Ranger's Path: National Park Simulator is two things: a mouthful to say and a compelling park ranger simulator. It’s a does what it says on the can kind of game where you fill the shoes of a park ranger and restore Faremont National Park to greatness by fixing up trails, helping park-goers, and responding to various happenings around the park. If the wording there seems a little passive, that’s because it’s meant to. This is not an intense game; it’s a chill simulation with essentially no stakes and tons of relaxing content to dig into, so let's jump into it, shall we?
There isn’t much in the way of plot here. You get a character select screen where you can choose between masculine or feminine body types, then you’re presented with three face presets to choose from for each. You get a quick cutscene of driving into Faremont National Park, where you hear the welcoming voice of Effy Morales. She’s the omnipresent park matron who knows what’s wrong at all times and directs you to deal with it. Before that, though, you’ll need to grab your outfit and a radio. Once those are equipped, you’re a park ranger. Congrats! You’ve got a ranger's watch with the time, a minimap, and a compass; a camera for taking pictures of wildlife, flora, and landmarks; and a tablet with a larger map of the park, a glossary that provides details on what you’ve photographed, and a missions list to keep track of what you’re doing and what needs to be done. You’re kitted out.
It’s time to get to work, and there’s a lot of work to be done. There are many, many trails to fix up. Every trail has a number of tasks that need to be completed, and each task has an accompanying mini game. You’ll do some carpentry, cut apart and chop up fallen trees, re-paint old benches, pick up trash, and more! You’ve got a tool for every situation, all of which are accessible from an action wheel. I like how there are animations for all of the tasks, like waving the spray paint or winding up to chop with your axe. The little details matter a lot in these simulator-type games.
Getting tasks done gives you XP, which increases your Ranger level, thus prompting Effy to send you on various missions. They’re not massive, action-packed adventures; they’re the down-to-earth responsibilities that you would expect a park ranger to handle. Maybe a storm damaged a nearby bridge, and you have to survey the site and do some repairs. Perhaps you’ll need to disarm traps left by poachers and gain evidence of their activities. Uh oh, someone's caffinating the mule deer again. These missions are short and sweet, and they offer some variety to break up the day-to-day trail repairs and ranger responsibilities.
Beyond repairing trails and major missions, players will receive random callouts from Effy, asking the player to go repair something, check in on an area, or photograph a landmark. They’re a good excuse to explore, but they’re also entirely optional, and you can even turn them off in the tablet. They’re a good way to farm XP to get more missions, so I would recommend keeping them on.
I appreciate how Ranger's Path lets players go at their own pace and do what they please. As you repair trails and improve the park, more and more visitors arrive. It’s nice seeing your hard work pay off, and they’ll even throw in the stray compliment or two. These visitors walk around, hang out at camp sites, find a nice fishing spot, you know, park stuff. The thing is: everyone has one of four park passes that dictate which activities they can and can’t do. I mean, you could go around and review people’s passes and play diet Papers Please, but I personally refuse to learn the 24-hour clock, so everyone gets a free pass today! You are the Park King; feel free to banish people or let them stay, your whim is law.
Park-goers will also approach you with questions about directions or information about the area’s wildlife. Both are rather simple tasks. Just open the map and find the area they’re looking for, or open the glossary to find information about the animal. Though you probably don’t even need to open the glossary most of the time, since most of the response options are nonsensical and you can probably just deduce it. At one point, a visitor asked me something along the lines of “How can you tell something’s a Raccoon and not just another animal,” which dealt psychic damage to me. The response choices were: A) Its fur glows faintly in the dark, B) It always walks on two legs, C) I don’t know, and D) It has a black mask across the face and a ringed tail. Even if you’ve somehow never been blessed by the visage of a raccoon, you could probably figure it out.
It’s time for the bugs and problems section. Bugs are expected in early access titles, but this game doesn’t have many. The main issue is that the prominent bugs and problems are usually visual, and in a game where you’re supposed to immerse yourself in nature’s splendor, that hurts a bit. Sure, you might see a camper floating, but that’s quite rare. What really subtracts from the experience is the pop-in. Repairing a trail will often lead you to a higher elevation, giving you a nice view as a reward for your efforts, but watching half the forest fizzle in is jarring and hard to ignore. Grass mere feet away from me was popping in like John Ranger was a high-level druid. There’s also a problem with one of the NPC animations. Most of them are good. Sometimes visitors are fishing or hiking, but when they run out of breath, it looks like they’re Animorphing into the Prophet of Truth from Halo.
Even with these stumbles, Ranger’s Path is a beautiful game, and that’s mostly down to how well the environments have been crafted. It’s a large park, but the terrain is well diversified and so are the points of interest. You might find a cave with a waterfall running through it, or a small village, or maybe you’ll catch some deer chilling by water and feel compelled to snap a photo. The weather can change from foggy to sunny to rainy, adding plenty of visual variety. There are plenty of moments without a visual problem in sight and you can just appreciate the serenity of the park, but I’m excited for the day when everything's fixed up, because when it’s noticeable, it’s very noticeable.
Let's move on to the game’s audio. It’s really good! You’ll hear mosquitoes fly by your ear, distant bird calls, the chirping of insects, and the vocalizations of various animals scattered around the park. During my playtime, I would often take a minute to relax and stand by a stream just listening to the tranquil sounds of the running water. When the weather changes to rainy, the drops smack on the terrain, causing an extraordinarily calming pitter-patter sound. One of my favorite little details is that every once and a while, other rangers' voices will come through on your radio for a second. Though there is one sore spot with the audio, the park visitors’ voices. They’re quite robotic, possibly even AI. I’m not the only one who thinks so; a few people on the forums raised the issue, only to have the head producer say that no AI was involved. I’m not convinced; it’s just really monotone. This article will have an accompanying video, so check it out and hear for yourself.
Honestly, I had a good time playing Ranger's Path. There’s very little friction to the gameplay, and the core loop of opening new trails, completing quests, and helping visitors is simple yet compelling. The visuals could use some work, but when they aren’t bugging—usually in smaller areas with limited views—the game is quite stunning. I would say this is a competent park ranger simulator, and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.
