be said about the whole thing here) and just makes me really love it.  The whole build in cutaways are also something you handle quite well and I'm glad you didn't force us to use the cutaway tool just to see the park (but i also like that some bits require you to use it to fully explore.  The cave area is also quite special I think, totally reeks of atmosphere and definitely gives off the "built in an artificial indoor space" sort of vibe which is really fun.  The more infrastructure type bits of the park are also quite well done too, lots of flowy paths and believable little sections and areas I could totally believe being translated into a real park.

 

As a whole, probably a better bit of RCT than the opponent, and while I truly loved both and this is probably the hardest vote of the season (maybe of any H2H match I've voted on) I just feel like I got to go with ManLabs here.  Since its probably the better pure example of RCT I think I'd rather vote for it with it being so close and something I'll look back on and not regret as much.

Glad to see a round with some actual RCT again for a change instead of parks imported from completely different games

 

The diabetic Underground

 

The podcast is amazing. Friggin' hilarious. Some good play with custom audio this season, so cool! I love the different themes that are featured here, they form a really cool mix. the central hallway with the whale and squid are a great touch and really well made. My favorite area must be the nautical one, with the gondola dark ride and the yellow sub. 

 

Yet some parts again are a bit too busy for my liking, like the canyon area. It feels a bit cramped in places not really making it easy or fun to look at. This does have a plus side though, that you really have to take your time to view the park and discover new things all around. 

 

I'd say that this is high up as one of my favorite parks this season. It feels and looks like a fun piece of RCT and I really enjoyed it. Well done! Also, that name.

 

Logan's Choo Choo Beer garden.

 

If TDUSSSSSOASITCIFTMAPFTIUBTDGFATMYC (gotta work on that) is one of my favorites this season, this def is up there. And no, not for the reason you might think. We'll get to those later...

 

A brewery theme park, what a fun idea. The whole concept of this feels relaxed and the park sort of feels like that. Everyhting is nicely composed, there's room for exploration and the map isn't filled to the brim with content, even though there's more than you may initially think.

Love this style of archy, always a win for me. The main street feels atmospheric and somewhere I'd love to visit. The interiors are cool too. The brewery itself is great. The interiors add a lot, though I think the production line floor could've used some movement to go it that little extra.

 

Train yard: well whadda ya think, ofc I love this. All very well made and nicely done, very little remarks here. 

 

Biggest gripe: perhaps I'm blind but looking in the staff list, there's no mention of me in the railyard? NE's resident steam train enthusiast? The hell guys!

The Diegetic Underground:

That audio file is hilarious! I do like the concept for this park, but I think that even though it's intentionally supposed to be kind of messy and not fit together, it has some serious readability issues. In individual sections most of this park is pretty fantastic, but at certain points it can become hard to view. For example, I had a very hard time following the river rapids. This is just one of those parks, in my opinion, that needs some more breathing room. Alright, I'm done being negative now. My favorite section was the cavern. Those mine buildings were awesome and the spinning coaster is low key one of my favorite coasters this season so far. The giant whale and squid were also killer, awesome stuff there. Overall, I think this park had a fun concept but was just a bit too tightly packed for my tastes. There is no denying, though, that this is quite a nice park that deserves praise. Great work Man Labs!

 

Logan's Brewery:

This park is just so clean, which is why it ultimately gets my vote. The Karnan inspired coaster is absolutely amazingly well done, especially since it has that crazy hack where it drops down that tower! Awesome stuff there. There is also of course the giant brewery, which I loved the look of. The textures used and the rooftop garden were great. The plane inside was also super nice. And then there's the steamboat! Yaas Queen! lol. My favorite details in this park are the custom locomotive and train cars that were converted into food stalls. There's also the different sections of the park, such as the city style entrance and western log flume. They were very nice, too. The log flume layout especially was near-perfect in my book. Awesome work Logan's Run!

Two amazing parks here, really enjoyed them both. I'm voting for the Diegetic Underground, which sounds like a Wes Anderson film.

I don't have enough time for one of my usual reviews; but these parks definitely deserve the attention.

 

TDUSSSSS...I give up

 

This is a blast; I love the voiceover. Genuinely hilarious at points, and I was laughing aloud a few times. I appreciated the take on an indoor park while being easy to view. Each theme is really well fleshed out, and I can picture myself anywhere in this park. Not Rapture was my favorite bit, even though the sub's too fat. The animal sculptures were fantastic. The whole thing really feels like DisneySea and I really love DisneySea, so there you go. Parts of the park can be a bit much visually, but having grown up with Mall of America - I really don't mind the density and how it all comes together. It suits the theme and that works for me.

 

Logan's Brewery

 

Very clean and well composed. I think my favorite part was the flume ride. The coaster itself was great, too. A lot of the little self referential details and some of the small things (billboards, the tap, the markings from the vehicles into the garages) were all really well done. Probably also some of the best trains we've seen thus far. I think what held me up a little bit is that it almost felt like this was set just after the height of the pandemic; I'm not sure if it's just because there aren't many peeps in general, but I felt a little bit like certain parts of the park were lacking in activity compared to others, and it was a bit of a strange contrast. The way the main structure was positioned given its height made it a little hard to appreciate certain angles of the main street, and maybe that contributed to this feeling.

The Diegetic Underground...:
My favorite part of this is that big midway with the huge whale and giant squid hanging from the ceiling, the whale and squid look great and would be so impressive to see after going down the escalator. A great entrance plaza as well. Readability was an issue for me with the themed areas, some great moments in them though, especially the river rapids and the spinning coaster.

Logan's Brewery:
A very clean and well executed park, with a tone of great details throughout. The lighthouse (And the great coaster interaction with it, such a great scene), the full detailed interiors, the paddlewheel boat, and some of the best, most accurate trains I've ever seen in RCT. The coasters have solid layouts and great supports, and the log flume is fantastic as well.
 

Two great parks, both full of excellent parkmaking, congrats to everyone involved. 

 

Diegetic kinda feels like an homage to H2H parks of the past. Modern construction, but a very old school 'multiple themed areas' approach, each crammed with details galore. The audio file was interesting (leak potential aside) but a bit unnerving, felt like my own inner monologue to be honest. This park was filled with amazing quality and amazing execution of great park-based ideas. I love the different areas, the different styles, and all the smaller framings and moments held within. The coasters were a bit hard to follow, and the macro is like someone pulled the hoodie strings around Magic Kingdom, but there was an inherent sense of fun and a fresh approach to the styles held within that made this more captivating to me.

 

Logan's Brewery was pretty much equal in quality of content and quality of execution. I'm a huge fan of the architecture and smaller compositions of buildings, particularly in the entrance area. The main brewery itself feels a little boxy but also wonderfully rich in detail and very believable. The coasters weren't my favorite layouts, but the way they've been integrated more than made up for that. From a technical standpoint, there really isn't anything to complain about here other than some intense glitching along the front of the brewery.

 

Ultimately, I went with ML's park because it had a sense of fun and atmosphere that felt a little absent from Logan's Brewery. The micro-composition of the brewery was ace, but it sometimes felt a bit stale, like it needed something to make it feel more lively and engaging. Also, while ML's park was clearly a handful of desperate themes, it found a more charming and whimsical way to weave them together while I felt there was a slight disconnect between the Brewery building and the surroundings. Like someone smash landed a brewery in between Mainstreet USA and Splash Mountain. 

 

Congrats again to the builders, this feels like an appropriately close matchup, excited to see how things shake out!

So... as I was writing my reviews my laptop randomly decided to reboot making me lose all progress. Perhaps in the future I'll rewrite them. For now shorties.

 

Logan's Run: Good park. No big surprises after the name and screen. Excelled in atmosphere as has been one of your team's strong suits. Perhaps my favorite park of yours. Favorite ride was Boozlantis. Kind of a bummer that it was partially blocked by the tower with the (beautiful doggo) mural.

 

Diegetic Underground: Extremely dense, but surprisingly in a good way. Thought the amount of content you have fit in this map while still keeping everything legible was really impressive. My favorite area was the Glowing Forests.

 

In the end I decided to vote for ManLabs. Their park entertained me more and longer. It was still a difficult decision. The parks went in a very different direction which made it difficult to compare them.

Match Conclusion

The poll is now closed.

The Manual Laborers have won this match with a score of 31–26 .

Creators

To explain my 1% contribution...

 

 

... I joined the park late to become the treeman haha.