13. Deluxe Edition
Animal wise, this is a straight banger.
The pigmy hippo might be the best example of a similar animal in the game that works, as for most zoos its simply the more affordable version, especally in space making people including me much more inclined to use it. Its pretty much a 10/10 animal that while most did not know that they want it defenetly was the hippo we needed.
The komodo dragon also comes of strong as an SEA animal and one of the few habitat reptiles in the game. Combined with the fact that it looks much better then the nile monitor its no surprise that theybe been a staple in my and many other zoos, something the asian water monitor could change, but i honestly doubt it.
Thomsons Gazelle is boring af though.
2/3 being top animals is a great score, but sadly this is all it has to offer, but still id argue this puts it (if you ignore the price tag) over...
14. South East Asia
This pack has allways been and stays as my least favorite pack in the game, even if it contains one of my favorite animals in the game, but it stands out as one thing above everything else: missed potential.
Long story short, how do you make an 8 animal pack without scenery, but only have 2 animals that are above average?
The binturong and babirusa are great and we all know it, but the rest of the pack?
We got a canid, cat and bear in one pack, all 3 are very forgettable fellows and simply unnessecarry. I might love the dhole for its flexibility, but even here they managed to choose 1. The subspecies from russia, 2. Did not make it fluffy and 3. It the one subspecies found in zoos. For me its a top 5 animal for its sheer versatility but the execution of this animal really is subpar and if anything holds it back from even more greatness. Sunbear i understand has its fans and the only bear kept in australia part is cool, but its just nothing special to me, just a lanky ugly bear thats perfectly fine and average but nothing more.
The malayan tapir is a clone and a rather uninspired pick, not bad especally regarding asias ungulate void but even with a better model nothing super interesting. The clouded leopard is both an excuse for a small cat that could and should have been a fishing cat to capitalise on the new deep diving and actually fill that small cat niches instead of just being a tropical snow leopard thats also buggy to the moon and back to a point its the only animal in the game id label borderline unusable.
The proboscis monkey has grown on me, but in a roster that void of primates even at this point it has no buissness to be such an unnessecary weird species when all we wanted and still need us a tailed primate from asia thats actually found in zoos.
And lastly the leaf insect while fun in concept literally is an empty exhibit unless you want to search for it, which is fun once unlike just going through your zoo and watching the animals.
Its quality wise easily the worst pack this game has and half the picks arnt even fun or interesting if not outright having a fatal flaw.
And regarding binturong, babirusa and a subpar dhole + some not worth my time extras, i by far prefer the 2 top tier animals from the deluxe pack and their extra.
Now just from a cash money perspective, is deluxe really better then SEA? No ofcourse not, 8 animals vs 3 are still 5 more, BUT just from how much i like them, i can respect a pack that had 3 animals and brought me to straight bangers much more then a pack with all the possibilitys only to give me a bunch of undercooked animals, half of the choices either boring or flawed with even my favorite animal of the pack being hold back by stupid unnessecary decisions. The tropical pack frustrates me in a macro level, but the SEA pack does it in the vacuum and stands clearly as the most messy and just low quality dlc this game got. It could easily have been a great, but no, they took one of the most diverse regions of the planet and gave us a dog, a big cat, a bear, a clone tapir and the least qualified primate while ignoring all other and frankly much better possibilitys.
If we had no clouded leopard or dhole, who would seriously care? Meanwhile the lack of a pheasent and a SEA kept in captivity monkey are the main and near only wishes for this region, something that could have easily been fixed 2 years ago.
12. Arctic
This pack was the first and it shows. The animal choices are all fine to good, with the reindeer and dall sheep being the clear standouts, especally before the europe and NA packs when they were the only cervid and caprine. The polar bear is okay, its important to be here but just a very unhandy animal. The arctic wolf is also quite nice, as they are very common in europe, give a nice visual choice to the timber wolf, look significantly better then them and also represent the wide harsh tundra the best alongside the reindeer.
The scenery pack is also really nice, from the great wood set, eventhough its starting to be outclassed over time with the beams still be a favorite and even the christmas stuff can be useful with for example fairy lights as the wires of electrical fences and the ice pieces being near essential for king penguin habitats.
Overall its nice but unrefined, maybe a 6/10 pack which shows the general high quality of the packs.
11. North America
Quite surprised when i saw it down here, but thinking about it, while its a good and important pack for NA representation, it has a bit of an aquatic pack syndrome where i prefer later animals over most of its roster, which is still pretty dope. When i want to build for a cervid, the fallow, red and reindeer come to mind far before the moose, the sealion is nice but i simply subjectivly prefer the seal by a long shot as i find them much cuter and the sealions in game kind of off looking, not bad but also not the instant dopamine hit i get from seeing irl pinipeds while the seal does, the arctic fox is really cool but i prefer the red in 9/10 cases unless i want to make an arctic area and the cougar is also quite low on the priority list for cats i would want to build for. This only leaves 3 animals that i prefer over the greater roster with the prariedog in the god tier of usefull and among my top 5 animals in the game, the beaver as one of the truly unique animals and ironically the aligator, an animal i activly didnt want, compfortably vibing as my second or most favorite crocodilian in the game, depending on what day you ask me. Great pack, but not so much for me.
10. Tropic and 9. South America
These packs i went over and over what i like more so im just gonna equal them.
It pretty much comes down to the south america pack being an allmost slam dunk hit regarding the animals, with the only issue i have with it being the type of new world monkey as they arnt really found in zoos and i had prefered another capuchin over it, but im willing to overlook that for what is a 5/5 high tier pack. Ofcourse the lama could use some company, but im not gonna fault this pack for later pack being cringe and not introducing more domestics (looking at you wetlands pack, you coward). Instead, the lama is even MORE usefull as it literally is our only standard petting zoo animals with maybe the fallow deer. Combine that with our only new world primate, the coolest and most versatile big cat (Desert, Grassland, Tropics, Wetlands, Diving, Climbing, Apex, North central and south america) a good addition for the exhibit and one of the most unique and charismatic animals in the game with the giant ant eater. It also does a great job of representing all of south america with just 4 animals, giving us a taxonomically unique savannah animal, a new world primate for the tropical rainforest, the most iconic domestic and arguably animal of the andes and the jaguar who lives simply everwhere.
Now to the meh part, while im still happy its here, the foliage especally for a rainforest oriented pack kind of sucks. Same goes for the scenery, with the wood beams being outclassed, the temple pieces usefull but niche and the only real all time favorite being the flexicolor bamboo pieces, which are great but dont carry the entire pack.
On the flipside we have the Tropics Pack, which has amazing foliage and some of the best scenery in the game both for thematic and general use, BUT i just cant with those animals. These animal choices where just bad and the definition of missed potential and while i have accepted them, it doesnt mean that i like them.
We got the prettier warthog, high resolution nile monitor, small siamang, wrong sloth and the one animal i dont have a problem with.
On a quality level, they are all gorgeous no doubt about it, but this pack has been the first pack ever since i started playing the game that didnt make me feel, "Wow i wanna build for that now", something even SEA managed. I feel aphatetic towards the entire roster and while they are all fine, just like the original SEA pack none of them are ideal or particulary interesting besides the fossa, who allmost managed to get my attention but has the unfortune to follow me building a tropical house for the last month thats finished in its line up by now. Entire pack literally got outclassed by some new vines and ferns for my attention and its not even close.
8. Australia
Long story short, great pack that has fallen out of grace due to me finding prefered alternatives for both the scenery and animals.
I still appreciate it for being literally nessecary for our australian friends, but ngl while i still use the metall pieces from the pack and they have helped me greatly, the twillight packs metall pieces have mostly outshined them whereever their usecases overlapped. In the same vein while i still adore the kangaroo and cassowary, both of them have found great and prefered alternatives in the wallaby and emu, which is generally great but still diminished the pack a little.
For the other 2 animals, im actually okay with the dingo, but it just doesnt interests me, as i mostly dont build actual continental areas and just whatever i feel like with them being the canine at the bottom of my priority list. And the koala is meh, kinda boring but good animal to be in the game. Glad they became a thing before WEs could limit their creativity output, but even so they just are not the most exciting animals to build for or watch as what your seeing is either a small immersion break or the koala literally doing nothing. Imagine we had a cute sleeping animation while on a tree for them, that easily would make them more fun to watch while doing nothing, but just a pipe dream.
In general its a perfect middle of the road pack, its just neat, not many positive or negative thoughts about it and those that i have are pretty much split 50/50 on the pack. Neat
7. Conservation
Now we get into the greats, starting with Conservation. First of, the foliage in this pack is a game changer, the flowers are very fun to mix with the grass and make everything just look that much nicer with a few sprinkles of color everywhere. The scenery in general is really fun, enabling easy back stage building which is a nice add on if your in the mood for it. I also really love the wood pieces, which are among my favorite wood pieces in the game, which is quite the high praise.
For the animals, they are nice. Just one i dont care for with the leopard, 2 great ungulates for underrepresented areas and propaply my favorite primate in the game, especally now after the brachiachition update. Something i especally appreciate is that eventhough all of these animals have similar versions (jaguar/siberian tiger, gemsbock, zebra, lar gibbon) they all managed to stand out by providing unique features without just being a better version of the other animals as they bring their greatness either to another area that needs it, standout with unique features and a significantly bigger size making them much better to spot in larger outdoor habitats or are the leopard that does neither and just kind of is unnessecary. I wish i could say atleast people dont wish for the less cool jaguary anymore, but now many people just moved on to less cool leopards so eh every 2 steps ahead we take one back. This pack really shows the difference in polish between older and newer packs and really polish is the best way to discribe this pack, as it does nothing but polish the allready fun experience with smaller extra features like flowers, backstage props and some back filling of important areas to make many small changes that amount to more then the sum of their parts.
6. Africa
Just like Australia, this pack needs some proper applause for making building in another culture much more accessable and feasible, this time of the many cultures of northern africa, while providing a lot of pieces useful both for theming and general use especally if you choose to build a zoo located in that area and pretty much the best animal collection of any scenery pack so far. Getting an african rhino might not be the most exciting, but defenetly an important choice, the fenec fox gave us the first true saharan animal and a good contestant for any nighthouse, the african penguin became an instant staple of most zoos as a great entrance and general purpose animal and the meerkat literally gave us something we wernt sure if it even was possible, complete with a new behavior and traversal system and being literally THE most important zoo animal missing from the game.
It also was the first pack to really bolster the desert biome, a biome that arguably was the most underrepresented but not absent biome in the base game.
I dont have many words here, its just good. Good Scenery, Good Animals, Brought a New Dimension to the game both in animal sizes and by adding an entire new aesthetic. Its all you could ask from a dlc.
5. Twillight
This pack really shouldnt be this high but it pushes all of my buttons.
Besides ofcourse me being the leader of the trash panda rebellion with the teaser trailer coming out 2 days before my birthday, this pack compliments my building style greatly.
Side note about me, i have so far only build temperate european zoos with my foliage pallete literally being Europe, Asia, Aquatic, Grassland, Temperate, Taiga, Tundra + buffalo grass. This pack gave me for the biggest bump to my foliage pallete besides the europe pack and the buffalo grass for my prefered playstyle, making my pallete a good bit more varied and diverse. It also has some great stone and metall pieces with wood that i especally like for building door, which might be niche but still nice and something i frequently use it for.
Are 3 small carnivorans from north america in one pack a bit of a downer? Yeah cant deny that.
Are any of these 3 animals actually bad? No not at all.
Besides my beloved trash panda, the nr 1. "not a zoo animal" that is in more EAZA zoos then many community favorites combined that finally added a temperate climbing animal that wasnt a cat, we got the skunk which is very cute, well known and common in zoos aswell and the red fox, propaply among the most well handled similar animal in this game ever, where they gave it a ton of color morph to keep it desireable and standout from the crowd. All 3 of these animals filled a role that so far didnt exist, non arctic NA smaller animal/carnivore, which should be appreciated. They gave us for small NA critters what we want for birds and monkeys and we all are only salty cause we know that wont happen to them aswell, which is fair but still. If the NA animal pack fleshed out north america from just a few centerpiece animals and arctic animals to an actual region, this pack rounded it out and completed it, which is just very nice. Also speaking of the last two animals, the bat was revolutionary and while im not nessecarly a fan of the WE, the fact hat we have bats in the game by now is just mindboogling to think about back till the last moment before their reveal. And the wombat is just dope, hes a very nice little guy that finally gave oceania another animal. Not to mention the fact that the red fox and the shortly after released red deer finally got europe to an acceptable state, this pack looking back might not have been what we wanted, but it certanly left a very positive and polished mark on the game, which is the best thing a pack at this point can do.
4. Aquatic
Dear god, whoever created the faux pieces deserves all the chocolate in the world cause damn if theres one set that i use EVERYWHERE its them and its not even close. They are insane, completly busted in their appeal, flexibility and overall design.
And the best part is, the rest of the pack is pretty dope aswell!
Starting with the animals giving us, the king penguin was a great opportuinity to give us an antarctic animal, they took it and it resulted in something completly different from anything else in the game. The giant otter and dwarf caiman gave south america a much needed boost, arguably completing its waterhabitats outside of birds and fish when combined with the wetlands pack and the seal is just an all around delight. Giving us more specialised versions of the 4 main aquatic groups was both a smart marketing tool, aswell as really helping to differentiate them from each other, with all of them filling a completly different niche then their relatives by being from different continents, larger, very morphologically different or much smaller.
For the pieces, it gave us a very varried set, arguably the best wooden wall set and many smaller things to tinker which, proving overall very good.
Without the faux pieces, it be in a similar situation as australia, but thanks to them its easily among the best packs and my nr 1 recomendation if anyone asks me for their first pack as it has great scenery, great animals without counterparts in the base game and a varried and usefull mix that improves many areas of the rather lack luster vanilla roster.
3. Europe
So what have we learned about my taste so far? I like good, versatile scenery, foliage from europe and not tropical asia, i am european and i like building in temperate europe.
Its not a surprise that the Europe pack with its complete banger scenery, great foliage and a nice selection of animals is high on my list, featuring my long time most requested animal in form of the european fallow deer. Before this pack, europe was a mess, it had a few animals from its corners, but nothing besides the wolf from central europe, so making a pack focused on this area was the best choice. This pack, especally now that we also have the base game red deer, gave us everything we need for a bare bones european wild park, while also providing city oriented scenery based on multiple different cultures across europe, making it easier to give the locations that extra bit of flair.
Combine that with extremly good stone and metal pieces aswell as many smaller goodies and accessories like pillows, the great decal system and the food trucks and bus guest spawners make this easily the most generally usefull scenery pack that has no faux rocks.
Add to that the fact that the eurasian lynx might be the most usefull, flexible and well made feline in the game, the alpine ibex being our only other caprine, the badger being our first non otter mustelid and the fallow deer being the king of versatile, arguably being our 3. real petting zoo option, insane to think about.
And even if you dont care for these animals, its hard to deny that the scenery in this pack is outstanding and really helps to give more depth to our builds, especally more stylish options for actual buildings. And i do care for these animals, making it easily a top 3 pack.
2. Grasslands and 1. Wetlands
These two packs are the clear best packs for me for 3 main reasons:
Variety, Polish and Quality
The Quality of both packs is through the roof, every single animal is beautiful and full of small little touches, every choice is atleast agreeable and overall they add something together thats incredibly important by now: Polish.
Just like the twillight and conversation pack gave the last essentials to the sahara, temperate north america, the central asian stepes and SEA, these two gave it to many other areas around the globe and just general usability.
The grassland pack does a great job at giving us many useful animals in particular from the middle east, australia and south america, while also treating us to the wonderfull butterflies and while it really did a great job especally on australia, i slightly prefer the wetland pack for its greater variety in animals.
But lets talk about those varied animals shall we?
The Wetlands pack gave us:
- The Capybara, essential for both the game as a whole and South America
- The Asian Small Clawed Otter, a staple of zoos small and big all around the world and a cute otter
- The Spectacle Caiman, rounding out our crocodiles by giving us the perfect mid size option
- The "Wild" Water Buffallo, representing asian culture and adding a great larger general use ungulate for the asian void that stands apart from other bovids due to its love for water
- The Nile Lechwe, that gave us our first northern african antelope and our first water loving antelope
- The Red Crowned Crane which is still our second new bird taxa ever for the game that gives us a cold climate bird
- The Platypus, our first monotreme and the first australia exclusive aquatic
All 7 of these animals looked at the game, saw an open niche, not nessecarly essential but open non the less and filled it flawlessly while also giving our by far most diverse roster to date. And it did this without focussing on any particular area, making this a true filler dlc, not like its skipable but in filling in the holes left over by what came before.
No matter what dlc you have or what kind of zoo you build, something in this pack will greatly enhance your gameplay.
And the nr 1 reason why it is nr 1 is because it achieves this even with just 6 animals, as i frequently forget the platypus and even had to google the 7. animal for this list, sorry australia. This pack left me with rather small additions and one animal i really am not interested in, but all of them are so smooth and fit so perfectly in what the base game left to be desired that it still is my nr 1 for the best dlc with grasslands as a close second as everything said here also applies to it but i simply prefer the animals from the wetlands pack.
Their rather elegant approach leaves me very hopefull for future animal biome pack and im sure they also will find their way to the top end of my list once they see the light of day
