When you suppose again to Frontier Developments and the administration titles it’s launched so far – going from zoo administration to dinosaur parks and Method 1 – it’s unimaginable how it began from one franchise: Planet Coaster. A religious successor to the Rollercoaster Tycoon sequence (with the third recreation developed by Frontier), Planet Coaster emerged as a worthwhile various after Atari primarily ruined the previous. Tough edges apart, it was a recreation the place gamers might dwell out their theme park development fantasies, bolstered by a robust group with intensive creations.
No matter different titles, it’s considerably intriguing that it took this lengthy for Planet Coaster 2 to occur. Between the improved visuals, the brand new Profession Mode with its varied situations, contemporary programs like water park points of interest and flumes, and extra, it appears to construct on all the pieces that made the unique nice. Sadly, between the annoying bugs, questionable person interface, lackluster themes and extra, it’s laborious to suggest in its present state.
“Outdoors of the writing, Profession Mode (and Sandbox Mode, by extension) additionally suffers from one other important flaw with Planet Coaster 2’s design: The UI.”
Planet Coaster 2 begins you off with the rudimentary modes – Profession, Sandbox, and Franchise (playable on-line with different gamers). Profession has you scouring completely different areas across the globe and partaking in varied situations. It begins merely sufficient, outlining the fundamentals of park administration and the brand new water points of interest earlier than delving into extra particular missions, like restoring 4 busted coasters. After all, you may as well cling round in some situations and full further aims, which helps you get a grip on different programs, like buying land and constructing flat rides, paths and extra from scratch.
The issue is the writing. I do know – nobody is enjoying a theme park administration title for the characters or the dialogue. But Planet Coaster 2 insists on pushing them onto you whereas guaranteeing they’re as irritating as attainable. I’m certain somebody thought an interplay between the Newton brothers relating to a distressed visitor in a swimming pool the place Eugene misplaced his wits whereas his brother needed to consolation him would have been hilarious. Nonetheless, even for those who like these characters, the bit goes on too lengthy, interrupting the pacing.
The fixed stream of jokes and sarcasm additionally begins to put on after a degree, however the worst half is for those who’re a brand new participant, there’s no approach to skip to the subsequent dialogue. You possibly can solely skip all the interplay, resulting in some awkwardness once you all of a sudden must construct an influence distributor and join it to the facility grid whereas questioning why there’s a warmth map all of a sudden introduced up. Not less than the voice actors attempt their finest to inject some enthusiasm into the proceedings, saddled as they’re with this “materials.”
Outdoors of the writing, Profession Mode (and Sandbox Mode, by extension) additionally suffers from one other important flaw with Planet Coaster 2’s design: The UI. I’ve already seen impressions from PC gamers bemoaning how unintuitive and “made for consoles” it’s, however there’s excellent news – it’s equally irritating on PS5. Transferring across the park with the digital camera, zooming out and in whereas rotating, isn’t too dangerous. Something barely deeper than that’s the place issues start to emerge.
“Don’t even get me began on the flumes themselves. Meticulously balancing the lateral and vertical Gs with the correct amount of pleasure, guaranteeing the worry and nausea are at a minimal, is irritating when visitors mysteriously cease using on them.”
When deciding on a constructing, you will need to navigate to “Edit Constructing” to make modifications. That is high-quality by itself however turns into all of the extra tedious when coping with flumes. A number of further menus have to be navigated for points like testing (with three separate buttons for closing, testing and opening a journey), deciding on completely different elements, assigning workers, and whatnot. All these clicks for one facet of 1 a part of the theme park get tiring.
It’s not a lot better when usually navigating menus. To pick out services, you will need to navigate to completely different tabs utilizing R1 and L1, undergo a number of completely different icons for the specified one, scroll via these choices, after which plop it down. And don’t overlook that there are additionally customized creations and pool extras to cope with as properly, tucked away in their very own menu. I can solely think about how rather more annoying this can get when throwing in group creations from the workshop. The sheer quantity of navigation and choice wears you down at finest. At worst, it feels downright unenjoyable and demotivating.
As for the entire water attraction facet, there may be a lot to enhance on. Swimming pools don’t actually provide a lot on their very own, and a few components, like ladders, really feel outright ineffective since visitors will simply stand up and out on their very own. Good luck constructing a pool in line with your required path as properly. You possibly can put down factors and try to curve them round, go along with in another way formed stamps that find yourself wanting awkward, and whatnot, however they only don’t really feel intuitive sufficient.
Don’t even get me began on the flumes themselves. Meticulously balancing the lateral and vertical Gs with the correct amount of pleasure, guaranteeing the worry and nausea are at a minimal, is irritating when visitors mysteriously cease using on them. Frontier is at the least wanting into the physics, seemingly implementing situations the place visitors can fall off of slides, however there’s no ETA. There are a number of options but to be carried out, from billboards and customized music to having a number of visitors on a flume at a time and altering the climate in Sandbox Mode.
Right here’s hoping for some changes to pathing as properly. Putting a workers constructing and mechanic workshop facet by facet, and getting the choice to create a merged path, just for it to not work a number of instances in a row is irritating. I additionally discovered the outcomes considerably perplexing – after receiving stories of visitors being thirsty and navigating to the drink stand, I discovered no issues. That is on high of different bugs like character fashions clipping, shaky buildings when making an attempt to snap them close to a particular path, and so on.
“Because it stands, this appears like a much less refined model of the unique – prettier however finally missing intuitiveness, ingenuity or the correct amount of polish to actually make it shine.”
It’s all of the extra disappointing as a result of between all these design selections, lacking options, and bugs, there’s a genuinely gratifying expertise in Planet Coaster 2. Even when its problem doesn’t attempt to push or stress you out, establishing the best park with surroundings items, constructing complicated rollercoasters and testing them – watching the rides careen off horribly earlier than getting them proper, and simply observing your workers will be enjoyable.
And regardless of working at solely 30 frames per second on PS5, the visuals are higher than ever, be it the textures and intricacies of various coasters, the visitors and their animations, or the environments. I additionally fairly just like the soundtrack with its stress-free tones, and the sound results are on level. There’s a satisfying twang when plopping down a diving board or listening to a workers supervisor exclaim in shock when lifting and putting them onto particular locations.
Planet Coaster 2 has some fascinating concepts and with additional refinement, I might see it changing into one thing particular. Nonetheless, because it stands, this appears like a much less refined model of the unique – prettier however finally missing intuitiveness, ingenuity or the correct amount of polish to actually make it shine. With time and updates, I can see Frontier turning this into a way more involving expertise, however proper now, it’s nowhere close to as addictive or magical as its predecessor when it first burst onto the scene.
This recreation was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
