Planet Coaster 2 Preview

We were invited to check out an exclusive preview of the upcoming sequel to the massively successful Planet Coaster. In my time, I was able to experience two hours of gameplay, and we'll be talking a bit about what I got to see and how the game is looking so far.

As a newcomer to the franchise, I have to mention that I was excited — yet vastly intimidated — at the prospect of trying out such a highly anticipated release. Starting off, we began with a scenario where you must build a "duality park" of sorts where you and a competitor have bought land side-by-side, and you have to expand through the limited area, making the most out of the inconveniences that your competitor has placed.

Though this essentially works as a great tutorial, I enjoyed the numerous options you have straight off the bat; the ground is already pre-created, and you're expected to work within these confines. That said, as a newcomer, my first order of business was to play around with the pre-fabricated pieces (from pools to coasters) in order to learn more about the decoration aspects and agency that players will have.

This scenario asked players to create a pool with Pool Prestige 450; in order to increase your Prestige, you'll need to decorate or add unique gadgets, as that raises the Prestige of the specific attraction. It's important to note that decoration takes front and centre in Planet Coaster 2, and it's very evident by the way everything is built: every menu has a customisation option, and you can work with premade items or try your hand at creativity. This isn't all for nought, either, as Prestige will raise the more you decorate, as well as how long said building has existed, giving you reason to plan ahead accordingly and expand on your already existing rides and pools.

It took me only a short while to get acquainted with the mechanics. Path building and landscaping is a breeze to handle, with paint brushes and numerous options that let you build the park of your dreams, and it's all made as accessible or complicated as you'd like, even if the number of menus and options is extremely daunting to a new player.

Though I didn't get to advance my park and show our competitor that I did, in fact, not know what I was doing and possibly upset (along with likely killing) the customers, I managed to complete the first requirement while sprucing up the area slightly and looking at the vast options. Decoration may be the main focus, but Frontier Developments doesn't forget the management aspect, and what I got to try felt intuitive, almost like a supply line.

You'll be grappling with electricity needs via generators or solar panels and spreading water to the necessary areas through water towers; these need to be connected to the path for maintenance, as otherwise, their use will degrade them over time. When creating anything, you're taken through a step-by-step process that I was able to grasp, even without the need of a tutorial: you'll place the generator, then Power Distributor to power your buildings, and then be prompted to connect anything else via direct cables. It's easy to do and still creates a sense of management that will keep you engaged with the overall experience.

Finally, it was time to go to the Sandbox Mode, where we were given infinite money to play with and encouraged to decorate and explore around. In this section, I felt, is where Planet Coaster 2really showed its prowess, as the options suddenly felt endless.I took a peek at pretty much all of the categories, with literal hundreds and thousands of options to choose from, including small objects to massive pre-fabricated structures to help you decorate at your leisure.

The laws of physics also don't need to apply, either, as Frontier Developments humours the possibility for bizarre creations by giving you full control of every aspect of an object. Do you want a comically oversized item? You got it! You can resize, spin, move, and even make items levitate, and it was a sense of freedom that I could see the decorative sorts spend hundreds of hours just playing around with.

There are five themes that you can begin your journey with: Mythology, Viking, Aquatic, Resort, and Planet Coaster. They all encompass pretty much everything you might want to create your park from as a newcomer: either fantastical and magical creations to down-to-earth luxury resorts or fun-loving parks with no theme except "fun". I played around a lot with the Mythology and Viking choices, picturing a park of two opposing mythologies at war, with one side having heavy Greek inspiration whilst the other had Norse at its core. I built a pool with a ship that you can swim with and a basic flume, as I spent most of my time playing around with the decorations and landscaping.

Planet Coaster 2 left me intrigued: every passing moment that I learned, I discovered new, bizarre opportunities to play around with. Though I am not a creative type at all, the scenarios are intriguing, and even without grasping the core mechanics at the beginning, my head began flowing with unique ideas and opportunities. I look forward to trying out more of Planet Coaster 2, and as a person that's usually an action-first sort of gamer, I'd say that's a massive win for Frontier Development's newest sequel.

Planet Coaster 2 is set to release on the 6th of November.