Planet Zoo

Planet Zoo is a wildly satisfying park-builder with a menagerie of lovely looking animals.

Planet Zoo is a detailed management sim that's both rewarding and educational, and the cute animals certainly don't hurt.

Another strong (yet stressful) management sim from Frontier Developments.

Despite these issues, I couldn’t help but love Planet Zoo for what it is: a game about trying to make the world a little better, by making sure some animals are well looked after. From its story beats about protecting animal welfare in the case of evil capitalists trying to drive profits, to the first time I was able to release a set of endangered pygmy hippos back into the wild, I felt like all my stress was working toward something.

Planet Zoo is a complex, deep simulation game with too much to give, if you can get past the minimalist tutorials.

Planet Zoo has a lot of ambition and depth, but it often comes at too high a cost

Planet Zoo is a game where you can build your own zoo. It’s buggy, intermittently opaque, frequently saccharine, and – barring an eleventh hour miracle – it’s my undisputed game of the year. Because here’s the thing: it’s a game where you can build your own zoo. And by thunder, it delivers on that promise.

Even with occasional design quirks and bugs holding it back, I adore this game as is. Similar to Planet Coaster, I think it'll get better over time, and Frontier will surely flesh out the species list with DLC packs. But even if that doesn't happen, I'll be satisfied. Some of us have been waiting decades for a game like Planet Zoo to come along and scratch our Zoo Tycoon itch. Now that it's here, I can't get enough.

This is one of gaming’s great sandboxes (provided you can tame its expanse), and if you thought it was satisfying linking some theme park rides together, wait until you do the same thing only for baby pandas.

Planet Zoo is a great management game that lets you impose your own goals and always gives you something to strive for. With incredible graphical fidelity, a huge overlapping array of mechanics to balance and incredible detail, the only issue is the sometimes annoying controls.