It’s been nearly eight years since Frontier Developments launched the hugely successfulPlanet Coaster, which was only the beginning of a journey that’s since taken players to many exciting and creative heights with its various DLC collections. As the spiritual successor to the iconicRoller Coaster Tycoonfranchise, today marks an exciting twist on that ride with the announcement of the highly-anticipatedPlanet Coaster 2and its first trailer. If that wasn’t enough to get hearts racing,Planet Coaster 2looks set to bring fans a bunch of community-requested content by enabling players to splash into water parks for the first time with pools, flumes, and much more.
At the preview event forPlanet Coaster 2, Game Rant got to see around 20 minutes of pre-alpha gameplay footage of touring a combined water and coaster park. The preview began with a first look at today’s announcement trailer as revealed below, which also details a Fall 2024 release date. Following that,Planet Coaster2’s Game Director Richard Newbold and Senior Executive Producer Adam Woods led a tour of the park, including new pool features, ride customization options, management systems, and more. Game Rant also had the opportunity to interview Newbold and Woods about what was seen after the event.
Creating A Splash With Pools And Flumes In Planet Coaster 2
Planet Coaster 2’s announcement trailer begins with a group of guests dangling over the edge of an Oblivion-style coaster before phasing into a first-person pool splash. The trailer also shows guests relaxing in pools on lilos and noodles, sliding down flumes, and snippets of its ride customizations in action. It also showcasesPlanet Coaster 2’s new mascot entertainer, Queen Splash, with her delightfully fun pink rubber ring and splash crown. However, that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the incredible new features we saw in the preview.
Newbold and Woods began by showing us some pool areas of their combined water and coaster park, but we later learned that it’s up to players if they want to make only a water park, coaster park, or a combination of both. Aside from guests enjoying pool areas, Newbold and Woods also demonstratedPlanet Coaster 2’s new pool construction tool, which lets players build classic or custom pool shapes, from square to curved designs. Players can also build flumes piece-by-piece like in the originalPlanet Coaster’s roller coasters.
There were a bunch of flume construction options, including transparent sections and vertical drop pieces. Newbold and Woods also mentioned that players will have to balance excitement, fear, and nausea just like they might do with roller coasters. Excitedly, during our follow-up interview, Newbold and Woods also revealed that players will get to ride the flumes as guests just like they would roller coasters.
We also got to see different designs ofPlanet Coaster 2’s water flumes, such as a six-person raft flume with a blue and white giant fly trap design. There was also another called The Boomerang with a classic pink and green striped flume design. As Newbold and Woods detailed in more depth later on in the preview,Planet Coaster 2lets players create patterns for rides using the Tool Picker and more, taking ride customization to a whole new level.
Guest Services And Park Authenticity With Plaza-Style Paths In Planet Coaster 2
Of course, pools inPlanet Coaster 2also mean ensuring guests have a good time and keeping them safe, which is where the new lifeguard staff fit in. It’s up to players to manage their lifeguard staff and ensure guests who get into any difficulties are rescued.
There are also roles that players might expect fromstaff inPlanet Coaster, such as Janitors to help keep the park clean, shop vendors, and ride attendants, to name a few. We also saw new types of guest services and pool facilities, including guest changing areas and buildings for them to buy pool passes before entering the pools, plus a glimpse of a new splash emporium as another type of park revenue stream.
We got to see new plaza-style paths surrounding pool areas, which are wider paths designed to more closely reflect the design of water and coaster parks in real life. Like inPlanet Coaster, Newbold and Woods also pointed out that authenticity is key inPlanet Coaster 2. We later saw these kinds of path designs used to create a large food court area with a California Resort theme in other parts of the park, another feature that looks to make the theme park experience more realistic than ever.
Themes And In-Depth Ride Customization Options In Planet Coaster 2
Planet Coaster 2has a classic top-down park management view where its pools now really add a whole new dimension to the landscape. That said,Planet Coaster 2also lets players walk around and immerse themselves in their parks as a guest. While there was a makeshift solution that madewalking around parks inPlanet Coasterpossible, it wasn’t an in-built mechanism.
For the next part of the tour, Newbold and Woods walked around the park in a first-person camera perspective, pointing out and going in-depth on particular rides withPlanet Coaster 2’s new ride customization options. As well as changing the patterns of slides, players can do the same for other rides in their parks, including roller coasters.
For example, we saw a teacup ride with a deep-water aquatic theme and a steampunk steam train as just two examples of themes inPlanet Coaster 2. Specifically, the teacups had floating giant jellyfish, rocks with coral decorations, and animated bubble effects. As brand-new additions toPlanet Coaster 2, Newbold and Woods also demonstrated how to change patterns of rides and the color of patterns, such as the frame, plus the ability to add scenery pieces to the rides themselves.
For instance, players can add scenery directly onto the central pedestal of the tea cups, which could also be animated or a custom blueprint. Newbold and Woods also mentioned the newPlanet Coasterobject scaling featuresto make objects scale up and down in size according to players' preferences.
We also saw these new coaster customization features, such as adding scenery pieces to coaster carts. For instance, players can add nautical scenery like a rubber ring to the front of an aquatic-themed coaster cart, which features tools to keep everything synched up while going around the track. Players can scale these features how they like and apply features to all coaster carts, which is a nice touch to the user experience. As before, players can ride the coasters as guests through guest-cam mode and use pre-built coaster blueprints or create their own.
Interestingly, it’s also up to players to manage the power for their rides to keep them running, as another new park management feature along with keeping pools clean. Altogether, we were incredibly excited by everything we saw in thePlanet Coaster 2preview, which looks to take the originalPlanet Coaster’s exceptional level of creativity to even bigger heights while giving players numerous fan-requested features. With even more details yet to be announced, it looks likePlanet Coasterfans and new players alike could be in for a real thrill whenPlanet Coaster 2launches later this year.
Planet Coaster
WHERE TO PLAY
Surprise and delight crowds as you build the coaster park of your dreams and manage a truly living world with unparalleled attention to detail.Whatever your skill level, bring your ideas to life. Take advantage of Blueprints to quickly place over 700 pre-made objects, including coasters, facilities and scenery; build from the ground up with detailed piece-by-piece construction; or transform the ground itself with terrain-altering tools.Running your park is just as easy. Guests react in realtime as you set prices, place scenery, and install exciting new attractions. Keep them entertained so attendance figures – and profits – skyrocket.Looking for inspiration? Discover the Frontier Workshop and harness the world’s best designs in your expanding empire. Download coasters, scenery, buildings, and entire parks, or grow a following by uploading your own creations. From stunning firework displays to sprawling cruise ships, there’s no limit to the creativity.
