Planet Zoo 2 Hit With Wave Of Negative Reviews, Branded “Completely Unplayable”

A Week After Launch, Planet Zoo 2 Deemed “Completely Unplayable” Published Oct 20, 2026, 6:33 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Planet Zoo 2 has only been out for a week, but player sentiment is already turning sour. It launched to massive critical acclaim, scoring an 85 on Metacritic, four points higher than its predecessor, but now that players have got their hands on it, it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. The title has a tepid "Mixed" rating on Steam, and complaints are surfacing on some online forums, with certain sections of the audience calling it "completely unplayable". Planet Zoo 2's First Week Has Been Polarizing For Players Planet Zoo 2 currently has 2,540 Steam reviews. 60 percent are positive, while 40 percent are negative, and this has left it with the dreaded "Mixed" tag. It's not a death knell, especially for a game like this, where Frontier Developments will release constant updates, improvements, and new content, but it's a strong sign that players aren't particularly happy with the launch. As the week progresses, the situation worsens. While the game received roughly three positive reviews for every one negative in the first few days, the last six days have seen an almost 1:1 ratio. Players have slammed some of the quality-of-life changes, but more often than not, the negative reviews focus on the bugs. "I don't normally write reviews and it pains me to do this on a franchise I love so much; but I cannot recommend this game in the current state," said one review. "There are so many bugs that it makes the game more frustrating to play than enjoyable." Another added, "There are far too many [bugs]. Animals teleport, fish get boxed for no apparent reason, protesters complain about an empty habitat, and monkeys jump like they just drank a potion of leaping." The complaints aren't limited to Steam, either. The Planet Zoo subreddit has created flairs for Planet Zoo 2 criticism and bugs, and there are plenty of threads in each category. One video shows a character spinning violently in a water enclosure, leading the OP to dub the game "completely unplayable". The original Planet Zoo was updated over a period of many years, and Planet Zoo 2 will receive the same treatment. It's just a shame that it has launched in this state.