Planet Coaster 2 Hands-on Preview: An exciting evolution of the entertaining formula

There are only a handful of simulation developers around the world that have the same pedigree to their name as that of Frontier Developments. This British studio has cranked out Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, F1 Manager, and Jurassic World Evolution games, and speaking about the former, a dedicated sequel is soon set to make its debut on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series platforms. While I had a taste of Planet Coaster 2 earlier this year as part of a hands-off session, just a couple of days ago I also finally went hands-on to get a first-hand taste of the Career Mode and the Sandbox Mode too.

The majority of what I experienced was the third level in the Career Mode that revolved around the interesting premise of developing a park split between two owners. The one owner has very strict policies and plans while the second is much more open to your own choices and proposals, which in turn creates a dynamic where you have to meet set goals while also being able to flaunt your creative tendencies. Already, just with this premise in mind, it feels as though Frontier is flexing their abilities in this sequel in a way that the first game never quite offered. Despite only being the third level in the Career, this concept was very hands-off, quite complex, and had you fighting with a theme park's greatest enemy: limited space.

As per the actual gameplay, this is essentially an evolution of what Planet Coaster provided. The same mechanics and systems are featured except now they are bolstered with greater depth and detail. You can more accurately and easily place scenery and foliage, all in a manner that reminded me of Planet Zoo's scenery construction systems. The simulation elements are more complex and broad than ever before, but also presented in such a way that with a little bit of thought you can piece together exactly what the game is showing you and how to use the data to improve your creations. You can use additional heat maps to tell which part of each Career park belongs to each owner, see how far your electrical generators reach and where there are wires connecting all of the various rides and electrical features together, as well as clearly seeing how the infrastructure running your water parks is set up. And this is on top of the regular visitor emotion map and more precise ways to place coasters and the new water flume rides to boot.

I'm not going to tell you that Planet Coaster 2 feels like a brand-new and fresh game, a true unique instalment in the series, because it doesn't and it's too familiar for that to be the case. What it does feel like is a 2.0 version of the original game and that means you can be assured that this will be effortlessly entertaining, easy to pick-up and understand, and vibrant, charming, and colourful. While the art style is meant to feel light and animated, almost as though it belongs in an Illumination film, Frontier has baked so much detail into this sequel that you can zoom all the way into your park and witness a visitor's ground-level view of wandering around and have that feel authentic to a real theme park experience.

But anyway, the water parks. You might be wondering how these work in practice and frankly they aren't too different to simply building a coaster. You can either grab pool blueprints to slot in a complete unit without the hassle or construct one from the get-go yourself using a tile or drawn system to develop the pool of your dreams. You can then use an additional mechanic to round edges and make them less rigid, add trees, bushes, and rocks around the outside to spruce things up, and then finally either build a flume of your own using coaster-like construction elements or place a readily made one instead to provide a functioning piece of entertainment for your guests to beeline toward. Despite revolving around water bodies, this idea slots perfectly into the Planet Coaster experience and feels like it has always belonged here. In fact, it makes me wonder why we had to wait for a sequel to see it realised...

The only minor criticism I had from my time with the game was that there are certain elements and features that feel a bit janky. Path construction can be difficult and ugly at times, the foliage and scenery system can see things get out of hand really fast due to a lack of precision, and the spatial concerns catch up on you very quickly especially when using blueprints. A certain level of leeway to enable more fitting placement of coasters and structures would be a blessing, especially on Career levels with tighter spaces and more environmental hurdles to overcome.

But in many ways these criticisms spout from the freedom that Planet Coaster 2 otherwise gives you. When you're allowed to build a park and coasters in the way that suits you, to suddenly be told you can't feels like a punch in the face. And it's with this in mind that I once again find myself impressed and excited about a new Frontier simulation game, because it's clear as day that the team has produced a project here that will engage and leave a big grin plastered across your face as you let the hours fly by building a theme park you wish you could have visited when you were a child. But you don't need to take my word for it as Planet Coaster 2 will be launching on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on November 6, 2024.