Planet Coaster 2 takes players back to the realm of park creation, offering an expansive toolkit and plenty of creative freedom. However, while the game takes the strengths of its predecessor and adds in some flashy new features, it stumbles in several key areas. The result is a game that takes huge leaps forward on one hand but fails to really captivate the attention on the other. Let’s jump in!
New Planet Coaster, new attractions
One of the most anticipated additions in Planet Coaster 2 is the introduction of water attractions. Pools, water slides, and flume rides add some innovation and variety to the roster of park features. Designing a water park is undeniably fun, tweaking the shapes of pools, adding diving boards, and watching guests enjoy wave machines is just all as fun as it sounds and feels like a worthy addition for the sequel. During my first hours with Planet Coaster 2, I really enjoyed spending time with these new attractions and getting to know them better. Just like the predecessor, it’s easy to create your park and the UI still feels as good as I remembered.
However, the novelty wears off faster than expected. While these attractions look great and add a new layer of possibilities, they don’t integrate deeply into the overall management systems. Aside from requiring lifeguards and the occasional maintenance, water attractions feel more like set pieces rather than a more drastic gameplay change.
Building and customizing your dream park remains the strongest pillar of Planet Coaster 2. The enhanced construction tools allow for greater freedom, with smoother pathing systems and the ability to scale objects for more intricate designs. You can now attach scenery directly to rides, enabling you to truly immerse your attractions in your environment. It’s a nice bonus for those who want to create certain theme parks so that’s something the developers really took care of for sure.
While these tools are undoubtedly powerful, they don’t feel like a revolutionary leap forward from the first game and had me wondering a couple of times why this is a sequel and not just a water-inspired expansion. Veterans of the series may appreciate the refinements but might find themselves wishing for more substantial innovation, justifying the sequel price tag.
Management mechanics
Planet Coaster 2 stumbles when it comes to its management systems. The game’s focus is clearly its creativity, which is important to know if you’re looking for a more simulation type of game. Guest behavior, for example, feels predictable, and their needs are relatively simple to satisfy. Managing staff is similarly shallow, requiring only the occasional salary bump or basic training to keep everyone happy. Sure, the management mechanics are all in place but it feels like a safe vanilla version of a deeper simulation. I understand that that’s not the aim of Planet Coaster 2 at all but a deeper management system could have helped to keep me hooked a bit longer.
Financial management, once a crucial aspect of the genre, feels overly simplified. Marketing campaigns lack nuance, and balancing the books never quite challenges you. This shift to a more casual experience will likely appeal to players who prefer to build freely without worrying too much about spreadsheets, but it limits the game’s appeal as a deep management sim. Again, nothing really game-breaking or truly negative but a creative builder only stays fun for a certain amount of time before you’re looking into some deeper mechanics, which sadly, aren’t there.
A feast for the eyes
Visually, Planet Coaster 2 is a huge leap forward. The game just shines in every aspect ranging from environments, vibrant textures, and a lighting system that makes parks shine, especially at night. Watching your creations come to life is one of the best feelings the game has to offer and when your parks look the way to do in this sequel, it’s just a true pleasure to see them come to life.
That said, the impressive graphics come with a cost. Even on higher-end PCs, large parks with lots of detail can take a toll on performance. While optimizations like DLSS and FSR help alleviate some of these issues, the game occasionally stutters when parks get particularly crowded. For players with mid-range systems, these performance hiccups might detract from the overall experience.
Besides the visual improvements, the user interface in Planet Coaster 2 has received a redesign, but not all changes feel like improvements. Menus are now buried within submenus, making it harder to find specific tools or settings. This setup might work better for consoles, but for PC players accustomed to the more intuitive interface of the first game, it can feel frustrating and needlessly convoluted.
Is it worth the ticket price?
Planet Coaster 2 looks great and offers a lot of creativity and fun. But its gameplay often lacks the depth to match its extra layer of polish. If you’re looking for a more casual experience where the creation of your parks is the heart of the gameplay loop, you’ll like this game for sure. But, if you’re looking for a bit more depth and management, this game will certainly let you down. The management mechanics are just too shallow and don’t offer the needed variation in gameplay to keep things entertaining for the long run. As a sequel, it builds upon the foundation of its predecessor without taking many risks. The new features are enjoyable but not that big when it comes to sequels. It’s a bit hard to truly see this as a sequel and not as a big expansion, which of course is an issue for its price tag.
Conclusion:
Planet Coaster 2 delivers a fun and visually impressive experience for creative players, but its shallow management systems and familiar gameplay hold it back from greatness. It’s a solid evolution of the first game, but it doesn’t quite capture the magic of being a true simulation masterpiece. Great for casual players and builders, but diehard tycoon fans might find themselves longing for more.
