Debbie G

Played on PS4, after admiring the game for 4 years prior but never being able to play due to the high cost of a gaming laptop/PC able to run it. I'm honestly grateful to Frontier for making it accessible to console players, but was it really necessary to make us wait that long?! As a console player I expected some difficulties when it came to the controls. However, after several hours you do become familiar with the buttons, so this is not a problem in the long run. Take your time and be patient with it and you'll get the hang of it. The micromanagement aspect is there, but its not so overwhelming that you feel that is all you are doing. I never once felt like micromanagement was stopping me from just sitting back and enjoying the game. I started off completing the 15 or so different campaign maps, each with its own theme and objectives. Once I had finished with those, I started having a go at building my own parks from scratch in sandbox, which is where the creative side of it really comes into play. The variety of the rides is great, with some wonderful animations and music to go with it. And the many building pieces allows you to be as creative as you like. Albeit not without its limitations... Firstly, I found rollercoaster building to be very finicky, constantly battling with the fear and nausea tolerances and the g-force restrictions they have slapped in place. I could spend hours designing a coaster that would wind round my castle walls, only to delete the whole thing in frustration because no matter what I did the fear and nausea tolerance was always off the charts. Secondly and perhaps the most controversial thing on the games release is the Eugene Oswald counter, which is basically a limit on how much you can place until the game literally won't allow you to build anymore. Everything you put down, whether it be paths, rides, or scenery will count towards this limit, so build wisely! Other than that I spent hours of fun within the campaign or getting imaginative with my parks in sandbox mode and when I wasn't playing the game, I was thinking about what I can build next. There is also thousands of fantastic creations in the workshop which are free to download, so even if you aren't the most creative of people you can still build fantastic looking parks using other peoples creations, or even the pre-built structures that come with the game. This really is the pinnacle in park building and i'd recommend anyone who is into management sims to give this game a go. Now we just need news of a Planet Zoo console release... Frontier?