Last Updated on December 29, 2016

I’m so happy that I decided to pick up Planet Coaster during these winter sales because I’m a huge Roller Coaster Tycoon fan and this game is the modern take on it.

I really didn’t expect as much as it delivers on the “tycoon” type of experience but Planet Coaster really is the best modern version of Roller Coaster Tycoon that’s out today.

 

 

Instantly Mind Blown

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When launching the game for the first time I was seriously mind blown at how nostalgic I felt with the game. Frontier, the development team behind this and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, definitely knew how to give off the original vibe with today’s modern graphics and mechanics.

Right off the bat you create an avatar for yourself and then you can start playing in career mode, sandbox mode or doing challenges within different types of environments.

I went ahead and started with the career mode because one of my favorite parts about the original Roller Coaster Tycoon games was having to complete the objectives for each park and they would get more and more difficult as you completed each one.

Planet Coaster has that same sort of gameplay within the career mode. I have only gone through two of the three levels in the first set of careers and although it was pretty easy to get through both of them – there was a smile on my face the whole time.

The pirate theme set is the first set and it throws you into parks with that theme and this first set is designed for beginners to get a feel for the game.

Having played a lot of Roller Coaster Tycoon in my life I already had a general idea of how it was all going to work but it was good to know how the camera controls and what not worked before trying to go nuts with a bunch of different parks!

When I got into the first level the sounds, rides and the way you construct everything… it really felt extremely nostalgic yet a feeling of total freshness since it’s all a brand new experience.

There were all sorts of pirate props from cannons to soldiers patrolling to pirates shooting their guns and you can seamlessly zoom in and out to anything and everything you see. It really is mind blowing!

You can also have different camera views while looking at different rides throughout your park such as a cinematic view or even in a seat of the ride to see what it looks like actually riding it.

I knew I was going to enjoy this game from seeing different videos of it but actually launching it and playing it myself… I’m going to love this game for a long time!

 

Endless Creativity = Hours of Gameplay

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I mentioned the Steam Workshop briefly above – I haven’t fully explored it yet – but you can really let yourself go if you have a creative side and you want to build buildings, rides and other attractions for anyone else that’s playing the game.

Object placing is a breeze, everything just seems to connect without any problem and it’s all super fluid. You can tell that the developers took a lot of time to make sure that customizing anything from scenery to rides was made so that it was as simple as possible.

I’ve gone through and looked at a view workshop items and it’s crazy what people have been able to come up with! I saw one that looked like some kind of a spaceship with thrusters going out the back, a mine cart thing that would go well in any western park and even sci-fi bathrooms.

Once I get through all of the levels in career mode and get to the gold star objectives for all of them then I’m going to start playing in either the challenge mode or sandbox modes. I’m pretty sure that you can use workshop items in both of those.

I’m not sure whether or not you can use workshop designs with the career mode levels but something tells me that you’d be able to. After I “beat” the game I’ll be messing around seeing if I can make anything cool for the workshop!

I can see how someone like myself, being a huge fan of these types of games, could lose themselves in a bunch of different types of parks because of how deep the creative goes.

 

Some Screen Shots

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These were all taken in game while I was playing through it for the first hour and a half I’ve spent in this game. Trust me, I’m going to be spending a whole lot more time than that, but I wanted to hurry and get a post up about how awesome this game is!

The graphics are absolutely beautiful. I can spend a lot of time simply going around my park looking at all of the different pieces of scenery and/or the people walking around interacting with everything that they can.

 

Planet Coaster = Amazing

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If you’re at all a fan of the original Roller Coaster Tycoon games then this game is something that you MUST add to your Steam library.

Seriously, I’ve played Parkitect and other park simulation games and nothing even comes close to what Planet Coaster brings to the table with this genre.

So, are you going to be picking up Planet Coaster while it is on sale?

Are you also a huge fan of the Roller Coaster Tycoon games?

Let me know in the comments below! 😀