Planet Coaster

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 442 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 328 out of 442
  2. Mixed: 42 out of 442
  3. Negative: 72 out of 442
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  1. Wablamo0821
    Dec 27, 2016
    4
    It feels as though there are still some glaring issues, missing building pieces, not enough of other scenery pieces (bushes, benches, bins, etc), management and UI issues, and some much needed QOL improvements that are preventing me from saying it's a complete game. It's playable, and most of the time fun (whilst ignoring certain issues), but sometimes certain things can be veryIt feels as though there are still some glaring issues, missing building pieces, not enough of other scenery pieces (bushes, benches, bins, etc), management and UI issues, and some much needed QOL improvements that are preventing me from saying it's a complete game. It's playable, and most of the time fun (whilst ignoring certain issues), but sometimes certain things can be very frustrating.

    I've actually thought about shelving the game until the Spring, and then coming back to see what improves over the next few months. I played RCT3 off and on like that until Soaked! was released. Once Soaked hit, I went RCT crazy! I went even crazier with Wild! because at that point you could start building underground. Ehhhhhh... we'll see... I'm hoping my interest doesn't wane too much right now, because I currently don't have any other games that I'm looking forward to in the near future.    … Expand
  2. disappointedgam
    Dec 26, 2016
    0
    If you look closely, you'll notice that vast majority of the positive reviews were written on the day this game came out. This applies to both critics and regular Joe customers. In other words, they were all written based on a few hours of gameplay.

    I enjoyed the game a lot when I first started playing it, but frankly this game was pushed out before it was finished, and that becomes    If you look closely, you'll notice that vast majority of the positive reviews were written on the day this game came out. This applies to both critics and regular Joe customers. In other words, they were all written based on a few hours of gameplay.

    I enjoyed the game a lot when I first started playing it, but frankly this game was pushed out before it was finished, and that becomes more apparent the more you play.

    At least the game was somewhat fun for your first few hours before the latest patch, but then Frontier went and gave us this "FREE WINTER UPDATE" which introduced a very poorly implemented ride reputation mechanic that makes the game incredibly not fun. If they'd spent half the time testing out their new feature as they did giving themselves butt-pats for giving it to us "FOR FREE", maybe it would've been actually a good thing instead of the terrible mess it is.    … Expand
  3. uec397
    Dec 19, 2016
    3
    Well, it's not the worse game I've ever played, but it is one of the most boring. If all you enjoy doing is spending lots of time placing walls and roofs over and around shops and bathrooms or building coasters then this game you will like. But, if you want to build and manage a theme park, you should go back to RCT3 from over ten years ago.

    This game is pretty to look at, but simply    Well, it's not the worse game I've ever played, but it is one of the most boring. If all you enjoy doing is spending lots of time placing walls and roofs over and around shops and bathrooms or building coasters then this game you will like. But, if you want to build and manage a theme park, you should go back to RCT3 from over ten years ago.

    This game is pretty to look at, but simply falls short in every other category. If's quite boring and bland. It has lots of different coaster styles but little of anything else. The parks are very small. Scenery around a coaster seems to be more important than if the coaster is actually exciting.

    Each consecutive update breaks the game a little bit more. I have a PC that exceeds recommended specifications, the game ran quite smooth until they began patching it. Now, not so much. It glitches and the graphics flicker, and more issues have come up with each patch as far as game play are concerned. I have around 21 hours in the game, and most of that was building structures, there is not much else to do. I have since quit playing and while hoping for some decent promised winter update with new content, sadly missed the deadline for a refund from steam.

    It has pretty good reviews overall, but I suspect that a lot of that has to do with how poor of a game RCTW turned out to be. People who wanted a modern version of RCT3 so much they could almost taste it are somehow able to look past how weak this game really is.

    The following will tell you everything you need to know about this game. I began a challenge park. There is no scenario editor. Plopped down 3 flat rides. 1 coaster. A drink stall. A food stall. A bathroom. Trained my janitors and maintenance employees two levels and had $30,000 in profits in about an hour and a half with nearly a thousand guests in the park. There is no challenge, and there is no need to worry about management because it is nonexistent. It is merely a decent coaster builder and a boring one at that.    … Expand
  4. bigmitch
    Dec 22, 2016
    0
    The reputation side of things, while good in theory has been poorly implemented. Most people do not like having to replace the rides so quickly. It's not fun and it isn't actually realistic. Also, we NEED an option to autodelete scenary. There's nothing more annoying that the constant "obstruction" message coming up because a rock is in the way. The option to clear areas like drawing aThe reputation side of things, while good in theory has been poorly implemented. Most people do not like having to replace the rides so quickly. It's not fun and it isn't actually realistic. Also, we NEED an option to autodelete scenary. There's nothing more annoying that the constant "obstruction" message coming up because a rock is in the way. The option to clear areas like drawing a huge square like the rostas would be great too.

    Guests balancing needs a lot of work. Think about real parks. People will wait HOURS for the best coasters. This does not happen here where people will refuse to queue up or not pending on ridiculous queue requirements. I would also like to see more depth in general added. Weather and the introduction of Umbrellas from Information booths again. Ride accidents and guests fearful of getting on the ride which should effect Park Reputation. More balancing around shops too. At the moment you can have a shop open and not one person visit it. Yet other shops can be so overrun, that rides are abandoned.    … Expand
  5. FinalMantasyX
    Dec 27, 2016
    4
    Planet Coaster as a whole feels incomplete and/or rushed. I feel like we're still beta testing the game and that it launched far too early and is missing far too many quality of life features. The game is rich and full of content and gorgeous and ambitious, but a lot of things just feel a bit lacking, and it seems that most reviewers lean towards agreement with that.

    -The game launched    Planet Coaster as a whole feels incomplete and/or rushed. I feel like we're still beta testing the game and that it launched far too early and is missing far too many quality of life features. The game is rich and full of content and gorgeous and ambitious, but a lot of things just feel a bit lacking, and it seems that most reviewers lean towards agreement with that.

    -The game launched without things like shop stock management, syncing shops, mass management of rides/guests/staff, no guest list, no scenario editor, and a few other basics from the genre including RCT3 which was entirely developed by Frontier

    -They added a new aspect of management just a week ago, which must have been planned well in advance. It also doesn't work very well on top of that and is the victim of a lot of criticism (ride reputation)

    -The game's management tools and gameplay are being regarded in essentially every review of the game as incomplete or lacking

    -Major tools that had been criticized through the game's entire development launched without being changed (like the path tool which had additions but is still a mess to deal with, and also noted in many reviews as being a chore)

    -Content was cut (Go-karts, security, picnic tables, guests getting lost, the scenario editor was planned at one point in some capacity, and I'm sure there's others I'm forgetting)

    -The game's ride count is less than half that of RCT3's base game, and also the shop count

    -Even new content feels incomplete, such as the shops we just got not having proper signage included. The arctic biome map was also 50% the size it should have been, which is a fair mistake to amke and was fixed within 24 hours, but it is still one of those "Nobody noticed?" situations where the player has to wonder how they could find something in 2 minutes that nobody on the dev team noticed at all :P Which isa problem in game development in general, not specific to PC. Almost every developer misses obvious things the players find in minutes, not Frontier's fault I suppose.

    -The water rides launched incomplete, log flume was updated in the winter patch with more controls and options

    -Game balance in pretty much every way is not balanced. Guests massively over-prefer water rides, guests hate queues that are 3 minutes long, guests storm certain kinds of shops, you're rolling in cash at all times, there's little in the way of "conflict", staff training is hardly ever necessary and the benefits are not very noticable, so on

    -The build and scenery systems are disjointed and follow different confusing rules, and AndyC has confirmed that they were developed as separate systems when the build mode wasn't entirely figured out yet, and they simply were never unified, which I would consider incomplete implementation

    -There are a number of bugs with building that make it harder than it was in alphas (pieces don't attempt to auto-stack anymore, pieces drop to ground level when duplicated sometimes, pieces just in general move around in unexpected ways, stuff like that)

    -Many build objects are missing between different build sets (Not every set has all the same pieces to make all the same things)

    -Many build objects and even some rides can't be recolored when it seems like they should be recolorable

    -At least two building pieces (castle minaret) are apparently placeholder models

    -The game's scenarios were made before the map size was finalized and are thus forever stuck in small maps

    I don't think enough of the game's features are complete enough to count as a complete game. I do feel like I'm playing an early access game. A really good one, but early access all the same.

    I'm hoping it stops feeling like that soon enough, but for now, that's how it seems. The career mode/challenge mode are unplayable to me because the management just isn't there and what is there just isn't balanced. Every time I go to play the game I have to fight against balance issues and tools to do what I want to do. The game is absolutely complete in terms of art assets and whatnot (except for missing building pieces) but when it comes to game mechanics, it's not quite there yet. We did just get an entire new biome and scenery set/building set, which are beautiful (the gingerbread set is my favorite in the game), but art assets are a dime a dozen and arguably the easiest thing to add to and improve. What we really need serious improvements on are core game mechanics, which feel like they're still in a sort of testing and balancing phase.

    Hopefully it continues to improve quickly in that regard. But I feel like we'd be having a better time of it if the game was still in beta, and not considered final release, or if the beta had been an appropriate length to gather feedback on all these aspects of play.    … Expand
  6. gadren
    Dec 22, 2016
    0
    I was hugely excited for this game, and when it first came out I had a lot of fun.
    However, with each update, Frontier somehow makes this game worse, introducing new bugs and poorly implemented features. And because it is a steam game there is no way to play without the updates you don't like.
    Biggest problems with the game: -Updates introducing bugs: Frontier put a lot of effort    I was hugely excited for this game, and when it first came out I had a lot of fun.
    However, with each update, Frontier somehow makes this game worse, introducing new bugs and poorly implemented features. And because it is a steam game there is no way to play without the updates you don't like.

    Biggest problems with the game:

    -Updates introducing bugs: Frontier put a lot of effort into patting their own asses about giving us a "free update" as a "Christmas present". This update included some holiday decorations and rides that should have really been in the game to begin with. Oh boy, you gave us bumper cars! Maybe you should've spent more than a week in Beta and given something that basic to use to begin with? But in addition to these "free features", they also added an incredibly poorly balanced ride aging mechanic that makes your ride only new for 3 in-game months, then aging and old for 15 in-game years (1 year passes about every hour and 15 minutes of the game passing) before hitting "classic". Peeps basically will not ride on "old" rides. So basically you either have to keep deleting and replacing the same ride every 15 minutes, or leave your ride abandoned for nearly a real-life day before people suddenly like it again. I get what they were going for, but the balance on that, like many other things in game, is total garbage.
    -Lack of content: There is a small handful of flat rides, and even small amount of shops, and there are many basic coasters you cannot build. No reverse chainlifts. No mixing of a launcher and a chain lift in the same coaster. No launchers and inversions on the same coaster. You can't build Boomerang or Montezuma's Revenge or California Screaming with the game's current coaster building system, because it is so inflexible.
    -Disconnected systems: The different systems in the game were developed by different groups that weren't talking to each other, and it shows. The scenery system is completely different from the building system, and they do not play nice together at all.
    -One type of terrain per map: Did you want to have a park like Disneyland with an Alpine mountain in one part and a small desert in another part? Yeah? Tough. You get desert, or you get snow, or you get grass. No mixing and matching.

    The game is very pretty, I will give it that. But the actual game part of the game is nearly non-existent. If I just wanted to build pretty stuff without worrying about gameplay, I'd just fire up my copy of 3DS Max.

    I was really hoping for more. This game has so much potential, but Frontier really just doesn't seem to be giving it much effort.    … Expand
  7. bblitzy1
    Nov 19, 2016
    1
    Planet Coaster? More like Planet Scenery. Also, there is very little management involved, making this game relatively boring. There are also many bugs still present.
  8. Thaek1
    Dec 26, 2016
    0
    The new reputation system is a COMPLETE MISS. After the rides go into "old" they are just money sucks that no one uses anymore. So I have to either delete them and recreate them, which is very annoying. Also the scenarios all got a LOT harder because you are balancing at the core of the game without thinking about the actual implications... The only way to actually beat the more difficultThe new reputation system is a COMPLETE MISS. After the rides go into "old" they are just money sucks that no one uses anymore. So I have to either delete them and recreate them, which is very annoying. Also the scenarios all got a LOT harder because you are balancing at the core of the game without thinking about the actual implications... The only way to actually beat the more difficult scenarios now is to BUILD AS FAST AS YOU CAN, you took the "taking time and enjoying building new coasters" out of the game with this crap system.… Expand
  9. serpentrax
    Dec 28, 2016
    4
    Almost every feature or innovation in this game seems to be only half-baked. Excellent graphics? Sure, but virtually every player runs into performance issues sooner or later. Simulation Involved and the infamous Guest Brain? Excellent on paper, but guests are dumb as bricks in practice. Building tools? So much potential here thanks the Advanced Movement Gizmo, Undo system and DuplicateAlmost every feature or innovation in this game seems to be only half-baked. Excellent graphics? Sure, but virtually every player runs into performance issues sooner or later. Simulation Involved and the infamous Guest Brain? Excellent on paper, but guests are dumb as bricks in practice. Building tools? So much potential here thanks the Advanced Movement Gizmo, Undo system and Duplicate features. But the unflexible Grid throws you straight back to the limitation of 2002's RCT2. Let alone the mentioned incomplete sets, weird glitches in the Building mechanism, finicky an inconsistent Flexicolor tools. The Signs were so promising in the first concepts but what we got today is ugly and hardly usable in many cases.

    I just hope Frontier really finishes up the existing half-baked aspects and systems before starting groundwork on entirely new features like waterparks, safari stuff, content packs or whatever surprises they have in mind.    … Expand
  10. replica1
    Dec 28, 2016
    2
    Planet Coaster is not even close to being a complete game.

    Could tell just how rushed the release was with how dense the timeline between "Alpha", "Beta" and release day were and by piecing together stuff said during the interviews and whatnot. Some stuff was cut, or didn't make it in time, and a lot of features weren't properly tested before being implemented, or didn't receive proper    Planet Coaster is not even close to being a complete game.

    Could tell just how rushed the release was with how dense the timeline between "Alpha", "Beta" and release day were and by piecing together stuff said during the interviews and whatnot.
    Some stuff was cut, or didn't make it in time, and a lot of features weren't properly tested before being implemented, or didn't receive proper polish, mostly quality of life things and balancing.    … Expand
  11. DreamMaster
    Dec 28, 2016
    1
    Is it complete? No but i was not expecting it to be for like 2 years.

    Is it good enough for realease? Close but no quite. There a few glaring issue and content that feel is missing here and there. Should updates come for free? Well guest ai, management and missing pieces in some theme definitely. I'm also a little baffled by the lack of track ride. They improve the lack of shops    Is it complete? No but i was not expecting it to be for like 2 years.

    Is it good enough for realease? Close but no quite. There a few glaring issue and content that feel is missing here and there.

    Should updates come for free? Well guest ai, management and missing pieces in some theme definitely. I'm also a little baffled by the lack of track ride. They improve the lack of shops (although I'm still waiting for one custom generic shop)

    Also im very unhappy with collisions dectection... Just saying.    … Expand
  12. cerealfruitcake
    Dec 28, 2016
    4
    The game launched with a severe lack of blue prints for the themes and coasters. They added more since the last update so at least they're improving it. But there's also the problem with having a tracked car ride and there's no theme option for all the unique themes they gave us. You get a cat, vintage car or now a sleigh. That feels very unfinished to me.

    There's also still a lack of    The game launched with a severe lack of blue prints for the themes and coasters. They added more since the last update so at least they're improving it. But there's also the problem with having a tracked car ride and there's no theme option for all the unique themes they gave us. You get a cat, vintage car or now a sleigh. That feels very unfinished to me.

    There's also still a lack of signs for all the rides and shops. We are missing themed food/drink and gift shops and what happened to the unique shaped food stalls? Did those get nixed because of time constraints? I love that you guys give us these shops that go well with scenery but if you're just changing an interior give us more choices!

    We can't even change hats or have unique hat stalls for different themes. I also think 5 flat maps total for challenge/sandbox is very weak, there should have been more diversity in the maps for each biome. There's a reason why "starter maps" are popular on the workshop but you shouldn't have to rely on the workshop to get more than just a flat starter map.

    There are elements that are definitely lacking and feel half-baked.    … Expand
  13. MattyB2
    Dec 26, 2016
    0
    Ever since the latest update IT'S SIMPLY NOT FUN. Before It was fun to see your park grow, now it's a micro management mess of deleting and recreating rides all the time to stay in the green. I really don't know what they were thinking. It also doesn't make any sense that I can just delete a ride and plant the very same ride and people use it again. This is especially crap for rollerEver since the latest update IT'S SIMPLY NOT FUN. Before It was fun to see your park grow, now it's a micro management mess of deleting and recreating rides all the time to stay in the green. I really don't know what they were thinking. It also doesn't make any sense that I can just delete a ride and plant the very same ride and people use it again. This is especially crap for roller coasters where it's difficult to save and rebuild them.

    All of this should have been tested in Alpha. The game was rushed SMH    … Expand
  14. kenepo4u
    Jun 28, 2020
    0
    Bring more DLC. Although this is a good game, it’s not evolving anymore, and we’re going to attack it until we finally get another DLC pack.
  15. mco301301
    Feb 5, 2017
    4
    Not optimized. My computer is pretty solid and has never has given me trouble on any games (i5, 16GB RAM 750Ti) Once my park got to a medium size I couldn't get over 5 FPS on the LOWEST settings. If you don't have a $1,000+ rig then dont bother with this game. Hope they can find a way to optimize it better.
  16. neldot
    Apr 29, 2018
    3
    I strongly advise to not buy this game at the current state and price. It lacks a lot of essential things in the management, in the UI, in the attractions and in the scenery areas. It's still so incomplete when compared with the previous theme park game from the some Developer, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. The only thing that is very beautiful is the graphics, but this comes at the expenses ofI strongly advise to not buy this game at the current state and price. It lacks a lot of essential things in the management, in the UI, in the attractions and in the scenery areas. It's still so incomplete when compared with the previous theme park game from the some Developer, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. The only thing that is very beautiful is the graphics, but this comes at the expenses of the high specs required to run the game. With bigger parks, it runs barely @25/30 fps with a powerful last generation rig, while it's almost unplayable with older rigs.… Expand
  17. MadMaxFuryRoad
    Aug 26, 2018
    4
    This game is alright and the visuals are stunning, but I don’t play anymore because I gave up trying to move my mouse around the park. It’s way too hard to play this game on a computer and they should make an touch-screen version, like rct3.
  18. Gurkburk92
    May 2, 2021
    1
    No ingame tutorial or direction on where to click or what to do. Clicking Career and starting a game puts you on a built map without and directions at all.

    Such a pity.
  19. raumakustik
    Dec 18, 2022
    2
    It is a known thing that Frontier Dev. gave us with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 a pretty good Theme Park Creator. Now, "only" 12 Years later they try to compete with said Franchise - and Fail. While the Game looks good , no doubt, its game-play is bland and uninspired. It seems like Frontier was more concerned, with the graphics than the actual gameplay. Menus are confusing and the less saidIt is a known thing that Frontier Dev. gave us with RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 a pretty good Theme Park Creator. Now, "only" 12 Years later they try to compete with said Franchise - and Fail. While the Game looks good , no doubt, its game-play is bland and uninspired. It seems like Frontier was more concerned, with the graphics than the actual gameplay. Menus are confusing and the less said about the "Tutorial" the better..… Expand

Awards & Rankings

32
#32 Best PC Game of 2016
39
#39 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
51
#51 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 57 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 57
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 57
  3. Negative: 0 out of 57
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 29, 2017
    100
    Finally, a new amusement park tycoon king appeared. Playability is a brilliant game that lets you try every corner of your imagination. [Issue#277]
  2. Games.cz
    Jul 12, 2017
    90
    A maniacally detailed and complex system of scenery and rollercoaster construction ensures that if there is at least a piece of handyman in you, then you will spend hundreds of hours in Planet Coaster easily. And you will have fun. Players who are looking for dynamic playability or challenge will leave without a buck, but for the builders the game is a paradise.
    Read full review
  3. BaziCenter
    Feb 10, 2017
    70
    You’ll rarely face a situation where you have an idea that the game wouldn’t let you expand on. Planet Coaster is just the most complete theme-park simulation game available.
    Read full review
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