Planet Coaster 2 hands-on impressions solidify it as the ultimate theme park builder

Time has flown almost as quickly as an unsafe rollercoaster, but it’s almost eight years since Frontier released the original Planet Coaster game. A spiritual successor to the iconic RollerCoaster Tycoon games from the same developer, the 2016 title captivated an audience of thousands, even spawning a pseudo-sequel in the form of Planet Zoo.

While fans of the original game haven’t stopped creating gravity-defying thrill rides, Frontier reckons it’s time for a new game altogether - this time with the inclusion of water parks. After two hours of hands-on gameplay with Planet Coaster 2, it’s clear that Frontier has listened to feedback from its fans and cemented itself as the grandaddy of the niche.

Flumin’ good time

Rich Newbold, Game Director of Planet Coaster 2, walked me through just some of the ideas present in the game that drew them to implementing water parks: “It’s all of those amazing experiences that you might have at a theme park or a water park. Along with enhancements to the creative tools and management systems that water parks bring us, there are great opportunities for players to build amazing-looking pools and vibrant flumes.

“Then there are the management systems, so making sure you have enough lifeguards, making sure your pools are safe and that there are places for guests to buy inflatables as you build lazy rivers and wave machines for them to use.” Whether it’s closed or open-top body flumes, raft rides, log flumes, or even double-person mat chutes, Planet Coaster 2 has it all.

The first half of my Planet Coaster 2 demo took place a few levels into the game’s campaign. Working for the fictional theme park design company ‘Coaster Coast’, I was tasked with building a park in an area separated by a huge gorge. On one side I had complete free reign, but the other had restrictions imposed by a mysterious owner - one with a penchant for waterparks and flumes.

While we’d skipped the onboarding tutorial for time, it’s clear that this section of the campaign is intended to get players used to working with water, which is the headline addition in Planet Coaster 2. Opening up the Flumes section of the rider builder, you’re greeted with a plethora of ride types, all of which you’d expect to see in the world’s most popular parks.

Our preview build had a few preset builds to pick from, but you could build your own ride completely from scratch using similar tools you’ll be familiar with from constructing coasters in the past.

It was here that I ran into one of the new systems you need to be aware of in Planet Coaster 2, with guests needing the appropriate facilities to take full advantage of the pools and flumes. After creating a few death-defying rides, I wondered why on earth no one was attempting to ride them, only to later realise I hadn’t provided them with any changing facilities.

Once my attendees realised how gnarly the rides were, more throngs of visitors started to appear, and I needed to scale up my facilities, amenities, rides, and staff accordingly. Much like playing Civilisation becomes a constant dilemma of choosing to play “one more turn”, I can easily see Planet Coaster 2 providing players with a similar conundrum - just one more ride, just a few more decorations, just a bit more time spent optimising this queue routing.

Expanded Toybox

After completing the bronze requirements for the campaign mission, I swiftly hopped over to the Sandbox Mode, which is where the real fun is to be had. No financial restrictions, just open fields ready to be transformed into whatever sort of adventure park you like.

Because I don’t have a creative bone in my body, my efforts during the demo mostly involved pushing the limits of just how unsafe I could make my flumes. It turns out the answer is very, and it’s all the more fun for it.

The first of my creations saw me create a body flume that resembled something like a marble run for humans. While there are restrictions on how steep you can make declines and turns, it didn’t take me long to construct a vertical corkscrew plummeting down into a couple of right-angle speed balls, before vomiting the park guest out into the main pool area.

My next endeavour was to see how far I could fling an attendee from a flume into a pool. After constructing my almost vertical decline and finishing off with a slight upward flick, I ended up with a ride that certainly didn’t pass its health and safety regulations and would give the world's most dangerous waterparks a run for their money.

Operating a park like this wouldn’t work in the more restrictive modes of the game - I constantly got pings saying guests found my rides a little too frightening, and the queues began to die down shortly after. However, I can’t deny that experimenting with how far you can push the limits of this toolset was an inordinate amount of fun, and remarkably accessible given how detailed and granular the controls let you get.

Authentic Feel

That granular level of detail now extends far further than just ride construction, too. You’re no longer limited to single straight or curved paths, with new drawing tools letting you create sprawling plazas for guests to explore. I particularly enjoyed using the new stamp tools, which let you draw out areas on a set grid so the alignment stays just right every time.

Decorations can also be directly added to rides, letting you truly make each ride fit with your desired theme. Symmetry tools allow you to duplicate decor on both sides of cars, which are then updated in real-time. Frontier has expanded the toolset in a way that almost completely alleviates any frustrations that players might have had in the first game.

These new tools come with a compromise - any creations you built in the first game won’t be able to transfer over to the sequel. Adam Woods, Executive Producer at Frontier, explained that this is due to enhancements such as “the pathing, the rides and coasters that can be customised, franchise mode, even down to the guest models themselves.” 

Essentially, there’s so much new in Planet Coaster 2 that porting over previous content just isn’t possible from a technical standpoint. However, this is counteracted by a brand new sharing feature that lets players upload their ride blueprints to an in-game workshop. Here, players can browse a library of user-generated content and drop pre-built rides directly into their parks.

Again, for someone like me who generally struggles to think up ideas for rides beyond ludicrous danger, this is a game changer for speeding up park design when you simply don’t have the willpower to fiddle with the macro-placement of decorations.

Final Thoughts

Whether you see Planet Coaster 2 as a cosy game for you to spend hours perfecting your vision, or a creative outlet to express your deep desire for human-hurtling danger, this new entry from Frontier has you covered. The inclusion of waterpark rides makes the game feel like a full package, and both legacy players and newcomers alike will appreciate all the effort gone into making the building process more streamlined.

I’m curious to see what the full onboarding process looks like, and some of the pathing tools remain a little fiddly if you want to perfectly execute your desired vision. But as it stands, Frontier is clearly demonstrating its pedigree in this corner of gaming. Ahead of launch, Planet Coaster 2 looks set to become the ultimate park builder, potentially immediately ahead of its eight-year-old predecessor.

Previewed on PC. Planet Coaster 2 releases on November 6, 2024 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.