I didn’t really know what to expect going into Ranger’s Path: National Park Simulator. It looked pretty chilled, but the name makes it sound like one of those quite dry, checklist-heavy simulators where you’re just ticking things off and not really thinking about it too much.
It’s not that. Not really.
A couple of hours in, with some chilled tunes playing in the background, it sort of clicked into place as a wander-round-and-sort-things-out-em-up (it’ll catch on), and that’s where it’s at its best.
You’re dropped into a pretty enormous national park and pretty much left to get on with things. There’s a bit of structure in the form of jobs coming through over the radio from your operator, but you’re never really pushed in any one direction. If you want to head off and fix a few broken benches or replace some signs (which is a prominent feature of the opening moments), you can. If you fancy wandering further out and seeing what else is going on, that works just as well.
Despite that early impression of it being a bit of a fix-em-up, the concern doesn’t last too long. It starts there, with the smaller maintenance jobs, but before long you’re doing a lot more: checking permits, dealing with campers who shouldn’t be there, tracking down animals, even rescuing the odd lost hiker. It opens up nicely without ever feeling like it’s throwing too much at you.
There are moments where the park feels a little quiet, but that actually suits it. It’s clearly aiming for a slower pace, where you’re just taking your time and seeing what you come across rather than constantly chasing the next objective. And really, if you were constantly bombarded with visitors, rogue animals and whatever else every 3 metres it would end up getting a bit intense, and that’s not what this is all about. I really like is how relaxed it all feels… there’s no real pressure, no constant sense that you’re falling behind. You just pick something to do, head off in that direction, and see what happens along the way. It’s very easy to lose a couple of hours without really noticing, and I don’t think that would be the case if things were considerably busier around the place.
It helps that it’s a nice place to spend that time as well. The park looks good, there’s enough variety to keep things interesting, and it just feels like somewhere you want to wander through rather than rush past. There’s often something in the not-too-distant distance the looks like it’s worth exploring, so for those like me who just loves to wander round and discover stuff, it’s a nice place to be.
Being Early Access, it’s worth keeping expectations in check. There isn’t loads of depth to the systems yet, and you can see where things are likely to be expanded over time, but what’s here already is solid, and more importantly, it’s enjoyable. I’ve played Early Access titles that feel far less polished, that’s for sure.
I’ve found myself dipping in for an hour or two at a time, sticking something on in the background and just seeing where I end up. For a game that didn’t really grab me in the first half hour, that’s probably the biggest compliment I can give it. If you’re after something loud and intense, this isn’t it, but if you want something a bit more relaxed where you can just take your time and potter about, occasionally fixing a campsite or giving visitors a bollocking for not having the right visitor permit, this is well worth a look even in its current Early Access guise.