Seals don’t need a reason to clap, but they might applaud Planet Coaster 2. When Rollercoaster Tycoon launched in 1999, it created a whole genre of management game. Yet few have upheld its legacy like Planet Coaster. The devs haven’t just been treading water like a Sim after you delete the pool ladder, however. Frontier Developments’s sequel appears packed with creativity, featuring all-new water park gameplay, attractions, and deeper management. Ensuring everyone has a good time and no one leaves covered in puke is Park Management 101, after all. Here’s why Planet Coaster 2 seems to be all Swim and no Sink.
Planet Coaster 2’s Watery Welcome
Tackling challenges in Career Mode and building a global park network in Franchise sounds great, but the epic parks of Sandbox may be the star. Keeping pools clean, guests shaded, and water slides running smoothly poses unique challenges but suits the existing gameplay loop. From lazy rivers to speedy flumes, wave pools, and water coasters, Planet Coaster 2 hits all the big attractions. We’ll also have the chance to nitpick over management minutiae such as changing rooms, lifeguards, and sunbeds, so there should be plenty to keep the nosiest micromanager busy, with or without infinite money cheats.
Will Planet Coaster 2 make a splash when it arrives in autumn 2024? We can only hope, but the early signs are promising. Visiting other players’ parks to test their rides? Check. Building a park together? Also check. Designing the most thrilling, least OSHA-Certified waterslide ever to sacrifice its parkgoers to Poseidon? Well, that one might just be me, but it sounds like something that Frontier Developments’s new game might support. The old parks were for landlubbers. It’s time for some legendary lifeguards to have their day.
