Planet Zoo

This game is super detailed in the regards of the animals and their needs! So much fun and so worth the money.

Very much like how accurate every detail is in this game! I do struggle with building still just because there is a lot to learn!

The game is fun, a bit hard to learn, but still fun. So why am I putting a negative review? It is fun until you hit certain number of guests/habitats. I have gaming pc that is able to run 2024 titles with no issue on maxed/high settings, but game from 2019, with bad graphics even for that year starts lagging pretty soon in the game. And I payed over 100$ for this game and dlcs! The dev team should really focus on the performance of their engine. So unless you want to build small zoo with up to 10 habitants, don't buy this game.

It's all fun and games until the bears break through the enclosure walls and slaughter the camels.

10/10.

Absolutely love this game, each dlc I've bought has been a perfect mix between lots of new items while not feeling overwhelming. The controls are a bit difficult to get used to when it comes to the camera but overall a wonderful game, the only issue I've had is occasionally if there's too many alerts and things opened at once my esc key stops working, but it can usually be prevented by closing any alert religiously and saving and reloading the save to get it to work again. Absolutely worth it, especially with the occasional sales they have that are absolute steals.

It is a bit tricky for making the right habitat, but everything else is just really surpme!

I love the amount of freedom you get in the game, you can go by your own rules in sandbox mode or be challenged in franchise mode. There is a bit of a challenge which keeps the game interesting, in contradiction to the sims where you are free to do what you want but there is not really a challenge. Overall I love the game and think everyone who would like a relaxing game to give it a try!

One of my favorite games of all time. You want cute critters, raise cute critters!
Revitalize endangered species? you got this. You want to name them Darth Razzleberry IV, do it! How about create a Haunted Onsen, a K-drama palace, or a tumbledown Edwardian mansion for them to live in, go for it! You want to pay your workers extravagantly to the point where they are happy people, too easy! From a cozy builder to an in depth management and conservation game, its as intense or as relaxed as you want it to be. While some zoos may be problematic in the real world, the game designers have emphasized conservation and well-being of animals over all other considerations, as it should be. With possible Planet Zoo 2 in the works, I can only hope they expand on that idea. Id also love to walk through other people's zoos, just saying. Enjoy this beautiful game. Its not perfect, but its a great place to go.

Reminds me of when I was a kid and was addicted to Zoo Tycoon DS, but this is ten times better. Graphics are amazing, scenarios are fun and the franchise and sandbox option are just too addictive. Amazing game!

I used to play zoo tycoon so much as a kid. I am not super into video games and my coordination is terrible, but its been a rough year and getting into this game has been a great escape.

Have been playing Frontier Development games since my school years. The first frontier development game I ever played was Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. Admittedly, the first time I played planet zoo it was a little confusing to me that i had to watch tutorials on Youtube but as I got use to it I began to really enjoy it. There is a plethora of selection of animals, buildings and themes from both the main game and the DLC's. I usually play sandbox mode because I am not really into management and more into the creative aspects of the game. Overall, my experience playing planet zoo is positive and had zero problems so far. I have every single DLC except for the soundtrack. I also appreciate the modding community on steam because some of the mods created by other players are really up to par.

This game led me down a real-life rabbit hole of environmentalism and zoo fandom. I volunteered at a zoo and even worked at one for almost a year, because of this game. I'm a huge zoo and aquarium person now. It's not the game for everyone, but if the gameplay style looks like something you'd enjoy, 100% recommend trying it.

The animals are very lifelike and mimic real behaviors. I do struggle with terrain forming and path snapping but otherwise very entertaining gameplay!

If you want to stick animals in boring gridded boxes, then this game is absolutely for you. If you want to make interesting habitats of any kind, be prepared to deal with dozens of glitches, including stuck animals, bogus "escapes," and entire game functions ceasing to work.

A really good game to play in the background or to just play peacfully

Seeing as though this game is available on console I was expecting there to be absolutely zero issues playing on steam deck. I was wrong. Controls are extremely unintuitive and really hard to play

I love this game, easily the best Zoo Tycoon style game ever made, but even on sale the ultimate edition costs $99 at the time of this review, which is a ludicrous barrier to entry for new players. I would recommend picking and choosing packs based on personal favorite animals, as the game is unfortunately not able to handle anything close to all species at once in a single zoo without dramatically decreased performance anyway.

I really wished I had taken more stock in the reviews. This is more than a 'steep learning curve'- I exceeded the playing time for refund thresholds just trying to figure out how to build a pathway in a zoo. The building mechanics are so unintuitive and difficult to use that I found myself looking up walkthrough videos FOR THE TUTORIALS. There's no way to even construct the pathways and zoo layouts already in place by the game. I'm a grown adult with an advanced degree- this was not fun and I barely even got to interact with the animal mechanics. I wish I could get my money back.

its a really fun and satisfying game! i like all the building options and the animals are cute

I love spending 10+ hours building a hole in the ground 10/10 game reccomend

People review this game as if its unplayable without the dlc. It is not. On its own it is a semi-realistic zoo simulator focused on conservation efforts. It is the pretty side of conservation. A great game that has a wonderful and helpful community. You can easily use youtube or even the subreddit to find inspiration and build ideas, as well as develop skills and tricks to make the game work for what you want. It's a sandbox, and like all other sandbox games you can do anything with it.

DLC packs are inexpensive and allow you to pick and choose what animals you want access to. They bring new animals and construction for the most part. NOBODY is requiring you to purchase them all. I only bought because i like options.

After quite some time playing this game and don't get me wrong it's enjoyable but I can't recommend at the state the game is currently in. The massive amounts of DLC this game has is ridiculous and uncalled for. $200!!!!! FOR ALL DLC!!! $200!! I truly want to recommend the game but I simply can't. Way too expensive to support and half of the DLC seem like they can be added as a title update not some DLC. But again it's to be expected from the publisher. They are more money hungry than EA in fact EA and Frontier Developers could be brothers with the amount of DLC they offer at such high prices. Shame on these devs. They used to be the forefront of simulation games but thank goodness for Indie games who make similar games like these do a good job in maintaining the DLC front.

Overall the game is what you expect, a Zoo Tycoon type game that adds more than what Zoo Tycoon could ever offer. It offers a lot of customization to the game and makes it feel unique. No doubt about that, even taking cares of the animals feels real and true. Game runs good, even on the Steam Deck (At the time I played on it).

Overall final thoughts nah I do not recommend this game. Shame on the devs, money hungry thieves.

astronomically addictive for those who get emotionally attached to pixels.
Cannot rave about this game enough. Even if you don't have the dosh to get DLC packs, the base game gets frequent free updates and added animals/items.

The community is so creative and never seems to lack in originality.
Even if you don't want to assemble builds yourself, the workshop items are entirely free and pretty insane.
I've spent too log on this game, someone take it away from me.

this thing is very good game full of animals and mods are easy to install just dont delete a file you will regret it

This is not a zoo management game. This is a scene builder game with zoo management aspects.
As a scene builder game, I still wouldn't recommend this. I have multiple issues with this game, from the tedious building system that you're practically required to use to the numerous piecemeal DLCs to, most of all, the absolutely ATROCIOUS pathbuilding system, which is INCREDIBLY awkward and clunky (like, come on Frontier, I know you can do better; you did fine in JWE, why not here?).
So yeah. Play Wildlife Park 2 or the Zoo Tycoon series instead, those are MUCH better.

Been scratching the itch and then some since my Zoo Tycoon days.

I think that the controls take a while to get used to, especially regarding construction, but once you get the hang of them, the possibilities are endless.

Not sure if it's purely a nostalgia thing for me, but this game pales in comparison to the Zoo Tycoon series I played as a kid. I'm sure the intent was to allow for more player control over the environment but it doesn't feel that way for me. The UI feels horrible and difficult to manipulate which just leads me to wanting to log off more than play. And the game is unclear with all of its interactions leaving me frustrated, even in free play. And then there's the metaphorical elephant in the room... why is everything packaged in a DLC? Just not worth it if you ask me.

An amazing game that combines fun with learning. You’ll pick up some fascinating facts about animals and their behavior, but at its core, this is also a game for aspiring architects. If you want your zoo to stand out and not look generic, you’ll need to build everything from scratch — fences, buildings, enclosures, you name it.
Highly recommended, especially during a sale (same goes for the DLCs), but be warned: it can be a real time sink.

Slightly disapointing. Its still pretty fun overall though!

So far, this game is a lot of fun. I still have a lot to learn but the tutorials are extremely detailed.

after 70 hours i can confidently say this game hits extremely hard when its summer, and you have nothing better to do than to breed maxxed out cheetahs. its a specific type of itch to mindlessly build enclosures that drives me absolutely adoring the game, especially since i got it discounted. HOWEVER. some building mechanics are SO SO confusing, and sometimes i look at builds, at zoos, and thing 'how the absolute fuck did you just do that you bloody magician'. i love this game, but my zoos will never look half as fancy as the ones people show off, and thats fine with me.

I the game is making me write a review but uhhh its a pretty good game i mean it can be VERY ANNOYING at times but overall its actually pretty good

It is the best Zoo management game i have ever played. From the building details, cheap DLC's, Animal Care and Staff Management. Its so detailed and very well thought out. And it has many different ways to play like franchise, challenge and sandbox. So you can make your experience as easy or difficult as you wish. When starting out i would recommend just playing in challenge and then sandbox. Sandbox allows you to turn off things like that can frustrating when just starting out. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in Zoo's, Animals or Management Games as i think it excels in all those areas.

I loved Zoo Tycon 2 but Planet Zoo is boring for me and I really dont like so much datadisks so delevopers want milk customers, without datadisks game feel empty. I made my zoo after several hours, try all features and thats all, there is nothing more.

🌍 Planet Zoo – A 120 Hour Review

A game I always return to...
Planet Zoo is the kind of game that quietly sits in your library until one day you feel that itch—then you're back, lost in the details, the design, and the lives of your animals. It’s not an everyday game for me, but it’s one I always come back to.

Deep, rewarding simulation...
The level of detail in animal behavior, habitat needs, breeding, and welfare is seriously impressive. It feels like caring for a living ecosystem, and that makes every decision—from enclosure design to enrichment—feel meaningful.

Creative freedom that can be overwhelming (in a good way)...
The building tools are powerful, almost too powerful at times. The freedom is incredible, but it can lead to decision fatigue.

Emotional reward with the animals...
Nothing beats naming a snow leopard, watching it grow up, have cubs, and then… yes, even saying goodbye. The emotional connection is real, and it's what sets this game apart from other management sims.

Beautiful visuals and sound design...
From the detailed animal animations and ambient zoo sounds, it’s a genuinely relaxing game. It’s nice sometimes to just watch your zoo operate and see guests interact with your work/disasters lol

Steep learning curve, but satisfying mastery...
Especially early on, there’s a lot to learn—zoning, temperature, education, water filtration… but once it clicks, it becomes second nature. And that’s when the game truly opens up.

Not without its flaws!!!
The UI can be clunky, and performance can dip with larger zoos. Also, micromanaging staff zones and work schedules sometimes pulls you out of the fun. Still, these are minor compared to everything it does right.

DLCs add great content, but can feel fragmented...
The expansions are full of amazing animals and new mechanics, but they add up fast. I find myself picking them up slowly over time, depending on what kind of zoo I want to build next.

Overall Planet Zoo is best enjoyed at your own pace.
Whether you're in it for the creativity, the animals, or the challenge of running a tight business, Planet Zoo gives you space to play your way. And sometimes that means putting it down for a while and coming back when the mood strikes—and that’s perfectly okay.

I love this game! There can be a bit of a learning curve for some of the building tools, but they can be super powerful and precise once you get familiar with them. I've sunk such time in my franchise zoos, but sandbox mode is great if you're looking for a low-stress way to just build cool habitats for your animals. Guests can get demanding and annoying, but that's true for almost any sandbox type creation game. Paths can be incredibly frustrating to place at times, but overall I would definitely recommend this game!

I bought this game in 2020 or so, because of the many rave reviews and it being lauded a spiritual successor to 'Zoo Tycoon 2' from 2004 which I think is one of the best zoo games ever. Now I can say with confidence that it's neither a great successor nor is it even fun to play.

I can't help but be continuously disappointed with it. For starters, so many missing features from the 'spiritual predecessor'. Where's my marine animals for example? Where's my dinosaurs? Biome brushes? The fact that you have to place each tree individually is just absolutely inacceptable for a modern park builder game.

In short the building is so extremely frustrating it takes away all the fun. Today I wanted to build a habitat for a pair of Bengal Tigers. And long and behold, even the fence tool is frustrating! This is yet another thing that the original ZT2 did better, because among other things, you could drag fences as you wanted them, but in this game you are limited to placing fence sections of predetermined length, which makes building super unintuitive. The zoopedia said the fence needed to have a certain height, so I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out how to change the height.
Also, a really weird thing I noticed is that every attempt to build a fence leaves a fence post behind. Even if you never place it. This is the kind of behaviour I would expect from Alpha software, but this is an actually finished game!

So much freaking frustration already and literally just the fence is finished!

Let's move on. The guests need a way to view the animals, so let's place a path. Unfortunately the paths tool is also an absolute joke, because you cannot see where your path is even getting placed! In the end I gave up trying to make a nice looking path, and just clicked away like a berserker. It looks terrible now, but whatever.

Then I wanted to make a tour for the guests to be able to view the tigers. There is a jeep tour in the game, but the track building is again so freaking unintuitive that I gave up after the first few sections. Again this used to be better in ZT2, where the track would just be placed against your mouse cursor. Here, you get predetermined length sections. But instead of loosely following your cursor like fences, here you need to use onscreen buttons to actually determine where the track is going. I'm not even fucking kidding!!!! What the fuck, who designed this?????

Then when building the exhibit, I had a hard time again while placing water. Apparently you cannot place water directly. You must first lower the ground, then apply the water brush. Oh and I like I already said, there is no biome brushes for some crazy reason. Need to place foliage individually, so the exhibit ended up looking like ass.

I quit the game and uninstalled for good after this, and went back to Zoo Tycoon 2, which despite its advanced age (21 years!!!) I still enjoy to this day.

Apparently Frontier is incapable of designing a building system that is intuitive to use, but I can't help but compare this game to Prehistoric Kingdom, which has a similar premise but for extinct animals. The building is a MILLION times better than in this game. You get biome brushes, placing paths is not an absolute frustration, you can directly place water, and placing fences is not a nightmare like it is here.

If a small indie dev team can get it right where Frontier can't, then maybe they need to seriously rethink their priorities. I would not recommend this game whatsoever to casuals who just want to build parks without investing too much time into the game. Seriously, unless you want to spend a million years trying to fight with the useless building system, stay away from this.

I am enjoying this game so much more than I expected to. There's a fairly steep learning curve when it comes to creating your own facilities, but there are plenty of premade and workshop items if building isn't your thing. As someone who's spent more than I care to admit on Sims expansion, game, and stuff packs (not to mention kits), the cost of this game plus dlc is extremely reasonable in my opinion. The animations and interactions with the animals are absolutely adorable. HIghly recommended.

Awesome and chill game. The game is really complete and brings plenty of opportunities in creativity. It is quite hard to handle it tho, don't hesitate to get inspired by watching videos etc... Still a beautiful game.

this game is an ugly, over complicated mess and a complete waste of time. i can't believe i actually played this when it first came out.

7/10
TLDR: Planet zoo is endless hours of entertainment, but I wish construction was more streamlined, and the game developer definitely price gouges you. It's ridiculous that not all animals come with the base game. Only purchase on sale, not worth full price without all animals.

With a few fully built zoos under my belt, I feel confident saying that while I enjoy this game, it's clunky and I have serious critiques about it.

My critiques:
First of all, the 'help' sections in the menu are completely inadequate. Without playing the campaign, you would have no idea how to play. It's too brief and flashy. I don't need fillers telling me how great the new facility is, I need to know how to use it. However, this is a minor complaint as things are generally explained well in the campaign.
As a prehistoric kingdom player, I was really missing the seamless construction. Construction in this game takes ages and isn't intuitive. I felt forced to use the pre-made facilities rather than utilizing my own creations. The construction just stinks.
The pay wall animal system is ridiculous for a base game price of 45 USD. If the base game was 20 or something similar, I'd be more willing to pay for the add-on content, but 10 USD for 5 animals or less in most cases is garbage.

What I like:
The animal behavior systems and animal encounters are perfect and immersive. I love just watching what the animals will do sometimes. The fact that you can have guests interact with some animals is perfect too, I love building walkabout habitats for non-threatening animals.
The breeding system is marvelous. This gives me hours of gameplay alone. I love trading for better animals or restoring the wild populations, and learning the individual systems of offspring integration is fascinating and a blast.
The habitat requirements are also very fun to try to meet. I love building all sorts of habitats for my animals and watching them interact with the enrichment items and each other.

Too many menu's! Graphics and everything looks great, too bad I can't enjoy it because of all the menu windows covering the screen. Way too much bloat, too many items, too many dlc packages at this point. Shame.

I have played over 700 hours of this game and own all the DLC packs. If you like tycoon games and animals you will probably love Planet Zoo. For me it is the ultimate Zoo making game. However, to make truly spectacular exhibits there is a pretty steep learning curve. You will have a lot to learn in the beginning. Play the tutorial to learn the basics and then look up some youtube tutorials if you have to. If you don't want to learn as much you can download pre-made assets made by the community that are very good. Over all, for me, its a 10/10 zoo builder. Very fun and extremely customizable.

I like this game very much except for one (1) game breaking thing for me, which concerns the breeding of the animals, therefore I cannot recommend this game, and may not play it ever again.
Seems as though the animals, in order to breed need animals of their kind which are NOT related to them. In real life this is obvious why, but this is a game. Having to flush your animals to get new ones so they don't inter-breed throughout the game is a pain in the ass, too much micromanaging. This one thing ruined the game for me, getting rid of animals to get new ones because of inter-breeding throughout the game over and over is just not called for an was not fun for me, finding it not fun and very distracting. Yes, there are these messages that pop up warning you that a pair of your animals in cage X are about to interbreed. Better go stop it over and over and over and over and over........................................... BLAH!! That's just NO fun at all.
I hope the developers change this for PZ 2 or find another way to represent the breeding process. Shame. This would have been pretty cool otherwise, but having to baby-sit animals all the time, throughout the game so they don't inter-breed was just not fun. I'll stick with Planet Coaster 1.

Super fun and ultra immersive I have had so much fun playing it and think other people would love it too!

the game is fun but i am not spending 130$ on dlc for this game. i would buy the dlc for a dollar not 10. most of the content is locked behind dlc.

I will not recommend this game.I was hoping for a game where i can build awesome builds etc,but this is not it!!!
The pathing is pathetic,the snapping is a joke.If u want to build anything good u must build of grid (that by it self is another major issue).If u want anything to align u must build on a grid (that brings us back to the previous sentence).
U have to go watch youtube for hours to just get something half working right
All and all,the animals are nice,but NO,this game ain't for u if u want something to casually build a nice Zoo in.

There's just nothing intuitive about the building mechanics of this game. Such a shame because the animal interaction aspects are great but I totally burned out after 6 hours of struggling to understand basic pathing. I shouldn't have have a 1:1 ratio of game play to youtube tutorials to get through the intro levels!

Awesome game. Very amazing graphics and tons of different animals

I love this game deeply though i have some comments.
Would I suggest this game to others? 100%!! But is it worth 50$ for the base game? Without a doubt no. Theres many bugs and it difficult to build paths and custom structures without having an intense understanding of the game. It isnt beginer friendly in the slightest even if you only stay on sandbox mode. The animals are so cute and the graphics are nice in most every aspect of the game however the guests can be a bit dumb sometimes. The protesters speisfically. An animal can be completely happy and healthy but if they had protesters before then it will take an awfully long time for the protesters to leave. If you prefer the decorating aspects like me guests will complain and be unhappy. They'll be thirsty standing right next to a pipshot water. If you place down a loony balloons then the flying balloons will start to lag your pc. And all and all its a pretty heavy game for a computer to handle in general. I could talk for years about this game, despite all my issues with it, it has a very warm place in my heart.
From personal stand points its a 9/10, needs more elephants lol!!