Summary
- Planet Coaster's customization options make it a hit among players, allowing them to create entire buildings from scratch and customize every roller coaster to their liking.
- Certain themes work better with specific maps in the game, such as a Western theme requiring a desert floor. However, players can still bring their imagination to life with static animatronics and scenery options.
- While the game provides a lot of options for building fantasy-themed structures, it can be challenging to incorporate large roller coasters into a fantasy kingdom. However, players can use the game's build tools to design rides that fit the theme and make everything blend in nicely.
Planet Coaster is a theme park building game that was released in 2016. The aspect of this park builder that players love the most is the customization options available in the game. Entire buildings can be created from scratch, and every roller coaster is fully adaptable to suit whatever the player wants. Players can also use the advanced building options to customize these rides and the surrounding areas.
The amount of control over these parks has given players of Planet Coaster the freedom to theme their parks however they wish. Some theme ideas are built into the game as presets, while others are left to the player's imagination. Either way, they are all great.
6 Western Theme
Works on Certain Maps
The Wild West theme is a staple of theme park creation games. In Planet Coaster, the player gets to use the building tools to create some rustic-looking structures and landscapes that make them feel as if they are playing in a park that could be featured in an old Western movie. There are even some static animatronics and scenery options in the game menus that allow players to bring this theme to life.
The thing that lets this theme down is the fact that it only works well on select game maps. A Western park needs a desert floor, and players don't want to spend ages respraying the grass floor of their parks. Also, some of the larger roller coasters could look out of place in this time period, that is except for the steam train.
5 Fantasy Theme
Lots Of Options For Buildings But Not Rides
A fantasy-themed park can ideally be comprised of anything the player wishes. However, Planet Coaster features a lot of stock fairy tale items, like castles, towers, and tents, which make it more natural for players to opt for a more traditional fairy tale fantasy theme. While these tools are great at helping players build entire towns and forests in this style, that doesn't leave much room for rides.
The customers in the parks will want to have fun on some huge roller coasters, but it is hard to implement some of these in a fantasy kingdom. Luckily, players can use the games' build tools to design their rides to fit the theme. It will take some extra time, but it is all worth it to have everything fit in nicely.
4 Horror Theme
A Good Way To Test The Game's Lighting Engine
Another aspect of Planet Coaster that players often praise is the game's lighting engine. Players can select their lights individually, and these sources of light can be placed anywhere to give their park the desired effect. This can even involve partially obscuring lights underground to uplight something. The best way to test if these lights are working correctly is by switching the game to night mode. Playing at night also makes it easy to create a horror-themed park.
While there aren't many static options for the horror theme in the game's menu, the lighting and build tools in Planet Coaster allow players to make normal-looking rides truly spooky. After all, the best tool in the game is the player's imagination.
3 City Theme
Test The Building Tools To See How Big A Park Can Get
While most creation games force the player to think horizontally, Planet Coaster is one of the few games that allow its players to test the game engine vertically. Some roller coasters are supposed to be so tall that they are intimidating. As such, the rest of the scenery should match this aesthetic. That is where the city theme comes in.
Planet Coaster does include a few preset skyscrapers and other buildings to start players off with a city theme for their park. Also, the sheer number of paths and scenery options can allow players to create a park that matches the city they feel most familiar with. If everything goes as planned, a city-themed park in Planet Coaster can look like a high-speed metropolis from above, with coasters zipping over and between important structures.
2 Sci-Fi Theme
Playing In The Future
The future has always been an interesting concept in video games. Gamers can simply look at the success of Starfield and No Man's Sky for confirmation of this. That is probably why one of the most heavily featured themes in Planet Coaster is the sci-fi theme. The game features a lot of presets so that players can bring together a futuristic-looking theme park. There are crashed spaceships, robots, and flashing signs that can help players bring their futuristic ideas to life.
The sci-fi theme also lets players experiment with the lighting features in the daytime, something that is truly rare for creation-based games. It is also a theme where any type of roller coaster can fit in, no matter its original design.
1 Pirate Theme
Brings Everything Together
Planet Coaster features a lot of tools for players to experiment with. There are lighting elements, water features, terrain tools, building mechanics, and static-themed objects. However, there is no theme in the game that allows players to use all of these elements at once during a playthrough except for the pirate theme.
A pirate-themed park should include beach fronts and plenty of water. There are options for players to customize all of these elements, as well as plenty of theming options for a pirate park in the game menus. One of the best of these is a large Kraken animatronic that can be used to startle guests on specific coasters. Anyone who wants to see everything that Planet Coaster has to offer should definitely start by using the pirate theme.
Planet Coaster
- Released
- November 17, 2016
- Developer(s)
- Frontier Developments
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- How Long To Beat
- 27 Hours