Best all round review Iāve seen from RPS. āBestest Bestsā Award.
Planet Zoo is a game where you can build your own zoo. Itās buggy, intermittently opaque, frequently saccharine, and ā barring an eleventh hour miracle ā itās my undisputed game of the year. Because hereās the thing: itās a game where you can build your own zoo . And by thunder, it delivers on that promise.
And just as I post that, up pops another (this time not so glowing, although I think the reviewer here may be a little tilted by a their inability to use the Pause button, and absolute must in management simsā¦)
Seems like the game is a very good entry into the now amazing Planet Thing franchise, and I canāt wait to play it. Still need to buy it though, maybe my SS will look upon this post and take inspirationā¦
Thanks to my SS reading this post and finding the inspiration needed, I got to play the game during my holiday. And I must say, I do enjoy the game a lot. I have a few points and thoughts to give.
The management aspect has been heavily increased from Planet Coaster. In that game, many people felt that there wasnāt enough micro-management of theme parks. Well, this is not the case in Planet Zoo. Managing the health and happiness of your animals is a deep and rewarding task. Then you also need to properly plan your breeding programs to get more conservation points. You can easily get lost in all of these mechanics.
Franchise mode is a bit disappointing. In this mode you build zoos and sell and trade animals on a global, online trading center. There are also community goals to achieve with other players, and these can net you a good sum of conversation credits. But I am disappointed in the fact that, when you build a new zoo, all your money and research do not carry over. You literally have to start over again. There is little point in build multiple zoos other than sharing your own animals between zoos. So you can setup a major breeding zoo and have another showcase zoo, but this is a stretch.
That being said, Iām still a huge fan of Frontier Dev. and always keep an eye on their games. I wonder then, how does this (Planet Zoo) hold up against Jurassic World Evolution in comparison? (if youāve played that one).
I like your comments though, is there also a sandbox or build mode?
Yes there is a sandbox mode. You get to build a zoo without worrying about any of the currencies. Thereās also an offline version of franchise mode called Challenge mode, which works the same, but without a community driven market.
Had a lot of fun with it around release time, but not since then.
Your post may just prompt me to get back to Redd Zoological Inc. My zebraās are probably all dead by now
So I am really tempted to buying this game, so I want you guys to sell this to me, how is the game? is it worth the buy now that it is on a bit of a special?
My opinion may be a bit biased here, but I do love Fontier Development. From playing other titles of theirs and their focus on system management, itās the perfect little game for that Game-and-chill experience.
Yeah agreed, this is where the heart of the game lies. The sheer posabilities of what you can do and build in your park, much like Planet Coaster, is endless.
been playing a while nowā¦ the game is a bit buggy hey, the tutorial got stuck, so I switched to sandbox, and when I now want to open my zoo, the guests get stuck in the entranceā¦
Are the getting stuck as in wont go past the entrance turnstiles and just stand all clustered together? Or are we talking like bugged, frozen?
If itās the first, the only thing I can think of is something similar that I had happen in Planet Coaster - it might be the same issue in Planet Zoo. When it happened to me in PC I discovered that the entrance turnstiles are directional, and I had placed it the wrong way round Not sure if it works the same way in PZ though.
If itās more the guests walk up to the entrance, hang around a bit, and then leave it could either be an issue with your entrances fees, or you may be opening a zoo that doesnāt have any exhibits yet? If it is this sort of issue, try hovering over and then clicking on one of the guests to see their thoughts - thatāll tell you why they wonāt enter.
yes should have said, managed to fix the problem, the pre built entrance when you start a map is completely delete-able, so I just delete the starting spawn areas an turnstiles, then just placed my own, will take a screenshot and show precisely. Got a 4 star zoo so far :D, though not very difficult in sandbox mode XD
EDIT:
black mats with the planet icons are the spawn points, and then the entrances go both ways.
Planet Zooās seventh animal DLC pack is out - The North America Animal Pack contains 8 new animals: the American Beaver, the Moose, the California Sea Lion, the Cougar, the American Alligator, the Black-tailed Prairie Dog, the Arctic Fox, and the American Bullfrog.
To celebrate the DLC release, in typical Frontier fashion, both the Standard and Deluxe Editions of the game are on sale for a week with a decent 60% off discount (on Steam at least). Thereās also smaller (44%-46%) discounts on the Premium and Ultimate Editions (which include DLC packs). Individual DLC packs (other than the new one obviously) are also slightly discounted at the moment.
Well, they (Frontier Dev I mean) did manage to get Planet Coaster into a decent console port form. That said, it did take something like 4 years after the PC release. And Planet Zoo was released a couple of years after PlanCo, and is arguably more complex. I guess on that basis, a console PlanZoo could be on the cards for late 2022/2023. But Iād imagine only to Series X|S and PS5 - doubt theyād bother with working on a last gen version.
Fully agree with you, just not sure why you say itās arguably more complex, or Iām not sure how. But yeah, I get what youāre saying and agree it would likely only come to new-gen consoles, if it did that is.
Frontier has always done the translation of their controls very well considering the sheer amount of button mappings and the limited availability on a controller, through the use of button combos. I canāt think of any other devs that do this on consoles.
In terms of the computational side of things really was my meaning. P.Coaster is fundamentally park visitors, park rides, scenery parts, and basic economic management. P.Zoo is all that and a range of differences in terms of each different species - habitat needs, habitat sizes, even down to specific plants and vegetation required in each habitat to ensure animal happiness. Add to that the genetic breeding information, and the āmultiplayerā inter-zoo animal trading marketplace, and a larger amount of financial, personnel, research and maintenance management tasks, and you have a more complex game.
Not sure if it works the same way in PZ though.
