Planet Zoo 2 Review

Six years is a long time to wait for a sequel in a genre that doesn't get many. The original Planet Zoo came out in 2019 and quietly became one of the most loved management games on PC, kept alive by a steady stream of animal packs and a huge creative community. Frontier Developments announced the follow-up on November 5, 2025, the sixth anniversary of the first game. Planet Zoo 2 launched on October 13, 2026, on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

The pitch is easy to explain. Everything the first game did on land is still here, and now your zoo can reach into the water and the air too. Here's what's new, what critics think and who should pick it up now rather than later.

What kind of game this is

If you've never played the first one, Planet Zoo 2 is a zoo-building and management sim. You design habitats, care for the animals living in them, keep guests happy and try to run a business that doesn't collapse under its own feeding bills. There's a heavy creative side as well. Players build everything from paths to themed buildings piece by piece, and the best fan-made zoos look more like theme parks than spreadsheets.

Frontier has made this kind of game for a long time. The studio is also behind Planet Coaster and Jurassic World Evolution, and it made the 2013 reboot of Zoo Tycoon for Xbox. That experience shows in how confident the sequel feels about its own systems.

Water and wings

The headline addition is aquatic and flying species. For the first time in the series, you can build aquariums and aviaries, and Frontier's marketing leans hard on the idea with the line "Let creativity soar in Frontier's most advanced zoo simulation game to date."

This was the biggest gap in the first game. Fans spent years asking for penguins with proper underwater space and for birds that actually fly. Now habitats can stretch from the ground into deep water or open air, and animals interact with those spaces in more detail than before.

Critics single this out more than anything else. IGN Benelux wrote that "The fantastic aquariums and aviaries make Planet Zoo 2 the ultimate zoo simulator." It also noted that some continents feel thin on animals at launch, which is worth knowing if you have a favorite region in mind.

Animals that behave like animals

Frontier says the game "represents a generational leap forward in animation and animal behaviour," and reviewers mostly agree the creatures are the star. Animals move more naturally, react to their surroundings and use habitat objects in more convincing ways.

James Clarkson at The Outer Haven put it simply: "The animals themselves remain a major highlight." Even PC Gamer, one of the tougher reviews, opened its verdict with praise for them. When a review ends on a complaint but still calls the animals "superstars," you know where the game's strength lies.

Conservation gets a bigger role

The other major addition is Wildlife Reserves. These are separate spaces where you restore natural land and eventually release animals back into the wild. It ties the zoo side of the game to a bigger conservation goal, and it gives breeding programs a purpose beyond filling exhibits.

The career mode is built around this too, framed through an organization called the Fauna and Ecosystems Network. You take on zoos and reserves around the world, each with its own problems to fix.

The Outer Haven called the theme out directly: "The conservation theme deserves praise." The same review was cooler on how the reserves actually play, saying they can feel more like terrain editing than wildlife work. So the idea lands better than the execution, at least for now.

Where the cracks show

Not every review is glowing, and the complaints line up in a clear pattern. Management can get fussy. PC Gamer scored the game 60 and summed it up this way: "The animals are superstars, but they don't quite make up for the fiddly, frustrating micromanagement."

The Outer Haven raised a similar point, warning that "caring for animals can become more about checking off lists than enjoying the experience." It also said "Creation is fiddly at times," which will sound familiar to anyone who wrestled with the first game's building tools. On top of that, its reviewer found finances too easy, which takes some tension out of the business side.

Console players should pay attention to one more detail. The Outer Haven reviewed on Xbox Series X and reported slowdowns along with slow, confusing menus. A game this dense with menus was always going to be harder on a controller, and that review suggests the port still needs work.

Players have been louder than critics about technical issues. A GameDaily headline summed up the launch mood: "Planet Zoo 2 Critics Fall For The Animals, But Steam Players Are Fenced In By Bugs." The Metacritic user score sits at 5.1, though that comes from only 16 ratings, so it's an early signal rather than a final word.

The critical picture

On Metacritic, the PC version holds an 84 from 20 critic reviews. The PS5 version sits at 81 from six reviews, and Xbox at 79 from four. That's a solid result for a management sim, a genre that rarely gets big mainstream scores.

The highest marks are very high. Insider Gaming gave it a perfect score and said it "raises the bar for the simulation genre." Cultured Vultures gave it a 90 and offered what might be the fairest one-line summary: "Planet Zoo 2 isn't a revolution, but it doesn't need to be."

I think that line explains the whole reception. This is a sequel built on a foundation fans already liked, with the most requested features finally added. If you wanted something radically different, it isn't that.

Who should buy it now

Fans of the first game who always wanted aquariums and aviaries have the strongest reason to jump in. That's the core upgrade, and critics agree it delivers.

PC players are in the best spot, given the higher scores and the platform's long history with this series. Console players may want to read up on patches first, especially on Xbox.

If micromanagement wore you out in the original, the sequel probably won't change your mind. Several reviews point to the same fussy systems, just with more animals to look after.

For me, the Wildlife Reserves are the most interesting idea here, even if they need polish. A zoo game that asks you to send animals back into the wild is making a small but meaningful point about what zoos are for.

So if you've been waiting six years for penguins that can actually swim, this is the moment. Just give the patches a little time to catch up with the animals.