SMag Issue 17 | Page 33

But possibly the most important feature of Planet Coaster is the community integration. Planet Coaster comes with Steam Workshop integration right out of the box, and the main menu features a planet covered in fun animated avatars representing you, your friends, and the community’s ‘celebrities’ (Frontier staff and prominent content creators). It’s clear that Frontier is putting a lot of emphasis on this game’s social side: Steam Workshop makes it easy for you and your friends to share your own buildings or rollercoasters (dubbed ‘blueprints’) and to download them. It’s a great new feature, and things like regular community livestreams coming from Frontier make it even more obvious that they really are betting on the community making this game come to life. Even the open alpha programme (which is now closed, as the game moves into beta) really reflects this philosophy of openness which is often lacking in games from large studios. It would be unfair to criticise the little bugs in the game right now: it’s only in alpha, and it’s fair to assume that the edges will be polished and bugs stomped before the game is released. The camera controls have a learning curve and can be difficult to understand, and the sheer number of options presented by the modular building system can be overwhelming to a new, or perhaps young, gamer. There are still some rough edges, but whether or not they’ll be polished before release is yet to be seen. All in all, Planet Coaster is a game with a lot of promise. It’s the game that the community surrounding the Rollercoaster Tycoon series deserves. 85 Planet Coaster Alpha Frontier Developments, £26.99 Full version coming Nov 17 WE LIKE... Creative tools are unrivalled in this genre Fun and beautiful art style Powerful and well-executed social sharing features WE DON’T LIKE... Overly sensitive camera controls Modular building system can be overwhelming  IT’S WORTH FULL PRICE @smagofcl 33