Developers, Frontier Developments, behind the hugely popular Planet Coaster have today released their new installment to the franchise, Planet Zoo, available via Steam.
Frontier Developments have worked to create spiritual successors to two popular franchises now with Rollercoaster Tycoon and now Zoo Tycoon being the inspiration behind Planet Zoo. Promising to be a deeper and more powerful sim, Planet Zoo tasks players in building the zoo of their dreams, while also professionally managing to reach a variety of goals.
Frontier has stated that:
“Players will travel the globe on a quest to build the most awe inspiring zoos and learn to care for a menagerie of authentic living animals who think, feel and explore the world around them. Whether building piece by piece or upgrading an existing park, Planet Zoo’s Franchise, Career, Challenge and Sandbox Modes present endless opportunities to hone their management and building skills.”
The bulk of modes will allow a variety of players to find a playstyle that best suits them. The game will still remain faithful as a management sim however, allowing players to have direct control of all aspects of zoo life:
“Over 70 animals will be available to create the most challenging, magnificent and diverse zoos, balancing animal welfare and conservation efforts with visitor enthusiasm. Budding entrepreneurs can finesse the balance sheet as they tackle everything from staff costs, to building maintenance, ticket sales and guest donations, while aspiring zoologists can juggle researching new facilities, enrichment items and habitat customisations on their quest to create the perfect zoo.”
The Game will also play host to online capabilities, with a strong community focus:
“Planet Zoo features both offline and online play, with weekly and monthly Community Challenges offering budding zoologists the ongoing chance to test their skills, trade animals online at the Animal Market with other players to maintain a healthy, genetically diverse zoo or share zoo, habitat and decoration blueprints with other players.”
Planet Coaster was met with critical acclaim and garnered a large cult following for the theme park management sim. Planet Zoo seems to be following that trend with an already strong review round-up.
Our thoughts will be up later this week when our review is live.