Our experience. Not what you think, it is!

Inspector G.

I
This is a preliminary review. I will expand on it at a later date.

Edit 1: yes. 19.November.

I have no idea where the negative reviews come from, but I think they don't do justice to the game and especially the release.

Edit 2 : yes, it has flaws. It is unplayable for us? No. But it raises a lot of frustration. FRUSTRATION especially with the zoom out feature, ..multi-select.

We have two computer systems here: Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM, RTX 3060 with 12 GB VRAM.

The game runs very smoothly. No crashes. Thanks to the good and extensive settings, we can play the game in 1440p on ULTRA. Sure, that might change with mega parks, but then the graphics settings will simply be reduced a bit.

Edit 3 : May work on smaller parks. If it gets big and/or complex, we have to turn down the graphics for sure. It isn't a magic game that scales automatically. But so far: 2 crashes in more than 90 hours.

The function to use the pie menu with ALT is very, very pleasant! So far, I have nothing to complain about with the user interface. If I find something that really bothers me, I will add it here.

Edit 4 : yes. I use it a lot. Still. BUT THE UI HAS TO CHANGE. TOO MUCH NESTED MENUS AND WAY TOO MANY CLICKS. Scenery should be sorted more logical as well.

I am really looking forward to playing TOGETHER with console players and building parks! Or FINALLY being able to experience the parks of console players live! There were so many console parks in Planet Coaster 1 that I would have loved to see and experience!


I also like the attitude of these people ;)


The Planet Games community is colorful and friendly! Don’t let anyone spoil your fun!

So far, I haven’t found anything that couldn’t be easily fixed or that bothers me enough to write a negative review here.

Edit 5 : True. It can be fixed. I hope it will.

On the other hand, I also think it’s unfair to vent frustration here just because some people are in a bad mood or because X-Y is NOT in the game YET.

In my opinion, the release was a success. It’s definitely not a second Cities: Skylines 2!

Edit 6 : yes. It still runs great and looks much better as c:s 2!!!!

As I said, I also think it’s unfair to the development team, who worked hard on it, to badmouth the release with negative reviews.

Edit 7 : yes. Too much negativity for me. Still.

I recommend this game! And from here, it will only get better for sure! <3

Edit 8: yep.

Happy building!
Edit 9 : OF COURSE. Because the management does not work, yet.
 
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LustraGaming

L
I don't agree with your review after hours of play. But I still respect your view.

But I guess I might be from a different generation. A generation where we demanded to be respected as pc players and not just be treated like console players with a way more expensive machine.
A younger generation is usually less harsh in their comments/reviews because it's been like this for the majority of their lives. But accepting games that aren't finished is what makes companies not care because they know they will be accepted anyway.

I'm not saying it is a bad game, but I expected more from Frontier, if this was an EA game this would totally be within my expectations.
I bought the game to support Frontier, not even sure if I would be playing the game. But they left me a bit disappointed.

Many of the features that were put forward as big features are in the game and add new elements/playstyles but are also aren't that user friendly.
The amount of time I have spent on minutely getting the paths the shape I wanted by going along the kerb and moving it point by point...
The adding of scenery to rides sounded great, but if you want to use gridded parts you still need to build it like in planco 1. So except for the parts getting stuck to some anchors, nothing really changed.
I tried to theme the "whirly rig" in the past hours, 30 minutes of that was positioning an object in the middle of the rotation. So also not that user friendly.
Sharing with consoles is not a step forward for pc players. An unlimited capacity to download stuff from the workshop now is limited to 1024MB, it may now look like a lot, but once people spent time on their coasters and scenery you'll run out quickly. I looked at the silvarreth coaster and it was 8.5MB, not even sure if it was highly decorated or not.

With my very little experience in UE5, I feel some small easy to implement features are highlighted to hide the flaws.
There are issues in the game that need fixing but should never gotten past any quality control. So I feel it was rushed and I would have preferred them to do the same as in planco 1, give people an alpha to get feedback and actually release a decent game from the start.

Currently for me there are too many bugs, LOD and texture issues to really recommend it.
I'm sure these will be fixed in coming patches but as long as the game isn't polished like it used to be before release I will tell people to wait a bit before buying.
I want players to totally enjoy their first experiences in the game, not have them feel annoyed with small bugs and lose interest.
A player that starts a game that lets them feel like they are in control will keep them interested.

Just my 2 cents
 

Branes51

B
Inspector G. said:
This is a preliminary review. I will expand on it at a later date. I have no idea where the negative reviews come from, but I think they don't do justice to the game and especially the release.

We have two computer systems here: Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM, RTX 3060 with 12 GB VRAM.

The game runs very smoothly. No crashes. Thanks to the good and extensive settings, we can play the game in 1440p on ULTRA. Sure, that might change with mega parks, but then the graphics settings will simply be reduced a bit.

The function to use the pie menu with ALT is very, very pleasant! So far, I have nothing to complain about with the user interface. If I find something that really bothers me, I will add it here.

I am really looking forward to playing TOGETHER with console players and building parks! Or FINALLY being able to experience the parks of console players live! There were so many console parks in Planet Coaster 1 that I would have loved to see and experience!


I also like the attitude of these people ;)


The Planet Games community is colorful and friendly! Don’t let anyone spoil your fun!

So far, I haven’t found anything that couldn’t be easily fixed or that bothers me enough to write a negative review here.

On the other hand, I also think it’s unfair to vent frustration here just because some people are in a bad mood or because X-Y is NOT in the game YET.

In my opinion, the release was a success. It’s definitely not a second Cities: Skylines 2!

As I said, I also think it’s unfair to the development team, who worked hard on it, to badmouth the release with negative reviews.

I recommend this game! And from here, it will only get better for sure! <3

Happy building!
Click to expand...
As I said, I also think it’s unfair to the development team, who worked hard on it, to badmouth the release with negative reviews.

I recommend this game! And from here, it will only get better for sure! <3

And there is the issue. We shouldn't have to wait for it to get better.

You can work hard on a project and it can still be bad or not as good as it should be. I believe they made a very bad decision to cater this game to console players. They released a game which we all know is unfinished. They hyped it up, let their fanboy influencers play the game for two hours, just long enough to try out the new wizbangs, but not enough to see all the major flaws, so that everybody would be excited and preorder the game, knowing full well it wasn't ready. So they deserve every bit of complaint, ranting and vitroil from their gullible, unsuspecting customers.

They have alienated the entire "adult" PC Planet Coaster community from what I can see, myself included. I say adult (over 25) because it seems the younger players are used to getting screwed by games released in an incomplete or broken state.

I'm 73. I've been playing pc games since 1979. I have over 1500 in my collection, digital, cd, and even floppy disks. In those days, you went to CompUSA or Egghead and bought the game on 3.5 disks or later CD. If it was good, it was kept and cherished. If it sucked, it ended up on the trash heap of time. But games were finished when they were sold. They weren't the "unfinished, rushed out the door to get quick sales, we'll fix it in updates or DLC," kind of trash being foisted on a foolishly accepting gaming community. This "modern" gaming business model is a middle finger to the entire gaming community AND IT HAS TO STOP.

Sure, the games had some bugs, but not the infested messes we've seen released in the last decade. I can't speak for the rest of the PC gaming community, but I'm getting fed up with being treated like a mark in a corporate con game. And you younger players are so used to this crap, you're like the pledges in Animal House getting their asses whacked, saying "thank you, sir. May I have another?" So you play the game, hoping, in futility usually, that they'll fix the bugs in an update or DLC. Planet Coaster 1 players know how that worked out. Almost 10 years later, the same bugs still exist in the game, even after a bunch of DLC's. Ever notice how game companies keep adding new wizbang features in the DLC but never fix the glaring bugs?

And Steam's refund policy is an enabler of this nonsense. It's virtually impossible to determine how good a game is in two hours. And they know it. By the time we discover that the game is an unfinished POS, it's too late to refund it, normally.

Now, I'm not saying that Planet Coaster 2 is a bad game, per se. given a few more months of development and playtesting, it could have been great, (except for the lousy console designed UI.) But as it is right now, it's basically a little more developed than the alphas of Planet Coaster 1 we were playing long ago.
 
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Inspector G.

I
Thank you both for the in depth view and informations! Solid opinions!

After some more playtime, i unfortunately have to agree, that it rains a lot whilr unfolding slowly all the bugs, issues and changed things.
 

FoxMcCloud

FoxMcCloud
Hello there,

my playtime of PC2 now reached 77 hours. I can't say that I am not enjoying myself. I am!

I think this game is good! I am anjoying myself.

But that's not the point as I pointed out in my feedback-thread. I am not badmouthing anything. There are just some decisions that are really weird and puzzling that made this good game not be a great game. And as such the feedback is important and contructive criticism is needed.

Especially (and I think it is quite unfair to talk about "their fanboy influencers") as the Youtubers like Rudi Rennkamel pointed out these issues much before release. He sent Frontier an E-Mail with 40 points or so where critical points are and shared his criticism on Youtube. DeLadysigner shares her view of the critical points also.

I don't think the game is bad. I think the game just could be and could and should have been better from the start.
 

rct-uwe1

rct-uwe1
Branes51 said:
Now, I'm not saying that Planet Coaster 2 is a bad game, per se. given a few more months of development and playtesting, it could have been great, (except for the lousy console designed UI.) But as it is right now, it's basically a little more developed than the alphas of Planet Coaster 1 we were playing long ago.
Click to expand...
Actually the game is bad at this status!
I think nobody would say that it won't be better in the future, but it is what they have delivered: an unfinished game. There's so much stuff that's not working properly (because of bugs or because of missing programming -> see edge scrolling, it might be working if they had placed a checkbox to activate it).
I can't compare how it's working on console but for pc everyone knows that's not working well with the ui.

And if you know PC1 or PZ, there is a huge step back compared to what was possible before the release of PC2...
 

Valdo82

V
I guess it really, really depends on what you are doing:

Managment side of things: The game is really bad, money is a no issue, guests are not queueing.

Creative/Building side of things: The game even in this state beats PC1 by a long shot. resizing, smarter snapping, having fun with paths, brush tool, smooth engine, those things make the building aspect of the game a lot more fun then the last game.

And if you know PC1 , there is a huge step forward compared to what was possible before the release of PC2
 

Inspector G.

I
Don't forget the lightning :D

I did a short, cheap video about our first water park, yesterday and what i am really missing is a solution for proper filmaking.

The speed is too high. Either walkspeed or flying speed. Shown in this:


A camera system like in RCT 3 or Planet Zoo would be very welcome.

Maybe a function where you can set the angle of the pov of the game camera. Or even focal length.

At least more comfortable options because this game is based an important amount on content creation.
 

benmrowe

B
Branes51 said:
As I said, I also think it’s unfair to the development team, who worked hard on it, to badmouth the release with negative reviews.

I recommend this game! And from here, it will only get better for sure! <3

And there is the issue. We shouldn't have to wait for it to get better.

You can work hard on a project and it can still be bad or not as good as it should be. I believe they made a very bad decision to cater this game to console players. They released a game which we all know is unfinished. They hyped it up, let their fanboy influencers play the game for two hours, just long enough to try out the new wizbangs, but not enough to see all the major flaws, so that everybody would be excited and preorder the game, knowing full well it wasn't ready. So they deserve every bit of complaint, ranting and vitroil from their gullible, unsuspecting customers.

They have alienated the entire "adult" PC Planet Coaster community from what I can see, myself included. I say adult (over 25) because it seems the younger players are used to getting screwed by games released in an incomplete or broken state.

I'm 73. I've been playing pc games since 1979. I have over 1500 in my collection, digital, cd, and even floppy disks. In those days, you went to CompUSA or Egghead and bought the game on 3.5 disks or later CD. If it was good, it was kept and cherished. If it sucked, it ended up on the trash heap of time. But games were finished when they were sold. They weren't the "unfinished, rushed out the door to get quick sales, we'll fix it in updates or DLC," kind of trash being foisted on a foolishly accepting gaming community. This "modern" gaming business model is a middle finger to the entire gaming community AND IT HAS TO STOP.

Sure, the games had some bugs, but not the infested messes we've seen released in the last decade. I can't speak for the rest of the PC gaming community, but I'm getting fed up with being treated like a mark in a corporate con game. And you younger players are so used to this crap, you're like the pledges in Animal House getting their asses whacked, saying "thank you, sir. May I have another?" So you play the game, hoping, in futility usually, that they'll fix the bugs in an update or DLC. Planet Coaster 1 players know how that worked out. Almost 10 years later, the same bugs still exist in the game, even after a bunch of DLC's. Ever notice how game companies keep adding new wizbang features in the DLC but never fix the glaring bugs?

And Steam's refund policy is an enabler of this nonsense. It's virtually impossible to determine how good a game is in two hours. And they know it. By the time we discover that the game is an unfinished POS, it's too late to refund it, normally.

Now, I'm not saying that Planet Coaster 2 is a bad game, per se. given a few more months of development and playtesting, it could have been great, (except for the lousy console designed UI.) But as it is right now, it's basically a little more developed than the alphas of Planet Coaster 1 we were playing long ago.
Click to expand...
I'm in a very similar boat, although a little younger. There are bugs that simply would not have made it past QA in the 80s and 90s because they couldn't patch in the same way and they would get slaughtered in the gaming press which, back then, was incredibly influential.

Of course, as games have got more and more technically complex, it's led to more bugs in development, but the QA budgets have not risen in line with dev budgets (across the board) and this has only been exacerbated by the ability to live patch games post-release. We are, now, the QA testers and we pay for the privilege of doing it.

Like you, I find plenty to enjoy in PC2, but I find myself lacking in motivation to play because of the bugs. Further, like JWE 1 and 2, this was clearly designed primarily with console players in mind, and that's a terrible shame because the PC release has to be significantly limited and designed for controllers instead of opening up all of the magic with PC's superior resources. I very much look forward to playing it in a couple of months once they've sorted it out a bit, but the constant consolification of PC gaming (particularly management/tycoon games, which are my first love) is such a shame and really putting me off playing.
 

Inspector G.

I
Well, time goes by. But somehow I am not excited enough to play the game. Wow! This was the most anticipated game on my list for a long time. There are still zooming issues when building, and there are too many bugs to enjoy. I also wonder why we can´t set the friction values for every coaster as in planco 1. No, it is for ALL types. So, this game will go into the basement for a while until someone at Frontier finally fixes the game. Makes me sad. But well,.. hope isn`t fully dead, yet.
 

Wagi

Wagi
I appreciate the fact that you haven't been afraid to share honest opinions and to change some of those those opinions as you've spent more time in the game. I really respect that...
 

Digler

D
I like the game, it is worth what I paid as I have hundreds of hrs in it now. I can't wait until the free updates and fixes come. The DLC is going to be bonkers good I hope. All of us 'old timers' in the Planet games were frustrated at the launch as some of the beloved themes and mechanics were missing. We know Frontier is now listening, has heard us, and is fixing things. Thank you, Frontier for listening. Movin' on up in 2025. Woooo!!! p.s. Have a great New Year all you freakparkies.
 

Robert K

R
At least they listened and gave us some updates and fixes this year to start. We got edge scrolling, fireworks, glass, improved water slide physics, which will be further improved in the new year. There are still rides missing from PC1 but hopefully we get some of those back like the Scrambler, Blackout and Centrum as well as new rides like Gravitron which is in RCT3. We need custom music and billboards. I hoped they would allow larger park sizes as well as an editor to make your own biome including one with no hills in the background. There is Parkitect which allows you to have 500 x 500 parks, twice the size of RCT2 and 3, and flat parks but it's still stuck to a grid and peeps look kid sized and graphics not as good as the Planet games. Parkitect does allow custom working rides like RCT3 does.
 

Casti_El

C
I'm still on the fence with the game personally. I think it's been a bit over-hyped which has left people feeling disappointed in it - there's so much missing that (especially veteran PC1 players) were expecting, and it's clearly been created for console players first and foremost. I do agree it's certainly got potential and I'll be looking forward to seeing what it evolves into, but it shouldn't have been released as a "Finished" product in it's current state.

Frontier should have released it as Early Access, used player feedback to really polish/fix the game, then properly released it later with an added bonus for those that paid for early access. This would have had a much better impact on the current player base in my opinion as then the players basically become involved in the development process and less likely to get angry over bugs/issues..
 

Robert K

R
Well, I gambled and bought it early to get the three bonus rides and I bought the deluxe version to have the 10 or so additional rides including the carousel, wave swinger, spiral slide which was in RCT games and new in PC2, tilt-a-whirl, antique cars, etc. It's still far from complete and there are over 20+ rides from PC1 still missing. But, I have faith in Frontier to deliver in the new year with free updates, and more paid DLC later. To me the game is still in WIP status even though it was released in early November.
 
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