Recent reviews by Dolan

Abandoned, dead, and ruined by the devs. Don't bother.

Instead of finishing a buggy, unnoptomized game they instead focus their attention on the money and port it to console. The console version is horrendous and I can't even believe Microsoft would allow an unfinished game to be released on their platform, but this is about the PC version...

For the gameplay, it really came down to luck whether or not I had any fun. I will admit the game can be very fun and exhilarating, but its not very often. After about 15 hours and a good win rate, the game just felt more like a chore to play when friends asked. You either land on a place on the map where the circles will keep moving towards which allows you to gear up and in my experience have more fun, or you unfortunately land on the complete opposite side of where they move towards and spend the entire game trying to beat the wall while trying not to die while having no time to loot. In most cases, you end up spending the whole game running from the wall only to die after doing essentially nothing but running. Playing with friends is the way to go in my opinion, but even then it can be a bit tedious. There seems to be someone that always dies early on and they either have to wait the entire game (~40mins) spectating which sucks or have the whole squad quit, find a new match, and try again to survive the beginning of the game. For me, I would say about half my gameplay time was spend in and out of lobbies and running away from the wall which was quite boring. The only fun part of the game to me is late game when the circles get smaller and smaller. Thats when the adrenaline starts pumping.

As for the games performance, it is notoriously unoptomized. I have a relatively high end rig but I have to run on low-normal settings to get acceptable performance. There were also quite a lot of bugs when I played that ruined a handful of matches, but I would like to imagine they have been fixed since I last played.

Even when all the bugs are fixed and they game is optomized, I still wouldn't be interested in playing again. To me, the fun ran out early on and every match feels the same regardless of the outcome. Of course, this is just my opinion on the game. Your experience may vary. If you can get the game on sale for 50% off, I would recommend it. But that will probably never happen as its never gone on sale. Maybe in the year 2020.

Planet Coaster, simply put, is to Roller Coaster Tycoon as what Cities Skylines is to Sim City. The game is a huge improvement on an already good idea, but the devs behind Planet Coaster seem to have really made sure this will be the best kind of theme park builder / simulator that it can be. With the built in ability to create and share custom buildings / rides / blueprints with other users via Steam Workshop BEFORE the game is even out, you can use and expand upon the ideas of many other Planet Coaster players which also greatly adds to the experience. The tools in the game allow for incredible creativity to really make your park exactly the way you envision it. There are terraforming tools to dig moats and tunnels and to even create hills and mountains with the feature of filling those up with water. There are many prebuilt blueprints for shops and buildings for you already, however you can easily take just a vanilla shop itself without any customization and really tailor it to the theme of your park and it seems to be encouraged. The controls, while at first may seems difficult, are actually not that bad to learn. Steping into the game, atleast before official launch, you really have to learn the game on your own as there is a lack of tutorials, but it is much easier than I thought. It took me less than a half an hour to figure it out by just experimenting. However, there is a spot on the main menu for "Tutorial Videos" which states that they are coming soon, probably on launch. The game looks great graphically and runs very smooth on my system. The only problem I could see performance wise with a game like this, is that over time when your park expands and you have created many building and rides with hundreds or even thousands of pieces, your frames will most likely drop. When I started a career mission that already had a park mostly built, my frames were a bit lower than when I started my own park from scratch. But overall, it seems to be optimized pretty well. I haven't gotten too far in the game yet, I have spent a few hours just making an entrence castle to my theme park and it is addicting being able to make anything anyway you want it. I still have yet to making my own coasters and shops, but I can tell I am in for a treat.

All in all, Planet Coaster is definately a must buy in my book for those of you who love games such as Cities Skylines or Roller Coaster Tycoon, but also those who just love creative games where you can make anything your mind imagines. At the price point only at around $40, this is definately a game to consider and you should definately check out other reviews / streams / gameplay of it if you are on the fence.

Apparently the devs prioritize working on paid dlc rather than finishing the actual game first and think it is a good idea to blame their customers[imgur.com] for being "too cheap" when they face a backlash. I do not think anyone of us has a problem with paid dlc, especially if it is good. However there is a difference from making dlc after a game has been finished and going for the dlc cash grab rather than finishing the actual game that has many issues. No wonder this is still in early access....

As for the game itself, its ok. It has a really good concept and idea, but the gameplay just feels so sluggish and grindy. I only have 10 hours on record and about 5 of those hours were of my friend and I spawning and dying less than a minute later to bases built with auto turrets along the shorelines or ridiculously strong dinosaurs. Then we we finaly made it inland after about 6 hours and started working on a base and almost finished it, we got some entitled little kid who was part of a clan telling us that this huge forest was his land and we cannot be there. Then proceeded him killing us and destroying our base without letting us pack our things and go. And that wasn't just a one time thing, I have also encountered many other players and factions do the same thing which I just don't understand. This game just seems too toxic compared to all the other survival type games I have played over the years...

7/6/17 EDIT: My ass its worth $60. Atleast include all dlc with it or have no paid dlc at all. Way to raise the price before even optimizing it.

Abandoned. Don't bother. It has had virtually no support from the devs since its release on steam. I bought into it years ago at release because it had an interesting concept and idea and completely regret it. This is the exact reason why Early Access gets a horrible reputation.

When I first purchased the game, there were barely any DLC's. But slowly as time progressed, more and more DLC's were being added to the game adding stronger weapons and making it seem like it was getting closer to pay to win. Now, they just added a new pay to win DLC that tops it all off, despite the devs saying a long time ago that it will not become pay to win. The new skin DLC thing makes it like CSGO skins, but the rarer they are, the better the stats they have. Which means that ifyou buy a rarer, more expensive skin, you have better stats on that weapon.

Other than that, the game itself was fun for the first 30 hours, but after that the games gets a bit repetitive. They do make certain things in each level spawn in different locations to mix it up and add replay value. There are many ways you can go about a specific mission. You can go in loud with guns blazing and defend against hoardes of cops, or you can go in quiet by taking out guards and cameras with silenced weapons and not have to fight a single person. There are many skills in the skill trees which allow you to play according to your play style and you can dip into multiple skill trees, which is nice. But overall, the game started to get a bit boring for me after those 30 hours. I know people who have hundreds and even thousands of hours on the game which means it obviously has good replay value, so maybe i'm just playing it wrong or its not entirely the game for me.

I danced around a lifeless body on the floor with my naked compadres chanting, he arose and took off his clothes. We frolicked off into the sunset with our new compadre

Awesomly Fun and Addicting Strategy game that any type of gamer would love. There is so much to this game it will have you hooked as you build your empire from the early days of Mankind to the far future. Great game overall :)