I love simulator games, and I’ve always been a big fan of games like sim city or cities: skylines. When Planet Coaster first came out I was a little bit cautious because while it looked really pretty I was afraid it was only a rollercoaster simulator, and I wasn’t sure how much creating a single ride would interest me.
Then I started watching others play it, and I watched items being created for it in the steam workshop and I absolutely fell in love.
You don’t just create rollercoasters, you create an entire theme park of your choosing. Sure, there are themed items and pre-set parks (space, western, etc) but how much (or how little) you decide to do with your park is completely your choosing. You can play in multiple ‘modes’ (sandbox etc) or you can follow along with a ‘story’ and complete challenges that get more difficult as you go on. There’s little bits of humour tucked into every corner of the game, from the mascots to the responses of the people who will visit your park. Trying to keep everyone happy (staff, visitors, etc) is just part of the meta that you’ll get to experience.
I’ve been watching CleaveTV on twitch as he creates different theme parks and his work is just absolutely amazing and incredibly meticulous. This attention to detail astounds me, really. Plus he’s one of those lovely streamers who don’t end up shouting and yelling sporadically into the mic, which is something I brought up yesterday on twitter.
So far I’ve just been playing through the story mode version of the game, completing bronze, silver, and gold challenges on various maps that get more difficult as you complete each round. I’ve had fun developing my own rides and creating uniform parks, and I’ve downloaded a few modded pieces from the steam workshop – there are some pieces there that just blow me away.
You’re given quite a few parts to work with, and in sandbox mode you’re pretty much only limited by your own creativity. Of course if you play on the other m0des you’ll be limited by things like money, but hey that’s what adds flavour to the game.
This game was gifted to me, but even for the price I think it’s fantastic value. I know for some of the “official” sim games (I’m looking at you, Sim City) I’ve paid far more and gotten way less play time out of it. If you’re looking for a good theme park sim, this may be one you want to check out!
As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself. If you haven’t added me yet on steam, what are you waiting for?! You can find me there as Stargrace.
I enjoyed the first Roller Coaster Tycoon soooo much, but was always disappointed with the following games.
Planet Coaster is everything I wanted from that style of game, the ability to build and tweak every little detail is wonderful. I’ve not really played the story mode yet as I’m getting far too much pleasure from designing a great layout and watching the guests as they interact with your world.