Frontier Developments has announced Planet Coaster 2, a sequel to its 2016 theme park sim, which is in development for the PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.
Planet Coaster 2 will have an all-new water park feature, so we should expect new water attractions for park visitors to enjoy.
“Make a splash with guests as they float along lazy rivers, speed down flumes, plunge into wave pools, and ride exhilarating water coasters.” Keep all these new areas safe with Life Guards, and put down changing rooms and sunbeds to keep your visitors happy and comfortable.
Updated on the 14th of August: Release date added and new information coming later today in an exclusive preview on GameWatcher.
Planet Coaster 2 Release Date
Planet Coaster 2 will be released for the PC, Xbox Series X/S on the 6th November, 2024.
Nearly eight years after the debut of the original game. This long interval has allowed for substantial improvements over its predecessor, including improved pathing and building tools.
Players can now draw inspiration from real-world parks, unlocking a wealth of creative possibilities. There will be new water coasters that, for the first time, can be fully customized to create truly unique ride experiences. All the classics from the original will be back too.
The new main event sequencer tool, which has caught our attention, combines animatronics, smoke, water jets, sound, and more in displays throughout individual rides and across their parks. Keeping guests entertained when on the move or queueing.
“Whether getting to grips with a variety of scenarios in Career mode, building a global park network in Franchise mode, or designing epic parks in Sandbox mode, there’s more detail to discover than ever before.”
The Frontier Workshop returns, so there will be plenty of customisation and blueprints to download, available across all platforms.
Here’s a full list of changes in Planet Coaster 2 from the original game:
- Waterparks: Combines water and coaster rides with an array of new and returning favorites, including water coasters.
- Multiplayer / Coop: Features cross-platform capabilities allowing players to build parks with friends or players around the world. Save files can be exchanged more easily, though park building is turn-based.
- First Person Mode: Allows players to explore parks built by others in first person, experiencing rides, slides, and pools up close.
- Customisability: Improvements with scalable assets and color changers. Players can choose colors, scale scenery and objects, and theme their rides extensively.
- Improved Building Tools: Offers improved path design and roller coaster smoothing tools. Terrain shaping, path laying, and scenery placement are more user-friendly.
- Themes: Introduces new themes including Mythology, Resort, Aquatic, and Viking, alongside the original Placo Theme.
- Safety Features: Includes lifeguards, sunscreen, and shade areas in waterparks to maintain guest health.
- Hireable Ride-Staff: New feature that allows management of staff controlling the rides.
- 24h Time Mode: An option for parks to operate over a “day” cycle, where guests arrive at the start and leave at the end, keeping the park open for extended hours.
- Dynamic Weather: Parks will experience weather changes like rain, which can influence the opening of umbrella stores.
- Water and Energy Management: Similar to “Planet Zoo”, includes necessary facilities to maintain clean pools and ensure electricity availability.
- Stable Performance: Promises stable 60 FPS performance on consoles, even in pre-alpha stages, with no noticeable drops during gameplay.
- Per-Guest Heatmaps: Allows insight into individual guest opinions about the park through clickable heatmaps.
- Customisable Flat Rides and Coaster Cars: Offers further customisation options for rides.
- Vegan Store: Addition of a vegan store to cater to diverse dietary preferences.
Planet Coaster 2 co-op Multiplayer
While user-made blueprints that can be uploaded to Frontier’s servers and be shared remain at the center of Planet Coaster, the multiplayer, community-driven experience will level up this time around with ‘shared saves’ that allow players to build parks together. How does this exactly work though? We asked executive producer Adam Woods about the exciting new feature, and his answer didn’t disappoint: “Those modes (franchise and sandbox) are asynchronous multiplayer modes… I could plot out all the roller coasters I wanted to build because that was my specialty. And then I could upload it in-game… Rich could download latest version of that park, and then he could add his expertise to it. So let’s say that he’s really good at theming and scenery placement and maybe pool placement. He could then do that… He can then reupload that.”
This sounds fantastic and, given what we know about the highly active communities that Frontier’s games have, will surely keep Planet Coaster 2 fresh for years to come. The best part? It’s a feature that will work across all platforms, as it uses Frontier’s accounts and servers. “Players will need to create a Frontier account and either link that with their PlayStation, Steam, or Xbox account,” Woods confirmed. Of course, performance in huge parks on consoles remains a concern, but we were assured that the sequel has been built from the get-go with controllers in mind, much like their Jurassic World titles, as we’re looking at a simultaneous multiplatform release this time around.
If you have any questions about Planet Coaster 2 and want to reach out to us, you can do so here.
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