Over the past 20 years I've purchased and played all of the previous Rollercoaster Tycoon releases including their expansion packs.
I've put in over one hundred hours in RCT1&2 and almost one thousand hours in RCT3 and loved every minute of it.
I've played through the game's built in campaigns more times than i can count and have also played numerous fan made and friend made maps many times over as well as designing my own.
Currently I've played Planet Coaster for a little under a hundred hours over the past year as i play through the campaign for the first time.
I will probably play through the game's campaigns many times over in the years to come and probably make a few custom maps of my own.
The game-play is pretty ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎ good and there are so many improvements over the previous RCT game that Frontier developed.
In fact I'd say I almost truly love Planet Coaster, and humans tend to be critical of the things they love- myself included.
However there is one single mind-blowing failure of Planet Coaster...
Pick a song from RCT3, any song.
Do you remember listing to that song on certain rides?
Maybe you remember setting that music to the ambient park speakers for a certain themed section of your park?
Or like me you remember setting that song as the background music you heard when up in the sky?
Remember zooming out for an overview of your park, watching guests flow down the paths, listening to that background music as it kept you in the groove as you planned out what to do next?
Pick another song. More memories right? Pick another, more memories yet again yes?
Even to this day,14 years later, that music is still with you.
Play it on your phone or you iPod or Winamp or whatever and you are instantly transported back in time.
When up in the sky taking an overview of my park 90% of the time all i here is silence and or sometimes the wind or maybe if im lucky the ambient track that decides to play...
Not being able to set specific background music that plays while taking that overview is such a missing feature.
As well, not being able to set background music that plays all the time is sore missing.
The only time you hear any kind of mood music is if you add it a ride, or add it to park loudspeakers.
I get it, I'm playing a simulation, trust me, i really like the slightly more serious direction frontier took the game in compared to RCT3. But you know what, I'm also playing a video game...
5 years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, will i have fond faded memories of my time playing Planet Coaster? Probably.
Will i remember any of the music? Probably not a single song except that menu music that got annoying after awhile and couldn't be changed (RCT3's menu music could be changed and even set to cycle through).
And that's a real shame, some of the songs are actually pretty good when i STOP AND SIT THERE DOING NOTHING but listening to them. It's just really unfortunate I can't listen to them as background music that constantly plays while playing this video game...
One of the best things a few open world games I have played in the past handful of years did was give you an in-game radio you could listen to 24/7 that played the games music.
For games that have included this feature they have cemented themselves a placeholder in the conscious/subconscious of it's players for decades to come.
Even RCT3 over a decade ago had a way for music to play 24/7 in game (via background music in the sky), yet sadly Planet Coaster does not have this feature, or even a player radio to listen to...
And that, unfortunately, is the biggest failure of Planet Coaster.
I've put in over one hundred hours in RCT1&2 and almost one thousand hours in RCT3 and loved every minute of it.
I've played through the game's built in campaigns more times than i can count and have also played numerous fan made and friend made maps many times over as well as designing my own.
Currently I've played Planet Coaster for a little under a hundred hours over the past year as i play through the campaign for the first time.
I will probably play through the game's campaigns many times over in the years to come and probably make a few custom maps of my own.
The game-play is pretty ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎ good and there are so many improvements over the previous RCT game that Frontier developed.
In fact I'd say I almost truly love Planet Coaster, and humans tend to be critical of the things they love- myself included.
However there is one single mind-blowing failure of Planet Coaster...
Pick a song from RCT3, any song.
Do you remember listing to that song on certain rides?
Maybe you remember setting that music to the ambient park speakers for a certain themed section of your park?
Or like me you remember setting that song as the background music you heard when up in the sky?
Remember zooming out for an overview of your park, watching guests flow down the paths, listening to that background music as it kept you in the groove as you planned out what to do next?
Pick another song. More memories right? Pick another, more memories yet again yes?
Even to this day,14 years later, that music is still with you.
Play it on your phone or you iPod or Winamp or whatever and you are instantly transported back in time.
When up in the sky taking an overview of my park 90% of the time all i here is silence and or sometimes the wind or maybe if im lucky the ambient track that decides to play...
Not being able to set specific background music that plays while taking that overview is such a missing feature.
As well, not being able to set background music that plays all the time is sore missing.
The only time you hear any kind of mood music is if you add it a ride, or add it to park loudspeakers.
I get it, I'm playing a simulation, trust me, i really like the slightly more serious direction frontier took the game in compared to RCT3. But you know what, I'm also playing a video game...
5 years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, will i have fond faded memories of my time playing Planet Coaster? Probably.
Will i remember any of the music? Probably not a single song except that menu music that got annoying after awhile and couldn't be changed (RCT3's menu music could be changed and even set to cycle through).
And that's a real shame, some of the songs are actually pretty good when i STOP AND SIT THERE DOING NOTHING but listening to them. It's just really unfortunate I can't listen to them as background music that constantly plays while playing this video game...
One of the best things a few open world games I have played in the past handful of years did was give you an in-game radio you could listen to 24/7 that played the games music.
For games that have included this feature they have cemented themselves a placeholder in the conscious/subconscious of it's players for decades to come.
Even RCT3 over a decade ago had a way for music to play 24/7 in game (via background music in the sky), yet sadly Planet Coaster does not have this feature, or even a player radio to listen to...
And that, unfortunately, is the biggest failure of Planet Coaster.
