Like Swjos, some of the animal choices have really bummed me out so far. The base game with it's many clones was one thing, but at first that made me think that we might see a much greater variety of species since they were clearly willing to go with a few copy/paste animals (I appreciated being given the choice between two giant tortoise species, as an example). Then when the Arctic Pack dropped we saw a popularly-requested animal from pre-launch be left out (the Arctic fox) in favour of the Arctic wolf. I could only assume then that the animal clones weren't there to provide us with a greater range of choice among similar animals, but because they simply required less resources to create.
The South America Pack proved me wrong, to an extent. The jaguar is obviously a species based on the same rig as the other big cats, but I'm not going to complain about that - I love jaguars and it was such an obvious choice, although even now I can't help but think it should have been in the base game rather than, say, the Himalayan brown bear. But the llama really bothered me. The llama is an iconic SA animal, sure, but it's also a domesticated breed, not a wild animal. It belongs in a barnyard or on a farm. If we had other such animals already in the game, then fine, but we don't, so it was really an awkward inclusion for me and stands out as an animal I will literally never use unless we get a Petting Zoo DLC or something. And, more to the point, it was chosen in favour of another popularly-requested animal - the capybara.
Then we get to the Australia Pack. The koala was a wonderful surprise, the red kangaroo was just obvious even if it isn't my preferred species (again, I won't complain about it because I expected it), but the other two got under my skin again. I love the cassowary, no doubt, and it absolutely deserves a place in this game, but I was hoping against hope that we would finally see the emu properly represented in a zoo game. It's far more common in zoos, far more iconic to Australia, and far more versatile in terms of how they are handled by zoos (two zoos in New Zealand include them in walkthroughs, for example). The dingo was about as exciting as the llama for me - just another branch of Canis lupus chosen because working off the wolf base again was likely easier than giving us something truly unique and arguably more important such as the Tasmanian devil.
Now we're at the Aquatic Pack. I'm not entirely disappointed - I'm thrilled to have the king penguin (I worried they would include the emperor penguin like Zoo Tycoon did), thrilled to have the grey seal, and thrilled that diving is making its way into the game. The caiman stuck out as an odd choice to me since we so desperately need and apparently want the American alligator, but I'll take it because it's a small reptile and I do enjoy smaller species that can be added to 'space-filling' habitats (aardvark, pangolin, warthog, that sort of thing). The giant otter, however, just makes absolutely no sense to me. It also fills me with a bit of dread, because I worry now that they've chosen it for its size, which basically means they have no intention of approaching smaller species of any sort, including the highly-coveted meerkat. I don't say this to diminish the work of the developers - the otter looks amazing and I'm sure it will be amazing in the game - but did they really not see how people were talking about otters on the forum? The Asian small-clawed was clearly the favourite, followed closely by the North American river otter, then the Eurasian otter. Beyond that I've only seen the giant otter receive token mention as part of SA Pack discussions. So why then?
I take no issue with the quality of these animals at all, nor with the overall quantity, but since slots in the roster are so limited I really wish the decisions were planned a little better.
. People want more animals.
