Planet Coaster 2 review: A journey with ups and downs

Planet Coaster 2 Review

I'm a big fan of roller coaster and theme park simulators, starting with the first RollerCoaster Tycoon in 1999. That game created a template that remains the guiding document for theme park simulators today. The player manages and builds roller coasters and other attractions, and keeps guests happy, well fed, watered, and hopefully safe. At the end of the day, profits are reinvested into building new and better attractions. RollerCoaster Tycoon spawned two sequels and a series of spin-offs. The franchise was eventually acquired by Frontier Developments. Frontier released Planet Coaster in 2016, followed by a slew of DLC. Eight years later, Frontier brings us Planet Coaster 2.

Get in line

The first Planet Coaster game came out with some technical issues and a lack of content, but over the years it has become a fan favorite. In addition to a staggering number of add-ons and content packs, there are dozens of content creators creating huge, absurdly detailed, and highly realistic theme parks. The amount of Steam Workshop content for Planet Coaster is immense. All of this to say that Frontier's mission with the sequel was to maintain and improve what was already working, address some lingering frustrations, and move the game forward. It wasn't necessary to reinvent the wheel, just make it spin a little more smoothly.

For the most part, Planet Coaster 2 does just that. In other ways, however, the second game ruins everything and shifts the frustration to a different aspect of the process.

Planet Coaster 2, like the first game, has three main modes. There is a campaign, which is essentially a series of discrete economic, marketing and construction challenges. As in most Sims, the campaign is primarily an extended tutorial, explaining the game-specific ways of doing everything from building water park attractions to using the new power and plumbing requirements. The narrative is a bit silly, but the challenges are engaging, if sometimes very demanding. There's a competitive multiplayer franchise mode, where players outdo each other and chase bragging rights on a leaderboard. Finally, there is a sandbox mode, where most creative creators will spend their time. Zoomed out, they are very similar in scope and design to the first game.

More than superficial

The biggest changes come in the areas of new content, new construction methods, improved graphics, and new roller coasters and attractions.

The most notable and high-profile addition is the ability to create water park attractions such as pools, slides and flumes, with an accompanying visual theme, plus new staff (lifeguards) and facilities. Water attractions seem like an obvious addition, but they've been a long time coming. There are a couple of new visual themes that accompany the water park attractions. Overall, it's great to be able to add an aquatic themed area to a park or create a park focused solely on water. However, there are some disappointing design decisions, such as the canal tubes being too small or having a flat bottom and unrealistic physics in the tour view.

From the start, Planet Coaster 2 has five themes, including the generic Planet Coaster theme, Vikings, Classical Mythology, Tropical, and Water. Of course, none of Planet Coaster's DLC content is compatible with the new game, meaning people will have to pay for add-ons once again. When it comes to building pieces, decorations, and special lighting or animation effects, there is a decent but not overwhelming starting set. Some things look like they were trucked in from Frontier's Planet Zoo.

Speaking of Planet Zoo, Planet Coaster 2 carries over that game's new energy/utility requirements system. This means, for example, building a network of generators and wiring to provide electrical power to your attractions, plus dedicated support staff to maintain the equipment. I guess this new system creates more realism and challenges to the economics of running the park if that's something the fans want. Fortunately, you can disable the power requirement in Sandbox mode.

Ups and downs

There's one area where Planet Coaster 2 outshines the first game, and it's an important one. Out of the box, so to speak, there is a great initial selection of roller coasters, flat rides, tracked rides, and specialty pieces like switch tracks, drop tracks, and rotating platforms. It's an excellent and very wide range of attractions inspired by the real world, enough to keep park builders happy for a long time. One of the biggest new features in Planet Coaster 2 is the ability to add scenic decorations and other elements to trains and cars. The smoothing of the track eliminates some of the bumps from previous runs.

Planet Coaster 2 has revamped its path-building tools, allowing for much more flexible routing over changes in elevation, or creating a path using a line tool instead of pieces. It's not an incredibly intuitive tool, and at times there are some very frustrating quirks in the way the pieces come together, but with practice, it generates more realistic paths. And if things get too annoying, you can always go back to the “classic” tool.

Talking about Planet Coaster 2's construction tools brings us to the game's biggest problem. The user interface is atrocious. Instead of simplifying the creation process, add submenus and tabs and play hide and seek with basic information. In part, this new system comes from the need for everything to work with a controller since the game was released simultaneously on consoles. But it puts PC users and builders (which is probably most gamers) at a real and frustrating disadvantage when using the mouse and keyboard. Frankly, all the cool new features, attractions and creative potential are significantly undermined by the frustratingly unintuitive interface.

up to date

Planet Coaster always looked good and the sequel makes use of today's graphics cards and their potential for higher fidelity. The water looks fantastic and the view of passengers on the roller coasters is silky smooth. The new climate effects are interesting, not only aesthetically, but also for their impact on the logistics of buildings and parks. Unfortunately, in its current state, there is a lot of optimization left to do. Performance is choppy and there's a little, or a lot, of lag between selecting a coaster or scenic piece and having it appear to be built. I'm using a high-end system, and aside from some crashes and freezes, there's a general feeling that Planet Coaster 2's technology still needs some additional patches and polishes.

I've loved and played Planet Coaster for years, and I really wanted the sequel to be the ultimate coaster building experience. The potential is there. The water features are great and the new roller coasters are exciting. Many of the adjustments and changes add new flexibility and sophistication to the construction process. At the same time, the game's lack of final technical polish and its complicated, time-consuming user interface added an element of frustration to what should have been a familiar but inarguably better experience.