Planet Coaster 2 review – wasted potential

Planet Coaster 2’s flexible creation tools are as intrusive as ever, but the fun clashes with a tedious user interface, dull control gameplay, and noticeable content gaps that feel like cynical space for DLC.

I fucking love theme parks: the sights, the smells, the cheering, the feeling of being completely transported. But what I love most is the breathtaking collision of science and art behind these all-encompassing illusions. I’m one of those theme park lovers who still gets giddy when I see the technology and creativity. let’s collide like thisand who have been dreaming about the existence of their ideal rides and rides ever since a run-in with Disney’s Haunted Mansion as a three-year-old became something of an obsession. For people like me the original Planet Coaster was a dream. For all its flaws, it was a brilliantly executed, beautifully presented set of creative tools capable of turning theme park flights of fancy into digital reality, and its sequel promises the same, but more.

Like his predecessor, Planet Coaster 2 immediately catches the eye; a dazzling combination of art, animation, sound and music that brings these creative whims to wonderfully compelling life – a world of swirling metal, flashing lights and delighted screams from guests that can be felt from above or below ground level. Of course, presentation flair aside, Planet Coaster 2 still owes a debt to the seminal work of Chris Sawyer. Roller coaster tycoonbarely deviating from a pattern established more than a quarter of a century ago. This is a game built around the intricacies of park management; hiring staff, building attractions, and providing basic amenities—all in an effort to please guests and generate enough profit that the business cycle can continue indefinitely. But again, Planet Coaster 2’s real strengths lie in the depth, breadth and flexibility of its design and customization tools.

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It’s a continuation of a gentle evolution rather than a radical reimagining, which doesn’t mean its improvements aren’t immediately obvious—Frontier has clearly listened to feedback from Planet Coaster 1, even if its most noticeable improvements seem to be tailored specifically for the YouTube content creator to have a few days to go. which he can spend on creating his marvels of intricate design. For example, his new lighting mechanism isn’t just beautiful, it’s practical; Indoors are actually dark, meaning true driving in the dark without awkward workarounds is finally possible.

Then there is optimization. Unlike its infamous predecessor, Planet Coaster 2 does a much better job of catering to players’ creative whims without immediately devolving into a slideshow. Track ride design generally seems less complex; flat rides can now be taken apart and fully themed with decoration elements – invaluable for those looking to create a more cohesive aesthetic flow in their parks – while seemingly minor additions such as object scaling and scenery brushes, significantly change the rules of the game. Elsewhere, pools and flumes were built to satisfy the public’s endless demands for water parks.

Planet Coaster 2’s various game modes are also now more clearly defined. For example, there’s a campaign mode that takes place in some amusingly strange locations and fun turns the basics of park building into focused challenges. However, its tendency to prioritize dad jokes over helpful explanations – and the frequency with which any creative endeavor runs up against arbitrary restrictions – makes it a bit tiresome. There’s also a franchise mode that allows players to work together as a clan on a global scale to top the leaderboards by completing weekly challenges, and there’s also support for asynchronous co-op building. Finally, for those who simply want to maximize their creative freedom, there’s a custom sandbox mode that allows players to shift the balance between park management and design as they see fit.

What Planet Coaster 2 lacks, however, is any meaningful strategic evolution or complexity. It also abandons some of its predecessor’s mechanical capabilities, with restaurants, hotels, and security services now inexplicably removed. The original Planet Coaster was, of course, an extremely uneven game, with its powerful creation tools greatly overshadowed by its anemic control core, and it’s disappointing – if perhaps not particularly surprising – to see those weaknesses carry over into the sequel. It may contain a checklist of new control options—from water filtration to power distribution—but the implementation is always superficial. Even water parks, Planet Coaster 2’s flagship new feature, simply exist—a couple more holes to dig, staff to hire, and attractions to build—with little scope for advanced integration.

For all its design improvements, Planet Coaster 2 feels like it further marginalizes its management side: its two halves coexist, sometimes intertwining, but never in a particularly interesting or compelling way. It’s a step back from the great game Frontier. Planet Zoowhich struck a compelling balance between park management and landscaping. And it’s particularly weak compared to Texel Raptor’s Parkitect, built using some of Frontier’s assets, which despite ostensibly being a retro throwback felt like a true evolution of the classic theme park simulator formula. Parkitect’s cunning logistical level of product distribution, the meaningful differences between backstage and front of house, not to mention the influential weather system, all brought a real sense of strategic cohesion between its two halves. By comparison, the few elements that Planet Coaster 2 borrows from Parkitect—weather and scenery assessment—feel woefully underdeveloped and awkwardly disjointed.

Planet Coaster 2, even more than the original, feels like a game for builders and tinkerers, content creators who look at what I made, and that’s great. Greateven if it feels like a missed opportunity. The Frontier’s sequel has the same undeniable hypnotic appeal as its predecessor when it comes to construction and design – perhaps even more so given the many enhancements to the toolkit – the watch disappearing into a happy haze of carefully placing stones or getting bank transactions. your new slide exactly like that. The problem is that, for all its goodness, Planet Coaster 2 often feels strangely retrograde—clumsy, illogical, or just plain inconsistent—with an infuriating ability to get in its own way.

Simple menu navigation is often frustratingly frustrating, as Frontier’s attempt to design an interface that works with both keyboard and mouse, and controllers don’t work for anyone. Menus are laid out unintuitively, key information is often missing or hidden due to poor or inconsistent presentation, advanced settings are often left unexplained… Everything happens in the same casual manner. Why, for example, is there no filter specifically for smooth rides in the Workshop? Individually, these oddities seem surmountable, but collectively they are simply draining.

It doesn’t help that the reviews are often so sparse and even contradictory that it’s hard to tell whether it’s a mistake on your part or a mistake on your part. “Staff are attempting to access the staff building, which is at full capacity,” I am informed at one point, quickly followed by the message: “There is no staff building available.” It’s encouraging to see that Frontier has already begun to address some of Planet Coaster 2’s more glaring problems, and more significant ones at that. changes will be released in Decemberbut it’s still hard to shake the feeling of slipping back in other places.

Of course, the selection of rides is really great, with some great exciting features – tilting slide platforms, reverse chutes, oh my god! But as easy and enjoyable as it is to build the “park” part of your theme park, Planet Coaster 2 doesn’t seem to be up to the task. topic. Gone are the visually expressed archetypal themes of the original game – pirate, sci-fi, macabre and western. Instead, they were replaced by much less distinct options: aquatic, mythological, Viking, tropical resort and fun corporate. The result is a sort of bland mishmash of vaguely vacation-related visuals—part resort, part conventional amusement park—that don’t quite pack a punch in terms of creativity. In addition, the building blocks of Planet Coaster 2 leave much to be desired: ready-made scenery, animatronics and custom scenery drawings are noticeably lacking.

After spending several hours in the original Planet Coaster, I created a surprisingly complex copy of Pirates of the Caribbean, complete with sword-wielding pirates, burning ships, and cannonballs splashing in the water; By comparison, the most exotic part of my park in Planet Coaster 2 is a sad cave with a singing eel. Yes, it is quite possible to improvise something more fantastic using geometric shapes and awkward props, but not everyone wants to go so deep into the tools. Of course, Planet Coaster 2’s new in-game workshop means designer players can upload and share their creations with anyone hoping for a more casual gameplay experience – but it all feels a little jarring, as if Frontier is leaving key foundation work to the community. . And Planet Coaster 2’s more noticeable gaps seem even more cynical when they’re accompanied by £18 launch-day DLC.

At its best, Planet Coaster 2 captures much of the magic of its predecessor, with impeccable presentation and powerful tools unleashing a game with boundless creative potential. But its undoubted pleasures are plagued by interruptions and disappointments, missed opportunities and too many noticeable holes where it seems something vital should be. There’s a chance that things will improve as Planet Coaster 2 develops, but for now, despite all the major improvements, it often feels worse than its predecessor in many ways.

A copy of Planet Coaster 2 was provided for review by Frontier Developments.