Ranger’s Path: National Park Simulator (PC)

Now, in theory, one of the most respected jobs in the US should be a US Park Ranger, but morons keep shutting the government down, and they don’t get paid. Now I love a “shonky” simulator, and publisher Astragon Entertainment is one of the masters of the genre, even if you don’t like the individual offerings. Developed by To-Go Games, Ranger’s Path: National Park Simulator is a rookie US Park Ranger simulator with similar “jank,” where you maintain and do odd jobs throughout the fictional Faremont National Park.

Litter picking, bench building, sign painting, and pass checking are just some of the very basic things you’ll end up doing repeatedly throughout Ranger’s Path. Currently in early access, which I’ve been desperately trying to find time for since launch, all the basic elements are there, and it is certainly as you’d expect given the pedigree behind it.

Comparably, I wouldn’t be looking towards Construction Simulator nor Bus Simulator, but rather Astragon Entertainment and Aesir Interactive’s Police Simulator: Patrol Officers from 2022. Not to be confused with Z-software and Aerosoft GmbH’s genuinely awful Highway Police Simulator. Patrol Officers has that, to once again use a typically Scottish term, “shonky” feeling to it that makes weird little niche simulators so interesting. Ranger’s Path has a similar “jank,” I guess the typical parlance would suggest.

The not 4×4 pickup you have to travel long distances – it is a national park after all – of course doesn’t have Assetto Corsa levels of simulation. Interactions with park guests are very limited, and I’ll get to them in a minute. Yet despite the limited aspects or “unrealistic” elements, there is a solid game for extremely boring people such as myself who just want to walk around a national park fixing stuff and cleaning up after guests.

The moment that I said to myself, “this is just a park ranger version of Police Simulator: Patrol Officers,” is when I was told to check park guests’ passes and noticed some similarities. Of course, as a patrol officer in the mean streets of Simulator Town, you’ll eventually check IDs, and one of the most common IDs is a driver’s license. This same idea is transplanted to Ranger’s Path with expiration dates, levels of passes allowing access to certain areas of the park, and, of course, when individuals are allowed to be in the park.

Similar to Patrol Officers’ ID/driver license check, you have a radial menu where you decide what someone has done wrong and how to deal with them. Wrong access, expired pass, wrong activities for their pass, or simply nothing wrong. It isn’t “stolen IP” sort of nonsense; it is just similar mechanics being used for similar purposes in a game by the same publisher. It was a cheerful little “Oh, I liked that” when realizing the similarities.

Not exactly being a story-heavy escapade, Ranger’s Path more or less offers a run-through of extremes that a park ranger might deal with on the job. To be polite, “naughty” people poaching, and people feeding wild animals bread and sugary snacks are just simple examples. Have these people not seen the cinematic masterpiece (implied sarcasm is doing a lot of heavy lifting) of Cocaine Bear? You get these big mission-type quests after reaching certain levels as you progress throughout Ranger’s Path to break up the normal maintenance and basic work around the park.

As a concept, this isn’t a bad idea. A tad unrealistic for the pedants who moan about buttons in Bus Simulator being different from real life, but that’s beside the point. I guess the complaint to be had here is that you’re going up numbered levels and progressing without exactly getting anything tools-wise for doing so. From the word go, you have all the tools available to you and are given the keys to the sandbox.

It feels like an idea there for the visual of progress without the mechanical feeling of progress, if that makes sense? We’ve all been conditioned by RPG-like systems and tech trees that gaining levels makes you stronger, provides new mechanics, and adds to the gameplay. There is none of that, and it results in a rather bare feeling from gameplay as a result.

While I’m on my complaint train, I’ll say that I like the ability to open your in-game tablet and get information that guests might ask for. Occasionally, you’ll come across guests looking for trails on the other side of the park, or they want information on the animals. As a result, you open the map and point to the place they want to go or open the in-game index of animals you’ve cataloged and get the information. That’s all fine and dandy.

Having that information handy is great, but when you’re looking at someone’s pass, and it is mid-afternoon, they only have a morning pass, and you admonish them for this, it doesn’t always go well. The radial menu gives you the options to tell guests that the pass has expired, unauthorized access, or their activity is unauthorized due to their level of pass (Basic, Basic+, Pro+, and Ultimate), or everything is valid. Simple stuff, right? The tutorial text telling you how it works only shows up once. With wrong answers flashing red, right answers are green.

If the loosely based story is that you’re a rookie park ranger, having information like that on your nondescript tablet with other information would be useful. Especially if you’re like me and pick up a game for a while, put it down for a couple of weeks/months occasionally, and return some time later, forgetting some details. It is easy enough to work out eventually from context, but it is annoying.

As is performance. Running in the Unreal Engine, performance was never going to be great, especially for an early access release, but running everything on high for a while eventually got a bit choppy. Running on a PC with a 40 series RTX and meeting or exceeding all the other recommended specs, particularly in busy areas with guests or when it rained, would easily drop to and below 40 frames per second. Again, early access, so hopefully performance picks up, but beware.

Ranger’s Path: National Park Simulator has a lot of good, simple ideas that are fun for extremely boring people like me who just want to walk about a national park, taking pictures, picking litter, and giving directions to park guests. There is a base level of a good simulator of that vein, ready to build on. However, currently, that’s where it is and might put some off with its lack of expansive gameplay ideas or even a story beyond busier tasks to do.

Ultimately, I like where Ranger’s Path: National Park Simulator is starting from, but I’m more excited looking forward to a few updates from now with a bit more going on. As I say, it is a great building block to start from, but the question is where and how quickly To-Go Games and Astragon Entertainment can build over this next year of early access, and if that quality gameplay grows and becomes a richer experience.