Frontier Developments has revealed Planet Coaster 2, a sequel to their hit theme park management game coming out on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC in autumn 2024.
Planet Coaster 2 will look to take your parks further than ever with the introduction of water-based attractions. These range from lazy rivers and calming pools to flumes that loop around, tower over the surrounding park, and wave pools. There’s even water coasters, that will combine both sides of the game.
There will be a whole host of new rides, some new themes and plenty of customisable scenery pieces that will let you make your amusement park match your dreams. That goes from new ride smoothing in the creation tools, to customising colours and set dressing for individual carriages or all at once, and a new event sequencer to make animatronics take place at just the right time.
There will be four new themes included in the game, with the Mythological Theme, California-inspired Resort Theme, the wet Aquatic Theme and rustic Viking Theme, and you’ll naturally be able to pick and choose from everything in the game, combining things together to create your own scenery and blueprints.
Behind the new themes and water rides are new management tools. You’ll have to look out for the health of your guests with lifeguards, shade and sunscreen, and can delve into new heat maps to see better what is and isn’t working in your park.
Alongside the career and sandbox is the leaderboard challenge of Franchise, and you can share a save file with other players to go building and adapting, though this is a one-at-a-time kind of experience.
It’s wild to think it’s been eight years since Planet Coaster first launched on PC in 2016, though that’s partly because Planet Coaster: Console Edition only arrived in 2020. Either way, this was the game that reinvigorated the genre, and in our original Planet Coaster review, Dave said, “Planet Coaster feels like a step into more modern times for the genre. There are bugbears when it comes to the camera and the subsequent patience required to build your perfect theme park, but should one have the stamina to intricately design features for their park, the possibilities are nigh on endless.”
Source: press release
