Planet Zoo

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!!

+80 dollars to get the game + all dlcs... ON DISCOUNT (170 without it)

i hate this modern trend of endless small dlcs

Developers keep adding expensive dlc and add nothing in free game updates.

I cannot recommend this game, Its basically the sims 4 of zoo tycoon games, DLC FOR EVERYTHING

I love the fact that for some animals you can get different mutations (black leopards, black jaguar, albino lions, etc.). I own most of the animals dlcs and love the additional animals that they add.

very good, amazing graphics. still trying to figure out how to play!

Love this game and recommend it to all... there is a learning curve so take your time and explore. there are lots of videos and resources on the internet to help you along the way.

Highly recommended if you like other zoo games like this or if you just want to try it. Plantet zoo is more realistic, actually has breeding/mating animation, and you can design your own habitats or if you really want to like i did, you could make a cave in a habitat for the cats, wolves, bears (etc..).

Best game iv ever played amazing models and animations would recommend to any animal lovers

This game came out three weeks after I had my first kid, and I dumped 300 hours into it during my maternity leave. It got me through some of the most difficult times of my life. I grew up on Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2 and the unfortunate final form. I spent the rest of my childhood playing Wildlife Park 1 and 2. Animals are my special interest, and this has been, from day 1, my "dream" zoo management game. The emphasis on conservation, and the realism out of habitat requirements and ethically selecting animals to feature in the game has won my heart over and over.

Planet Zoo is the best Zoo simulator you can get! If you put in the time and work you can make amazing zoos! If you want a even more unique experience you can download mods from the planet zoo nexus website! From there you can get even more unique animals, extinct animals, aquatic animals, fantasy creatures and even new scenery! Some mods from the nexus need DLCs to work, they mention the requirements in the download page. Without mods the game is still very fun!

Quite a decent game, well- more then decent honestly- buttttt anyways, i havent played it in awhile since ive been really seriously super busy, and i wanna get back into it anyways- i really super duper recommend this game, great time passer and just a quite super silly yummy game in general

good, people litter just like in real life and blame everyone else

they literally took my favorite childhood game and enhanced every aspect of it you can imagine, it is absolutely beautiful! there are so many intricate details to each exhibit and aspect of the zoo, from maintaining animal welfare all the way to managing staff salaries.

This game reminds me of one I played as a kid on a nintendo DS. It has a variety of animals and it's adorable to get close ups. I find myself wanting to make them as happy as possible even though it's just a video game. As for the actual gameplay I do find that the designing can be difficult and you just have to wing it on some of the placement and hope that it works out. That could be because I'm not very good with this particular controls with designing or I just haven't learned all the keyboard short cuts. Either way it's quite a good game and definitely for those that love world building and management games.

I want to love this game but the awful mechanics, the constant having to look up how to do shit, it gets very annoying very fast. I feel like they could have simplified this game more & it would have been fun. Over complicating everything isn't fun. Not giving exact instructions in the tutorial, isn't fun. Even when it comes to the multiple ways you can do things & if you don't do them exactly how the game wants during tutorial you're stuck for 20 mins trying to figure it out... I've wasted time in my life before but I can tell this is a sink of time just how frustrated Ive been for 7 hours so far. NOT WORTH.

Never played Zoo Tycoon before, this is exactly what I always thought it would be like.

Not worth the money. Around 60 dollars wasted on a game I didn't expect to be so difficult. The building system is weird, zookeepers never bring the food to the animals for some reason. I'd rather play zoo tycoon instead

Very good and fun game, if you like to build and creat this game is perfect for it, and also a great game for animal lovers, its also educational as you get to prepear habitats and peopls needs, is enjoyable and relaxing to play while watching a movie or being with friends, this in multiplayer would be amazing but i highly recommend it!

This game genuinely sparked my interest in zoology and nature. Fun and educational.

Very relaxing and quite addictive game. Love the graphics and the creativity the games has.

Love this game, taught me so much about world building, animals, animal care, and flora.

Super fun game you can be creative with all animals and have a fun time experimenting with terrain.

Love this game, hope they continue to add more animals. Also wish they would revamp the base game animal models though!

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Lovely game with beautiful graphics, cute animals, fun management simulation and endless creative freedom.
(also very much enjoyable without DLCs)
10/10 would recommend. One of my favorite cozy/creative games of all time.

It is quite pricey, although when I got it and all the DLC's for a discount, I never put it down. Very good for a specific kind of person, although I did enjoy it very much. Would recommend.

What else can I say other than just... the pinnacle of zoo tycoon style games. Frontier hit it out of the park with this one!

I really like this game, I hate the paths though. It's so bad I would actually pay money for them to make them better. But the animals are cute so I stay.

If you like games like the The Sims 4, Cities: Skylines, Jurassic World Evolution, Prison Architect, etc; You'll likely enjoy this game as well. The biggest hit or miss aspect would be the amount of customization this game allows. It's important to know that things are NOT gridlocked. There are options that let you use a grid system in certain instances, but ultimately the default and only option for most of what you're working with is that it can be completely freely placed. You can place things floating in the sky if you want. You can legit build and make things however you want in your zoo. This is great if you love customizing and working on tiny details. It can get annoying if you want things to look pretty but don't want to put in the effort. You can make the most beautiful and creative zoos, but you need to put in the effort to achieve that. As someone who would probably want less customization for the sake of making it easier to build nice and pretty zoos, I'd still definitely recommend the game. DLC sales seem to happen pretty often btw, but they're pretty cheap regardless; I'm just broke.

Me build home for animals, me happy. :)

Cooked my laptop and bored me with a slow tutorial.

I have a gaming laptop, and this ran my GPU temp up to 76C in about 15 minutes of playing. I had to quit because the temps kept rising even after turning the graphics settings down to "lowest", and now my keyboard is uncomfortably hot.
I also couldn't figure out how to rotate the camera, even after looking through the controls menu. I have left and right click buttons separately on my trackpad, but not a middle mouse button. I can two-finger scroll on my trackpad to move the camera closer and farther away, but that's also what the q and r keys do (when I would expect q/r to rotate).

I also hated that I couldn't speed up dialogue during the tutorial level that I played half of. I know how this genre of game works, I just need to learn the UI. Please let me skip the dialogue and then go back and listen to it (or just read it) if I need something from it.

I really wanted to like this. I've been nostalgic for zoo tycoon and wanted something with even more management/simulation crunchiness, and I think that Planet Zoo has that capacity. Unfortunately, my laptop couldn't keep up with the cooling needed to run it, and the tutorial levels are paced like I'm an eight year old who has never played a tycoon game before.

Probably a great game if you have a desktop or a laptop with a better cooling solution than mine, as long as you can tolerate a slow tutorial.

Very good game, I can kill animals without commiting animal abuse

A really fun sandbox game where you get to do anything that you want, if it involves animals.

Planet Zoo is a amazing a creative game, which represents to be organized with both your zoo, workers, and welfare of the animals you purchase within the game. Work Zones, categorizing sections of your zoo, and overall choosing the aesthetic and appearance of your zoo really bring out the creativity to both the mind, and a eye pleasing experience.

So easy to sink dozens of hours into this game. The animal variety is fantastic, extremely immersive. Graphics are beautiful, and I'm able to run them fine on my Dell g3 thats 5 years old.

Building is a bit of a learning curve but just watch a Youtube video and you'll get the hang of it quick enough. There's some incredible creators in this community, be sure to checkout the workshop to subscribe to some builds to make your first few zoos easier.

Only real complaint is the same as everyone else, the pathing system can be challenging to utilize.

If you love the building of the sims and miss the old school roller coaster style games you will love this. Goes on sale often so I highly recommend picking it up!

good zoo game, u need mods 4 it to be more tolerable to build tbh

Fun, but construction is a pain and there's 20 DLCs just to add animals/themes when most of them should be part of the base game.