From the makers of Jurassic World Evolution comes the most detailed zoo simulator yet, which also lets you create your own nature reserve out in the wild.
Video games’ first priority is, and will always be, fun. They’re a purely voluntary activity, and one you have to pay to take part in, so without that there wouldn’t be much point. But there is one corner of the games industry where fun has to move over and share the driving seat with authenticity, and that’s simulations. Their job is to convey the feeling of doing something from the real world in as complete and convincing a way as possible.
The amount of devotion poured into that aim varies considerably. At one extreme there are games like Train Sim World, which is happy to make you sit for quarter of an hour of real time with absolutely nothing to do, while you wait for your train’s scheduled departure time. At the other end of the spectrum is Two Point’s more casual approach, which still offers complex models of museums, universities, and hospitals, but cares more about pacing and slapstick comedy than it does about fastidious accuracy.
Frontier’s Planet Zoo sat somewhere in the middle. On one hand, its characters and buildings looked pleasingly cartoony, even if its animal were somewhat more realistic, but on the other, it offered a deep and detailed simulation of running zoos, that took in everything from concession stands and guest enthusiasm, to animal breeding programmes where genetic traits could be passed down to future generations.
Its sequel strikes a similar balance, while going quite a lot further in terms of the level of detail, letting you not only design, populate, and manage a global network of zoos, but also work with a series of nature reserves where you can observe, photograph, and release animals into the wild – in ecosystems you help shape. The two elements of Planet Zoo 2 work neatly in partnership with each other, letting you breed and repopulate animal species practically anywhere in the world.
Like its predecessor, your primary focus is running zoos. That means building enclosures for animals that keep them healthy and help visitors see them. You’ll need the right height of barriers to prevent escapees, a gate for staff to gain entry, a feeding station, and somewhere its inhabitants can have a drink. That could be a water trough, or you can dig a pond, although if you do it’ll need to be fed by a mechanical pump and connected to your zoo’s filtration system.
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Animals’ happiness depends on species-appropriate enrichment, both food-based and having toys to play with. New in Planet Zoo 2 are customisable aviaries that let you build netting roofs over them to prevent residents from flying off and starting a new life, while aquariums can now be fresh or salt water, with viewing tunnels underneath them, and all sorts of deep water fish, sharks, and turtles, expanding the variety of animals and habitats.
Keeping things running smoothly means hiring vets and building a surgery where they can treat sick animals before returning them to their homes. Vets’ other job is to make sure new arrivals are properly quarantined to avoid passing on illnesses. You’ll also need caretakers who keep the place tidy by cleaning up litter and emptying bins, while moonlighting as a bus service, transporting animals around the zoo.
Even supplying electricity comes with a degree of choice: eco-friendly generators effectively give you free energy, as well as upping your zoo’s sustainability rating, but cost far more to buy and install than their conventional counterparts. In Sandbox mode that’s not a consideration, but in Franchise mode you’ll need to watch every penny, the business aspect of running your zoological empire every bit as important as looking after the fauna.
The final set of creatures whose welfare you need to consider are the guests that visit your zoo, their happiness, energy, hunger, thirst, and need to use lavatories all having to be taken care of. Each zoo’s management panel lets you get an overview of those factors, so you can add facilities where they’re lacking. The happier visitors are, the higher ticket price they’re willing to pay, but getting more of them through the gates in the first place means earning reputation.
That accrues through a variety of factors, from how well you educate guests via information boards, screens, and speakers, to the biodiversity and monitoring capabilities installed in your wilderness reserves. While those don’t need staff or overt management, you do need to make sure you introduce the right species to the right ecosystems, and that can take a fair bit of intervention.
Making that easier, there are new biome brushes that let you swipe over terrain to paint in specific foliage and geological features without having to plant every rock, tree, and bush individually. It’s also easier to sculpt the landscape, digging lakes, and adding hilly or mountainous areas, each of which encourages different animals to thrive.
Navigating the host of menus needed to do all that is always easier with a keyboard and mouse, but Frontier have done a good job of rendering them controller friendly, with menus accessed via the D-pad, while the analogue sticks reserved for moving the camera. It’s still a lot to get your head around, especially if you missed the original game, but the training built into Career mode is incredibly welcoming, the game asking upfront if you’re an old hand at Planet Zoo and tailoring its approach accordingly.
If you can get over the initial hurdle of working out where to find all the various facilities, hiring, landscaping, and mechanical options amongst all those menus, there’s a vast, absorbing, and almost completely open-ended zoo and wildlife management simulator to explore. It may not have Two Point’s laidback ease of use, but given enough time and the right personality type, its detailed and flexible systems will provide many dozens of hours of happy tinkering.
Planet Zoo 2 review summary
In Short: An intricately designed zoo and nature reserve simulator whose well designed interface and controller implementation make it as accessible as anything of this complexity could be.
Pros: Plentiful new features, from deep water aquariums to fully interactive wilderness reserves whose ecosystems you re-shape. Detailed management simulation and well thought out landscaping tools.
Cons: It takes many hours to get comfortable with its systems and setting up some enclosures remains fiddly.
Score: 8/10
Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £39.99
Publisher: Frontier Developments
Developer: Frontier Developments
Release Date: 13 October 2026
Age Rating: 7
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