Planet Zoo

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 146 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 112 out of 146
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 146
  3. Negative: 17 out of 146

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  1. SammyDelicious
    Aug 20, 2020
    1
    I am very disappointed with the DLC releases (specifically charging 10$ (USD) for each DLC to only include 3-4 new habitat animals). I made a frontier forums account to post my comment, but despite following the regulations on the forum, frontier developments will not allow me to post criticism about the price. That made me feel like my opinion doesn't matter to frontier.

    So instead of    I am very disappointed with the DLC releases (specifically charging 10$ (USD) for each DLC to only include 3-4 new habitat animals). I made a frontier forums account to post my comment, but despite following the regulations on the forum, frontier developments will not allow me to post criticism about the price. That made me feel like my opinion doesn't matter to frontier.

    So instead of posting on Frontier Developments private forums where they delete my messages, I'm going to use metacritic, to allow me to voice my opinion. Thank God for metacritic!


    I paid 45$ (usd) for Planet Zoo. It comes with 76 animals, and hundreds of pieces of scenary and building materials, it is a full game. It is a visually stunning zoo simulation.

    Unfortunately, there are numerous issues people experience with this game, for proof just google issues such as animal deaths, zookeepers not feeding animals or getting stuck, path systems being broken, or frame rate issues.

    4 DLC's have been confirmed: Deluxe,South America,Arctic and Australia pack. All of them combined offer 17 animals and cost 40$ (USD).

    Why did Frontier Developments feel the need to censor me, I hope this review is seem by more people than their forums now.

    45$ (USD)= 76 animals, scenary and a game
    40$ + tax (USD)= 17 animals/scenary    … Expand
  2. Themos
    Nov 12, 2019
    0
    placing paths is one of the most frustrating things that I have ever come up with in video games its so damn awful that it makes you want to kill yourself, you can't even place big square areas. same goes for building buildings even though you can make nice looking things its very time consuming and fixing little things is immensely frustrating. and top that there are constant crashesplacing paths is one of the most frustrating things that I have ever come up with in video games its so damn awful that it makes you want to kill yourself, you can't even place big square areas. same goes for building buildings even though you can make nice looking things its very time consuming and fixing little things is immensely frustrating. and top that there are constant crashes when starting the game
    or when you enter main menu.    … Expand
  3. Mipje
    Nov 5, 2019
    1
    Utterly Unplayable! Do Not Buy! This game had some potential, for example the breeding programs (that's it basically). If it wasn't for the utterly terrible way of placement of -everything- in the game. Building walls becomes an absolute annoyance, want to change that wall? Good luck brotha, select each piece by piece at a time. Can't select the entire enclosure! ant to place anUtterly Unplayable! Do Not Buy! This game had some potential, for example the breeding programs (that's it basically). If it wasn't for the utterly terrible way of placement of -everything- in the game. Building walls becomes an absolute annoyance, want to change that wall? Good luck brotha, select each piece by piece at a time. Can't select the entire enclosure! ant to place an information stand on top of an heightened path? BOOM it floats in the air now, good luck with that! Every single placement of an object, wall, plant and everything else becomes a burden and an annoyance. And selecting stuff, please don't start. Unbelievable. No possibilities for a power grid. So that is a generator every 500m. in your zoo. Same for the water purification. Not so many animals to get, pay 10 bucks for 3 more... wtf? I just can't stop complaining :/. I've never felt this wat before!

    Not to mention the bugs. Demanding for a refund.

    I have never written a review before and i've been gaming for 30 years. It's that bad!    … Expand
  4. chickenboh
    Nov 26, 2019
    0
    game is unplayable at this point, it crashes literally everywhere, career mode is not working at all, save states break, i don't recommend it as for now, I myself actually had to ask for refund.
  5. kuehnau
    Jan 23, 2021
    4
    I'm a big fan of simulation games, grew up with classics like Sim City and Sim Ant. I also really enjyed the Roller Coaster Tycoon series.

    I saw some people playing this on YouTube and decided to give it a go. When I first tried playing it, in less than an hour I was asking for a refund because of how bad the controls are. If you have never played a [Planet] game before, you'd have    I'm a big fan of simulation games, grew up with classics like Sim City and Sim Ant. I also really enjyed the Roller Coaster Tycoon series.

    I saw some people playing this on YouTube and decided to give it a go.

    When I first tried playing it, in less than an hour I was asking for a refund because of how bad the controls are. If you have never played a [Planet] game before, you'd have no idea going in what you are in store for. And none of the videos I saw actually said anything about how bad the interface is.

    As I was waiting for my refund, I decided to watch some other videos on Planet Zoo. I stumbled upon a video of a guy making buildings and he was explaining how the building works and using examples, he was showing how to line stuff up and use the gride system.

    I ended up going back to Planet Zoo and after a lot of work, I started to get the hang of it. And while I am now managing to play the game (somewhat), my opinion is that even after taking hours to learn what Planet Zoo expects from me, the controls are still terrible.

    Even after taking the time to learn how the game controls and how building works, I feel like the game is constantly working against me every step of the way. I cannot tell you how many zoos I started as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

    A good example is how someone gave me a tip on using walls early on to square off my property so that it'll be easier later on to have a zoo that is aligned up with a grid (more or less). I spend all this time messing around with the game's terrible mapping and building system, finally start to get a halfway decent zoo going on, and then when I go to create a path moving past the side of a animal habitat, it refuses to allow me to place the path down that way.

    There's nothing in the way, there's plenty of room between the habitat and the path, the ground is nice and even, I cannot find ANYTHING wrong with where I want to to place my path and yet this game refuses to do it. Yes, the ground level option is off.

    Planet Zoo is a fantastic game that is completely crippled by their overly complicated, user aggressive controls and building system. New players are warned there is a huge learning curve to the game.    … Expand
  6. VegasKeVa
    Jan 2, 2020
    0
    I played 90 minutes and most of that was waiting for the tutorial to deliver my tigers. It never happened so I requested refund. I tried a suggested fix (deleting a rock?!) but that didn't work. If the tutorial doesn't work I have no hope for the rest of the game.
  7. majesticsquid
    Apr 19, 2020
    1
    I want to like this game. Heck I want to LOVE this game so much. But this game is just not fun. It is frustrating. Every. Single. Aspect. It's a clunky, glitchy mess, and although this concept is perfect... it is not executed in any way close to a playable or fun game. If you have a great graphics card (and I mean state of the line brand new, AND an awesome computer powerful enough to runI want to like this game. Heck I want to LOVE this game so much. But this game is just not fun. It is frustrating. Every. Single. Aspect. It's a clunky, glitchy mess, and although this concept is perfect... it is not executed in any way close to a playable or fun game. If you have a great graphics card (and I mean state of the line brand new, AND an awesome computer powerful enough to run this game) then visually it is stunning! However, the glitches in the game still remain and the path laying system well... (just don't even get me started, I recommend googling "paths planet zoo broken" to get a good idea of how tortuous and painful this game actually is). There's a lot of problems about the path system.


    The DLC is also a sham. For example the second dlc pack (arctic dlc) had only four animals in it and cost over $15 canadian. The first dlc pack was $13 canadian dollars (for three animals). Do the conversions yourself, in any currency it's a slap in the face rip off!

    So in summary, 10/10 concept.
    And 1/10 gameplay and fun factor.


    If you like setting paths that don't work and frustrating learning curves all set in a gorgeous world (pending you have an expensive computer) you will absolutely adore this game.

    Final verdict, a visually stunning, but ultimately unplayable game. Unfortunately very reminiscent of Zoo Tycoon for xbox 360.    … Expand
  8. KaBob
    Nov 16, 2022
    3
    It's a decent looking game, it just sucks that the gameplay itself is inferior in every way to the 20 year old Zoo Tycoon. DLC is ridiculously overpriced and simple tasks like placing paths or prebuilt exhibits are a huge chore.

    When I play a zoo game, I want to make as many different animal exhibits as possible. Not spend an hour fighting terrain elevation issues and etc just to make    It's a decent looking game, it just sucks that the gameplay itself is inferior in every way to the 20 year old Zoo Tycoon. DLC is ridiculously overpriced and simple tasks like placing paths or prebuilt exhibits are a huge chore.

    When I play a zoo game, I want to make as many different animal exhibits as possible. Not spend an hour fighting terrain elevation issues and etc just to make one basic exhibit. Grid based placement systems might be very limiting but they are preferable to this game.    … Expand
  9. RedSiskin
    Jan 11, 2021
    0
    the game working horribly on Intel Cpu's i am getting only 14 FPS and the developers delete any bug report related to the fps issue instead of working on a fix ! dont buy this game if you have Intel.
  10. ProtoPretender
    Jan 2, 2023
    3
    Not impressed. I have no idea but I for whatever reason bought this game for way more than it deserved when it's really a 50-65 dollar game at best. It was reasonably fun but I was very disappointed with the amount of DLC I was expected to purchase. It says Planet Zoo on the title, not Specific areas of the planet with only a select number of animal species planet. I'm not buying DLC toNot impressed. I have no idea but I for whatever reason bought this game for way more than it deserved when it's really a 50-65 dollar game at best. It was reasonably fun but I was very disappointed with the amount of DLC I was expected to purchase. It says Planet Zoo on the title, not Specific areas of the planet with only a select number of animal species planet. I'm not buying DLC to mess around with penguins… Expand

Awards & Rankings

66
#66 Best PC Game of 2019
89
#89 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 55 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 51 out of 55
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 55
  3. Negative: 0 out of 55
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 28, 2020
    80
    Planet Zoo is a great journey to the world of exotic animals, kept in captivity for the eyes of others. It is a complex, generous and beautiful game with lots of interesting ideas. The tax for its generosity is bad controls and higher hardware requirements. [Issue#300]
  2. Trusted Reviews
    Feb 11, 2020
    80
    Planet Zoo is a fantastic zoo management game that I wholeheartedly recommend, whether you’re looking for some Zoo Tycoon nostalgia kicks, or simply love animals. It’s admittedly not a massive leap forward from previous zoo games, but the conservation focus and gorgeous visual polish revitalises the genre for modern audiences.
    Read full review
  3. CD-Action
    Jan 10, 2020
    85
    I played the game almost non-stop for several days and I feared that after this kind of marathon I will forever hate it but it didn’t happen. Planet Zoo educates and entertains – in marvellous scenery to boot. [01/2020, p.62]
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