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. teknotel
    Nov 22, 2016
    5
    A shallow game for a shallow generation. There really is little behind the nice scenery and graphics. It fails to provide any type of challenge. Theme park from 1994 has more going on under the hood in regards to management and how your decisions effect visitors. No matter what you bulld your park will be full and have the exact same ratios of visitors 1:1:1, kids, teens and adults. ButA shallow game for a shallow generation. There really is little behind the nice scenery and graphics. It fails to provide any type of challenge. Theme park from 1994 has more going on under the hood in regards to management and how your decisions effect visitors. No matter what you bulld your park will be full and have the exact same ratios of visitors 1:1:1, kids, teens and adults. But none of that matters because this game has..... super fan boys. People who lie about the game and down vote any one with opposing opinion, they are so loud in their praise that it is very hard to find anything out about the game. If you are looking to put scenery on a map with no consequence or care this is the game for you. If you want to play an actual tycoon game this is basically fraud.… Expand
  2. Jrud05
    Nov 18, 2016
    5
    Overall I have neutral satisfaction with this game as I feel it lacks in content. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of stuff in this game but it feels like it's mostly scenery. I would have liked to have seen more rides. The game also fails to incororate basic ride functions such as reverse chain lift and dualing coaster operations.
    I'm a bit shocked that weather was not included in the    Overall I have neutral satisfaction with this game as I feel it lacks in content. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of stuff in this game but it feels like it's mostly scenery. I would have liked to have seen more rides. The game also fails to incororate basic ride functions such as reverse chain lift and dualing coaster operations.
    I'm a bit shocked that weather was not included in the base game. All along, since the Alpha, I've seen the sunshine in the bottom right corner and just assumed weather would naturally be part of the base game, but that's not so. Our information kiosks are missing umbellas from the old franchise, as a matter of fact they don't even have park maps, which seems like would be easy to add.
    I was pleasantly surprised in the amount of bugs that were fixed between the very last beta update yesterday until todays launch today, however some bugs do still exist, even bugs that were made aware to Frontier during the beta.
    Guests are too picky about queue lengths in my opinion, it's understandable that 60-70% of guests may not want to wait in a very long line but once a line gets so long, nobody will queue for the ride, regardless of how much scenery that you have in the queue. Speaking of scenery in the queue, I believe that the requirements are a bit high.
    The graphics in Planet Coaster are absolutely stunning to say the least. I'm truly still amazed to this day of how beautiful the game looks.
    A lot of folks were really upset about the size of the parks and PC made them 2.5x larger but I fail to see how all of this land is going to be used considering the lack of content available in the game.
    The biggest issue that I have is that the game has very few management options for people like me who really want to get into the grind of running a theme park, not just building one.
    We really need more content, for free, in the base game. With nearly 40 hours on record with this game, including Beta, I'm already bored.
    That button that you're about to push says was my review helpful? It doesn't say "does this review agree with your feelings towards the game", so stop pushing that it's not helpful just because you like the game.    … Expand
  3. stephanber
    Nov 17, 2016
    6
    The game have great graphics. You can build your own roller coaster and that's very very cool. It could be the best theme park game ever but they screwed the management part and that's a shame. This game is EASY. Too easy.
    I mean, money is never a problem (maybe the first 5 minutes of the game). They did a very cosmetic game but didn't put any "management" in it.
    So, when you have    The game have great graphics. You can build your own roller coaster and that's very very cool. It could be the best theme park game ever but they screwed the management part and that's a shame. This game is EASY. Too easy.
    I mean, money is never a problem (maybe the first 5 minutes of the game). They did a very cosmetic game but didn't put any "management" in it.
    So, when you have played 4-5 hours, built your park then...then..nothing. No problems to solve, no difficulties. So the game become boring..

    That's my opinion.

    Maybe a patch could add some management detail or difficulty but I highly doubt it.. Nowadays, everything is about cosmetic...    … Expand
  4. Vaulie
    Aug 15, 2020
    7
    A great management sim, and most of the challenges are quite difficult. The level of customisation is super impressive. However, some UI issues and controls are quite difficult to handle. At times the sheer volume of detail can be quite overwhelming to manage also. A nice change of pace to play inbetween the usual buffet of shooters and RPG's.
  5. Creery
    Jun 28, 2019
    7
    There is no denying that this game is well made. it looks good, can be great fun and plays well. There is also no denying that you can create some wonderful parks if you have absolutely nothing else to do, including work. It can take hours upon hours to create even a decent looking small park which for me is massively frustrating. The path mechanics also very glitchy and annoying sometimes.
  6. MisterZorin
    Apr 19, 2017
    7
    After playing the game for a couple of months I have to say I'm not as excited as before.

    The week Planet Coaster released I gave the game a 10/10 on Metacritic. I thought this was gonna be the next RollerCoaster Tycoon. The developers were close, but I'm annoyed by a few things: First of all the performance. When I started my first park the game performed very well on my PC. But the    After playing the game for a couple of months I have to say I'm not as excited as before.

    The week Planet Coaster released I gave the game a 10/10 on Metacritic. I thought this was gonna be the next RollerCoaster Tycoon. The developers were close, but I'm annoyed by a few things:

    First of all the performance. When I started my first park the game performed very well on my PC. But the more I started building the lower the frames per second got. Cities Skylines has the same problem, but it's not nearly as bad as Planet Coaster.

    Besides the performance problems the mechanics aren't ideal either.
    - Placing simple objects like benches or lampposts cost more time than it should be.
    - Building is unnecessary difficult.
    - Water isn't real in Planet Coaster. It doesn't do anything and placing it is also unnecessary difficult.

    Also, the simulation part of the game doesn't come close to RCT. It's all way too simple.

    In the end I have to admit that (Open)RCT is still more addictive and fun than Planet Coaster.    … Expand
  7. Sojum
    Jan 22, 2017
    6
    Full disclosure - I don't generally play or favor sim games, but picked this one up after having fun with my daughter in Roblox Theme Park Tycoon. There are surprisingly similar concepts between the two.

    PC is pleasant looking. I haven't figured out yet what the point is in creating my own avatar if I can't walk him around the park, but there's that initial element to the game. From    Full disclosure - I don't generally play or favor sim games, but picked this one up after having fun with my daughter in Roblox Theme Park Tycoon. There are surprisingly similar concepts between the two.

    PC is pleasant looking. I haven't figured out yet what the point is in creating my own avatar if I can't walk him around the park, but there's that initial element to the game. From there, you get to plunge right into objectives or take your time in sandbox modes. Links to tutorial videos are available, but no actual in-game tutorials, where they are sorely needed. There's some intuitiveness to the interface thanks to my Roblox experience, but there are a lot of moving parts to the game that would greatly benefit from some early hand-holding.

    There are a ton of rides and pre-made coasters to choose from, and they're all well designed and animated. You can ride them virtually through camera changes. Watch from afar or up close. Even choose your seat. It's fun to watch the coaster riders from in front of the coaster looking back, as they throw their hands up on drops and scream. Passively observing bumper cars isn't quite as thrilling, but We'll overlook that. :)

    Once you get past the rides though, the game begins to suffer from a lack of materials to build from and populate your park with. Maybe they're expected users to supplement collections through Steam Workbench, but there is a disappointingly limited vision that boxes designs into one of only several categories: sci-fi, pirate, planet coaster, western, and fairytale. And none of the themes is very well fleshed up. You might find on choice in style of any given item at best. At worst, you'll be find your chosen them has squat in many categories. Sci-Fi in particular. The game does better with nature, but for a $45 game, I expect so many more landscaping options, path styles, not being tied down to a theme, etc. Still, there's satisfaction in laying it all out - what is available - and seeing the people coming and going. Even in sandbox mode, rides break down though (unless I'm missing a setting that requires another absent tutorial) even in sandbox mode, so don't think you're going to kick back and take her easy with an infinite wallet.

    Lastly, the navigation suffers from two different camera modes that are both awkward. Here's where being able to physically walk your avatar through the park to inspect it and test rides would have been a much better option. Instead, you can flightsim a camera through the park at ground-ish level. Once you figure out that you can switch between modes, that's half the battle. The default setting is a strange polevault-like arcing movement that has a bit of a learning curve. The game interface is also a learning curve and incredibly tiny. Quickly finding menus and buttons is out of the question until muscle memory kicks in.

    TLDR: Decent graphics and excellent rides and coasters are overshadowed by lack of other content and variety, and are presented in a tiny interface with awkward camera movement.    … Expand
  8. pongkrit03
    Sep 10, 2020
    7
    I love management game but sadly this game is not what I looking for. Planet Coaster is more toward to designing game. Have you ever want to build amusement park in your dream ? like your own disneyland for exp, if that is the case, then this game is for you. You could design building the way you want. There are ton of workshops in steam. You can decorate to your heart content.

    However,    I love management game but sadly this game is not what I looking for. Planet Coaster is more toward to designing game. Have you ever want to build amusement park in your dream ? like your own disneyland for exp, if that is the case, then this game is for you. You could design building the way you want. There are ton of workshops in steam. You can decorate to your heart content.

    However, If you are more toward to management part, like max profit, use your brain to get everything most efficiency. Then this game is a No for you. For me, this game is a no but I have to give a fair score since I watch some youtubers, they really build their amusement park so beautiful. They really care to use sign board, painting, decorate with various objects, which for me personally, I don't care at all about that. Some will enjoy the game, some will not, so ask yourself first about which type of gamers you are.

    PS. The tutorial also sucks, like super sucks. Be warn about huge learning curve.    … Expand
  9. Octomort
    Jun 2, 2019
    5
    A gold for graphics but otherwise just a dumb blonde, like my last cat who had all the balance and poise of a one armed rock climber. (Not kidding she had an inner ear problem and would just fall off the window sill whilst still awake!)
    (I have about 50 hours play)
    Park management! What Park management? there is more in my girlfriends kids lego games. If you want to build a pretty    A gold for graphics but otherwise just a dumb blonde, like my last cat who had all the balance and poise of a one armed rock climber. (Not kidding she had an inner ear problem and would just fall off the window sill whilst still awake!)
    (I have about 50 hours play)

    Park management! What Park management? there is more in my girlfriends kids lego games.
    If you want to build a pretty park and spend hours designing coasters then it allows you to do that.

    In other words it is a sandbox game not a challenge game.

    UI is annoying. the Scenery filter system seems to work on logical AND rather than AND/OR. E.g. you want to look at what is in the Sci-fi and horror themes to the exclusion of other themes. You would expect to get the list for sci-fi object and also horror objects. No you only get a list of components which are in BOTH! Usually this means a blank list as most objects are in one OR the other not both! Going to Park management and clicking on centre on building does centre but leaves the management screen open. A screen which takes up over half the screen. Not a big deal but becomes tedious when wanting to do a round robin review of, say, shops.

    I have a very good PC (thread ripper, GTX 1080 Ti etc) and so no performance issues for me.

    Career mode is tedious. I ended up simply building a couple of new rides in whichever scenario i was doing, then going and making a meal or do the vacuuming. Come back and despite half your staff having resigned you still have a lot of money I mean a lot more than you would need to finish the scenario! There is meant to be a staff energy. It is switched off in most career scenarios and you can't switch it back on. So staff management is simply spending money on training (one click) and paying them every more ridiculous wages. I found it more efficient to just sack the moaners and hire new staff.

    The coaster building challenges can, generally, be beat using the classic air-time-hill technique. Just learn how to make bumps which make guests feel as if they are rising out of their seats and you can hit 10+ excitement on most air-time-hills. Which boost overall coaster excitement considerably. The also have low nausea and average fear.

    Like many modern games, so much potential wasted!

    Parkitech it ain't! (and that great game was created by a team of only 2!)    … Expand
  10. Twistlosi
    Oct 29, 2019
    7
    Made by the RCT3 devs (Frontier) and takes everything to a new level and this is only the beginning, hands down the best Theme Park builder ever made. The sounds, animations, lighting, guests and unlimited design capabilities combined give you a feeling that you are in a real park.
  11. Cthulhu_Fhtagn
    Jun 19, 2018
    7
    Overall a great game, personally i feel like it gets repetitive after 25-30 hours.
  12. d25bev
    Feb 16, 2019
    7
    A mostly great game. The game builds on everything that made RCT3 so enjoyable & you can tell it was made by the same people. The fact it looks so good is both a blessing & a curse, it's definitely been made to last with visuals & design that'll still look good years from now, but running on a fairly high-end pc currently, you can still feel the limitations when a park gets just overA mostly great game. The game builds on everything that made RCT3 so enjoyable & you can tell it was made by the same people. The fact it looks so good is both a blessing & a curse, it's definitely been made to last with visuals & design that'll still look good years from now, but running on a fairly high-end pc currently, you can still feel the limitations when a park gets just over medium size or you place many objects. The frame drops & lag can be pretty terrible in some cases even on lower settings. So whilst it's completely playable in most cases, it's a little annoying i can't run the game on the better settings & have a big, creative park, although i do look forward to going back to it when my pc specs are even better.

    Great selection of rides/attractions/building pieces. However i did get the DLC's (which i think were slightly overpriced) & the free updates with the game that many reviews below probably didn't. The steam blueprint store is a great addition to the game also. Management is almost great, i do feel there could be more aspects to it & in some cases it can act a little odd but it's mostly great. There's many settings & choices to make when creating your park to give it a great, realistic atmosphere. Music is great & terrain modelling is great if a little difficult at times.

    I feel like many of the negative reviews were made pretty close to launch of this game & whilst absolutely rightfully reviewing it how the game was, looking through all the free & paid dlc content, missions, management, rides etc that's been added since, i'd really recommend this game to anyone, particularly those that loved the decent RCT games (not that revolting RCTW).

    If the game ran better or i had an even higher-end pc that i could make a big & realistic park with, the dlc was slightly cheaper, then the review would be a 9 easily.    … Expand
  13. Parborway
    May 14, 2023
    5
    Good gameplay and editor, but terrible performance. Even with the lowest graphics settings, after only a few coasters have been built, looking at your park will reduce your framerate below 1fps. And I have 12GBs of RAM I would love to be able to use scenery, or have track supports, or have a park with more than a few rollercoasters, but that just kills the game. And the effective lockingGood gameplay and editor, but terrible performance. Even with the lowest graphics settings, after only a few coasters have been built, looking at your park will reduce your framerate below 1fps. And I have 12GBs of RAM I would love to be able to use scenery, or have track supports, or have a park with more than a few rollercoasters, but that just kills the game. And the effective locking of those features severely dampens the experience.

    Much more advanced than RCT2 in terms of gameplay and editor, but what is the point if the game isn't even playable?    … 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.
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  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.
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