Planet Coaster 2 Preview

Over a decade has passed, but my childhood trips to Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach at Disney World are among my favorite theme park trips of all time. While not devoid of thrills, water parks have a different vibe. There’s a unique mix of giddy joy and relaxation that “normal” theme parks don’t give you.

When Frontier announced that Planet Coaster 2 would add water parks, flumes, pools, and more to the series, I was beyond excited. I began imagining the slides I could build to fill the area surrounded by the best lazy river ever created.

To check out these new water park elements, as well as everything else that’s new in Planet Coaster 2, I headed to Thorpe Park to play the game for a couple of hours and speak to Adam Woods, Senior Executive Producer on the game.

Still a Steep Learning Curve

How your early hours with Planet Coaster 2 go depends on your experience, or lack thereof, with the first game, which is somehow eight years old now. While there are “two tutorial levels that will introduce you to the basics,” as Woods puts it, Planet Coaster 2’s labyrinth of UI drop-down menus and tabs can be a little overwhelming. Often quite important elements are hidden behind five or more clicks into different sections of the tools menu. I played a lot of the first game, but I was still surprised by menus and options hidden behind countless others.

While detailed and useful, the only real way to learn where everything is changed or managed in Planet Coaster 2 is to play for a while and increase your familiarity. Much like the first game, the second game will be quite overwhelming for newcomers.

One of the two tutorials does introduce you to the intricacies of water park management, though. Disappointingly, I didn’t get the chance to play a water-specific scenario, but I was allowed to mess around with adding water rides and pools to standard parks. Frontier has done a great job of ensuring water rides are built using the same tools as coasters while keeping them unique in how they work.

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New ride decorations. Image Credit: Frontier Developments

The New Water Park Management

You can build a platform and run as many different slides from it as you like, which lets you set up a variety of rides in one small location. As long as each one runs into a pool, and you have the water circulation system set up properly so that they’re not grimey and green, everything will run smoothly. You can charge money for those rides individually too, even though park goers need to buy a ‘pool pass’ on top of the park entry price to use any water facilities.

Otherwise, Frontier has ensured that water rides are built and managed in the same way as any standard ride. Woods said that the studio wanted to “make sure that level of authenticity and that feeling [you get with standard rides] came across with swimming pools and flumes and body slides, while still being able to build them piece by piece.”

I really hope I can build my fantasy of the best lazy river of all time, full of surprises and surrounded by silly bits of scenery. I was told I’ll be able to “go crazy with it” but rides still need to hit the required nausea and excitement ratings any roller coaster would.

Much like a ride that technically works but would decapitate someone if they actually rode it, like another journalist built during our preview, any water ride that’s not fun will just be ignored, and therefore make no money.

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New water rides. Image Credit: Frontier Developments

Increased Path Freedom

Planet Coaster 2‘s other big new feature aims to improve one of the first game’s biggest frustrations, the creation of paths. The new tool simplifies things in some extremely welcome ways. Attendees will now queue on normal paths if necessary, so you don’t have to have queue-specific paths that ruin the aesthetic of your park. Also, the addition of staff paths allows you to hide staff buildings and other facilities in places the general public won’t see.

Best of all though, the new tool allows you to easily make wider plaza areas with a grid system. There’s no more fumbling around trying to build larger path areas placing it all square by square. It’ll make creating authentic entrance areas so much easier. I’m imagining a Magic Kingdom Main Street style section, not that I have nearly enough skill or imagination to build something like that. It’ll be easier than in the first game, at least. Creating standard paths can still be a little awkward though, especially if you’re having to build stairs or avoid tricky terrain.

I also asked Woods about the other new features in Planet Coaster 2 and how they change the game. When it comes to modern theme park features, he’s “excited to see the switch tracks or the drop tracks and tilt tracks,” as they add new options for the creation of drops on coasters.

A new power system, which sees you connecting generators throughout your park, has also been added. If you’ve played Zoo Tycoon or the Jurassic World Evolution games, you’ll know exactly what to expect, but the system is another thing to think about. I think it’s a bit simple to really add any complexity to ride construction, but how you hide generators from the punters is something more interesting if it’s something you’re concerned about in your park building. I’m not sure how much it plays into each park goer’s enjoyment level, but I was told that “they don’t want to see it just like in real life. They don’t want to see a big old power generator and a distributor.”

I did think the crowds looked better too. The groups of people are more dense, without losing the brilliant and playful personality of Planet Coaster. Zoom in on people walking around the park and you’ll notice the silliness of the game. They’ll be bumbling around, stupid looks on their faces, moaning about not being able to find the food they want. It’s a fun juxtaposition to the seriousness of the park management side.

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New pathing options - Image Credit: Frontier Developments

Planet Coaster’s Personality Remains

The fun personality extends to the career mode once again too. The characters you know and love from the first game return to teach you the ropes and run you through the phenomenally designed scenarios. The dialogue writing is simply excellent throughout, making the otherwise intensive tutorials as engaging as possible.

Woods also let me know his tips for building the best park in Planet Coaster 2. He said, “I would say, look at utilizing the blueprints. They’re a very good way of building very nice, attractive scenery, and are new to Planet Coaster. They’re a nice way of being able to build up your park nice and quickly, but still look great. And the guests will really enjoy that as well. And then you could use that to inspire yourself to start to building your own things as well.”

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Ride customisation options. Image Credit: Frontier Developments

I think that’s a great tip because, while building the coasters is simple enough, making them look like you have them pictured in your head is a lot harder. Now that the game helps you in that aspect, not just giving you the basic rides to build around, you’ll be able to make parks that look great as well as make money.

Honestly though, the overarching Planet Coaster 2 experience isn’t as different to the original game as I expected. While there are clear improvements in presentation - most notably the lighting effects and the detail when zooming in - the structure of the game and how you build parks are largely the same.

Of course, the first game is about as good as it gets for theme park management games, but I expected a little more in terms of new features from a sequel. Hopefully the water ride aspects allow you to really change up the flow (sorry) of the game, and they don’t just replace roller coasters in standard park design. Either way, I’m excited to dive into the new features to build a park that rivals the Typhoon Lagoons and Blizzard Beaches that I found so magical when I was young.