Hi there! After a period with much anticipation, it feels good that the game is finally out. Yesterday I had the opportunity to play the game for five hours, and after playing it I felt the need to write this post to give my first thoughts and suggestions on the game. The TL;DR of this, is that while the game is visually and content wise an overall improvement over Planet Coaster 1, there are some foundational issues that in my opinion could be a lot better and would improve gameplay a lot.
Let me first explain from which perspective I’m looking at this: I’m considering myself a casual gamer, and while I like the creative part of the game, I’m equally interested in the management part of the game. It should be a good synergy between having the creative tools while also giving enough challenge to keep it engaging. My benchmark for this post is Planet Zoo, as in my opinion this game is coming really close to having the perfect balance between the two. When I saw the new campaign scenarios in Planet Coaster 2, I found them a definitive improvement over the ones in Planet Coaster 1, and reach the level of the scenarios in Planet Zoo or even supersedes them. Unfortunately, the rest of the game took another direction.
Personally, I think there are two main factors why at the moment, I still consider Planet Zoo the superior game. The first is the UI, and the second is favoring the creativity side way too much. Fortunately, I think both of these can be fixed, without ignoring the wishes of creative gamers.
Let’s start with the UI. As many here have stated before, it is painfully obvious that the UI is designed with the console first. My main gripe with the UI now is that it doesn’t provide you the information in a simple way. The biggest example is the park information menu, which not only blocks the entire screen, but presents data in a unfathomable way. I really struggled with basic tasks like staff management, because I constantly have to switch between the park view and the menu itself. Another way of saying it, is because it is so hidden away right now, I really don’t notice what’s going on. The system in Planet Zoo worked way better, where I was able to adjust matters while still having an overview of the staff roster for example.
The other way the UI is complicating the experience, are the options buttons. For example, the different options for the coaster builder are depicted in a horizontal scroll menu and described with text, while in the previous game they were checkboxes or had an icon depicting the function of it. It feels unnatural, and I had a difficult time getting around and figuring out the options.
This brings me to the next main factor, and that is favoring creativity. While I do like the neutral rides and coaster trains, there are some factors where it is just too much. I’ll give a simple example. In Planet Coaster 1, if I placed down a flat ride, and didn’t like the colors, I had the option of changing 3 or 4 colors. Now in Planet Coaster 2, if I don’t like the colors, I’m forced to change in the range of 18 color presets. While I love to have some options, I do not enjoy taking five minutes to change the color of one flat ride. This could be solved with having a first layer of customizability with only being able to change 3 preset colors and maybe a pattern, and having an option for the real creative people to go deeper and giving them the menu as is. The same goes for other aspects of building like for example the path system; sometimes there are so many options that casual gamers like me really lose overview and frankly give up because they are overwhelmed. There should be a main easy option for the casual gamer, and also an option to dive deeper for the more creative gamer. The only exception so far I found is the scenery brush, because it gives that easy option to create nice foliage fast (although the UI is still clunky).
Another part is that I was disappointed to see that some basic management functions are downgraded from Planet Zoo. For example the staff buildings and maintenance shops, which are just black boxes again, when they were functional buildings in Planet Zoo. The security guards are missing, and while giving us a ride operator staff member, these do not have any impact on the game other than having to make sure they are there.
Anyway, I hope this gave some insight from my perspective. Although I may sound a bit negative, I do like the game, and I really see the potential for it to become a better game than Planet Zoo, and I’m looking forward seeing this game evolve in the coming weeks and months. Congratulations on the launch and good luck in the coming period of development!
Let me first explain from which perspective I’m looking at this: I’m considering myself a casual gamer, and while I like the creative part of the game, I’m equally interested in the management part of the game. It should be a good synergy between having the creative tools while also giving enough challenge to keep it engaging. My benchmark for this post is Planet Zoo, as in my opinion this game is coming really close to having the perfect balance between the two. When I saw the new campaign scenarios in Planet Coaster 2, I found them a definitive improvement over the ones in Planet Coaster 1, and reach the level of the scenarios in Planet Zoo or even supersedes them. Unfortunately, the rest of the game took another direction.
Personally, I think there are two main factors why at the moment, I still consider Planet Zoo the superior game. The first is the UI, and the second is favoring the creativity side way too much. Fortunately, I think both of these can be fixed, without ignoring the wishes of creative gamers.
Let’s start with the UI. As many here have stated before, it is painfully obvious that the UI is designed with the console first. My main gripe with the UI now is that it doesn’t provide you the information in a simple way. The biggest example is the park information menu, which not only blocks the entire screen, but presents data in a unfathomable way. I really struggled with basic tasks like staff management, because I constantly have to switch between the park view and the menu itself. Another way of saying it, is because it is so hidden away right now, I really don’t notice what’s going on. The system in Planet Zoo worked way better, where I was able to adjust matters while still having an overview of the staff roster for example.
The other way the UI is complicating the experience, are the options buttons. For example, the different options for the coaster builder are depicted in a horizontal scroll menu and described with text, while in the previous game they were checkboxes or had an icon depicting the function of it. It feels unnatural, and I had a difficult time getting around and figuring out the options.
This brings me to the next main factor, and that is favoring creativity. While I do like the neutral rides and coaster trains, there are some factors where it is just too much. I’ll give a simple example. In Planet Coaster 1, if I placed down a flat ride, and didn’t like the colors, I had the option of changing 3 or 4 colors. Now in Planet Coaster 2, if I don’t like the colors, I’m forced to change in the range of 18 color presets. While I love to have some options, I do not enjoy taking five minutes to change the color of one flat ride. This could be solved with having a first layer of customizability with only being able to change 3 preset colors and maybe a pattern, and having an option for the real creative people to go deeper and giving them the menu as is. The same goes for other aspects of building like for example the path system; sometimes there are so many options that casual gamers like me really lose overview and frankly give up because they are overwhelmed. There should be a main easy option for the casual gamer, and also an option to dive deeper for the more creative gamer. The only exception so far I found is the scenery brush, because it gives that easy option to create nice foliage fast (although the UI is still clunky).
Another part is that I was disappointed to see that some basic management functions are downgraded from Planet Zoo. For example the staff buildings and maintenance shops, which are just black boxes again, when they were functional buildings in Planet Zoo. The security guards are missing, and while giving us a ride operator staff member, these do not have any impact on the game other than having to make sure they are there.
Anyway, I hope this gave some insight from my perspective. Although I may sound a bit negative, I do like the game, and I really see the potential for it to become a better game than Planet Zoo, and I’m looking forward seeing this game evolve in the coming weeks and months. Congratulations on the launch and good luck in the coming period of development!
