Planet coaster review series#

A favorite design of mine revolved around a series of explosive blasts that triggered as a nearby space ship shot lasers at the passing coaster – that wasn’t something had by default, it’s something I built myself. Most satisfyingly, you can have your coasters dive underground, through buildings, and trigger animatronics as they drive past. Coasters are somewhat more limited in their physical realities – mostly by what your guests are actually willing to ride – but you can twist, roll, rise, and loop in a lot of ways. Objects in the world can be plopped down, merged into a single building, rotated, slid, snapped together, and relocated easily once constructed. Building materials, natural features, terrain sculpting tools, cosmetic doodads, signs, even abstract geometric shapes – it’s all there in pretty great depth. You’re absolutely spoiled for choice when building in Planet Coaster. Though “riding” the coasters you’ve made isn’t particularly thrilling, getting a guest’s-eye-view of the park is exciting if you’ve given any time at all to aesthetics.Īnd, make no mistake, building scenery and rides is what you’re here for. I do not know what is going on inside those studios to make the little beeps, clanks, and shouts so superb, but hopefully it never stops. The sound design, much like on Frontier’s other game Elite: Dangerous, is just completely phenomenal. The game’s visual design, from its premade carousels and coaster cars to the exuberant faces of your park’s guests, is an stylized in a lovely, jubilant way that makes you want to zoom in and watch people have fun.

You can build a frankly boggling variety of things using robust design tools, and you can handily share them with the wider world while never leaving the game. Despite that, Planet Coaster is the best rollercoaster and theme park design game you can play. It’s more about making a pretty park than challenging you with a complex simulation of a business. Planet Coaster is a game strong in creativity but weak in management. Roller Coaster Tycoon World is the other one.Īs part of reading this review, you’re going to get a mini-review of Roller Coaster Tycoon World: It is a flaming trash heap of a game, which since you’re looking at the alternative, you either already knew, or now know, and good: Don’t waste your time or money. Planet Coaster is the good game – focused on what can make management games great: Customization, variety, and the depth to create the visual masterpiece of your dreams. It will, instead, be a year where two similar games released and one of them was way, way better than the other.

Planet coaster review full#

2016 will not be remembered as the year that a variety of roller coaster simulation games came roaring back in puissant glory, full of flying steel and vomitous intent.