Key Highlights:
- Planet Coaster 2 introduces first deep dive trailer showcasing water parks.
- Enhanced customisation options for rides and attractions.
- New asynchronous cross-platform co-op mode Improved pathing tools and management features.
Frontier Developments has unveiled the first gameplay footage of Planet Coaster 2, showcasing 15 minutes of exciting new features that promise to take the theme park simulation experience to new heights.
The standout addition to Planet Coaster 2 is the introduction of water parks.
Players can now design and build a variety of aquatic attractions, including pools, lazy rivers, and water slides.
The new water system allows for incredible flexibility, with pools that can be carved into the ground using geometric or custom shapes, and water slides (or “flumes”) that can be constructed piece-by-piece, similar to roller coasters.
Various flume types are available, including plughole, sphere, vertical, and boomerang designs. A six-person raft flume adds a new dimension to water park thrills.
Like other rides in the game, water attractions have their own excitement, nausea, and fear levels, influencing guest preferences.
Players can also experience these rides from a first-person perspective, adding to the immersion.
Planet Coaster 2 significantly expands on the creative possibilities of its predecessor.
Scenery parts can now be attached directly to coasters and flat rides, animating in sync with the attraction.
Improved tools streamline the decoration process, allowing for quick mirroring and copying of customisations across ride cars.
Rides start with a plainer appearance, encouraging players to unleash their creativity. The Blueprint system now includes flat rides, enabling easier sharing of custom creations.
A new asynchronous cross-platform co-op mode allows players to share park designs with friends. While not a full real-time multiplayer experience, this feature enables collaborative park building across all game modes, including leaderboard challenges.
The sequel introduces several new management aspects and quality-of-life improvements. These include:
- Power management: Players must supply sufficient power to keep their parks operational
- Weather system: New considerations like providing sunscreen and shade for water park guests
- Improved pathing tools: Creating large plaza-like areas is now much easier
Water park specific features add depth to aquatic attraction management, such as hiring lifeguards, maintaining filtration systems, and selling pool passes.
While this sequel promises enhanced visuals and gameplay on next-gen consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S), some limitations remain.
The complexity meter returns for console players, limiting the number of items in parks. Additionally, saves and workshop creations from the original game won’t carry over due to the sequel being a “full rebuild”.
As exciting as these new features are, some fans may note that certain elements, like hotels, won’t be included in the sequel.
Additionally, while the creative aspects have seen significant enhancement, it’s not yet clear how much the management side of the strategy game has been expanded.
Frontier Developments plans to release more deep dive videos in the lead-up to Planet Coaster 2’s launch, scheduled for autumn this year on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.
These future presentations promise to delve deeper into the park-building tools and other features, giving fans more to look forward to as the release date approaches.
Source – YouTube
