Let's rank all DLCs so far

[yoav_r]

We entered the phase before a new DLC where we just pass the time for fun until release.

So let's do a little retrospective, and rank the PZ packs. I was inspired to do this thread by a ranking video of @DeLadysigner on youtube.

So here's my Ranking, Tierzoo style:

Spoiler: Color Legend

• Outstanding pack - a must have
• Great pack - Adds a lot to the game, really good to have
• Good pack - Nice to get if you like the animals/region
• Meh pack - Wait to get on a sale
• Bad pack - Not worth it

1. Aquatic pack - Really great animals and scenery pieces, and new diving features.
2. South America pack - Again, great animals and must have scenery pieces. Also fills up the missing SA niche.
3. Australia pack - A bit less versatile pack, but amazing animals, marsupials and the cassowary, and fills up the Oceania niche a bit.
4. North America pack - Added many great animals, including diving animals, the first rodents in the game, and animals from diverse biomes. The pack also helped cover Europe and northern Asia along the way.
5. Europe pack - I like the animals personally, and the scenery is amazing, also to me it is not as exciting as other packs.
6. Africa pack - Great animals, great scenery, but I don't use it a lot, and I still can't get over the disconnect between the theme (North Africa), and lack of actual North African animals in the game, rendering the scenery somewhat unuseable.
7. Arctic pack - I really like the scenery, and after the Polar Bear was updated and more polar animals were added in teh aquatic pack, this pack became a lot more useable to me, but still somewhat lacking IMO
8. South East Asia pack - I am really dissapointed with this pack, which is a shame because I was really hyped for it. It's missing a clear headliner, with the two obvious headliners Orangutan and Komodo Dragon already being in the game, and misses two very expectd animals from the region: Gibbon and ASC otter. Also the tapir model is a reskin, and the Clouded leopard is still buggy to this day. There is no scenery, and there's a lack of SEA plants in the game which makes it hard to build diverse habitats for these animals. I'd still recommend getting it on a sale, but it really doesn't get anywhere close to the potential such a pack had.
9. Deluxe pack - This one is complicated. A lot of its appeal was in eta access, which is obsolete now, but its price has not gone down after the beta. I absolutely love the animals, and I think the Komodo Dragon is a must have, but it's really not worth its price for the content you get. HOWEVER, if you but it bundled with the base game in a sale, I think it's worth it.

What is your ranking?

 

[AlexSea]

8: Arctic Pack - With a mediocre animal selection (where's the Musk Ox and Walrus?), a niche building theme, and no exhibit animal, this was an easy pick for last place.
7: Africa Pack - Had this been an animal pack, I would have placed this much higher, as there's so many African animals this game needs. The building theme is fine, but the fact that we needed to wait for a DLC to get the White Rhinoceros and Meerkat speaks for itself. I'm still salty we didn't get the Secretary Bird.
6: Europe Pack - Not a bad DLC by any stretch of the imagination, but European animals don't interest me all that much. The building pieces are still good though.
5: Australia Pack - A good animal selection, a good building theme, and good foliage. This is a perfectly middle of the pack DLC.
4: Southeast Asia Animal Pack - Despite the inaccuracies of the Malayan Tapir, this pack still boasts a strong animal selection with a good mixture of well-known animals like the Sun Bear and Clouded Leopard and obscure ones like the Binturong.
3: South America Pack - This one surprised me. The animal selection is surprisingly good, though not perfect, and the building pieces are excellent. Love me some bamboo walls.
2: Aquatic Pack - The addition of deep diving animals opens up so many possibilities for habitat builds, and the building pieces are surprisingly versatile.
1: North America Animal Pack - A near-flawless selection of animals from a continent that desperately needed some more additions, and this pack contains some of the highest quality animals this game has ever seen.

 

[yoav_r]

8: Arctic Pack - With a mediocre animal selection (where's the Musk Ox and Walrus?), a niche building theme, and no exhibit animal, this was an easy pick for last place.
7: Africa Pack - Had this been an animal pack, I would have placed this much higher, as there's so many African animals this game needs. The building theme is fine, but the fact that we needed to wait for a DLC to get the White Rhinoceros and Meerkat speaks for itself. I'm still salty we didn't get the Secretary Bird.
6: Europe Pack - Not a bad DLC by any stretch of the imagination, but European animals don't interest me all that much. The building pieces are still good though.
5: Australia Pack - A good animal selection, a good building theme, and good foliage. This is a perfectly middle of the pack DLC.
4: Southeast Asia Animal Pack - Despite the inaccuracies of the Malayan Tapir, this pack still boasts a strong animal selection with a good mixture of well-known animals like the Sun Bear and Clouded Leopard and obscure ones like the Binturong.
3: South America Pack - This one surprised me. The animal selection is surprisingly good, though not perfect, and the building pieces are excellent. Love me some bamboo walls.
2: Aquatic Pack - The addition of deep diving animals opens up so many possibilities for habitat builds, and the building pieces are surprisingly versatile.
1: North America Animal Pack - A near-flawless selection of animals from a continent that desperately needed some more additions, and this pack contains some of the highest quality animals this game has ever seen.

Great ranking! Really surprised to see someone not ranking the aquatic pack in 1st place.

 

[jcp011c]

Great idea, I was thinking of this lately. My list may be a list people disagree with, and that's fine. It's my personal list and how I feel about them. I should add that I think all the packs are good, but some are definitely much better than others.

8. Southeast Asia Animal Pack- While I do skew towards animals, I put this pack in last place because of the animal selection. Only one of the animals was one I personally was really wanting, the Clouded Leopard. Of the other remaining 6 habitat animals, 4 are nice choices and 2 are not that great - the tapir because of the model of it, and the proboscis monkey which I still haven't used in franchise beyond researching it in my "research zoo". I applaud the advent of animal packs with it though, it's just the animals selections were the weakest of the packs.
7. South America - While none of these are bad choices, the only ones I really like are the Jaguar and Anteater. While having a building theme saves it from last place, it's my least favorite of the DLC building themes, which is to say I still like it. I just like the other DLC building themes more. Looking back, if I could have changed it into an animal pack, I would have. There's enough animals that I consider are "necessary" that could fill that roster out.
6. Aquatic Pack - I know this will be a huge disagree for most, but I can't rank this higher than 6. The Penguin was an excellent choice, and while I appreciate getting an otter species, I would have rather had any other species of otter. The seal is nice, but the caiman is just "okay" for me. The building pack is also middle of the line for me, I like it slightly more than the South America pack, and the animals slightly more than that pack as well, but I would almost rank #7 and #6 evenly.
5. Arctic Pack - Second weakest animal selection for me, but one of my favorite DLC building sets. I use it often and do not find it niche as some do. The animals though...the banner animal was problematic in Franchise to say the least, and while I like the reindeer, the dall sheep is just okay and the wolf is uninspired. This ranks so highly only because of the strength of the building set. On terms of animals alone it would be second to last place.
4. Europe Pack - This is a decent selection of animals but nothing that is particularly outstanding for me personally. I use them all though and dislike none of them. Like the Arctic Pack, this pack's strength is the building set. It ranks higher than #5 simply because the animal selection rates (much) better and the building set is about on par with the Arctic set in terms of strength.
3. North America Pack- This set is amazing in terms of animal selection. Not a bad pick in the set. The only thing that keeps from being higher is the lack of a building set. But of course, that's the point of the animal pack, and if we'd gotten a building set we wouldn't have gotten all the animals. But still, it places this high based on the strength of the animal roster alone, which is no small feat. This pack also really shows how strong an animal pack can be, especially compared to the much less exciting roster of the SEA pack.
2. Africa Pack - The building set is decent, but less so than the European, Australian and Arctic packs. But the animal roster is very strong, at least as strong as the NA pack, even with less animals. Plus, Meerkats and an African Rhino were absolutely critical at the point of this pack's release, and it delivered. Still...I can't quite rank it at #1, but it's very close.
1. Australia Pack - The animal choices are very strong and for me so is the building set. Do I wish it had been an animal pack? Almost, but not quite because I absolutely love the building pieces in this pack. 3 of my 4 choices of animals made it in the pack, only a Wombat did not, and the Cassowary would have been #5 choice. Australia needs more representation absolutely, but this was a good first step in getting us more than just the one animal in the base game.

Overall 1-3 are the absolutely critical packs to have IMO even though I only consider one of the building sets a strong offering. 4-6 are great (especially two of the three building sets), but do not deliver quite as strongly on the animals. 7-8 are good but not great, even with the much needed South American representation, it's just not enough to make it past third tier.

 

[The_Riot22]

I only started playing around the time the Aquatic DLC released, so my perspective isn't from an OG player, but here goes:
8. Arctic DLC - Polar Bears require so much space they are almost unusable. The rest of the roster is mediocre.
7. Aquatic DLC - The Otter is only animal I use from this pack...I know this was very popular with players, but it doesn't do much for me. Also where are the underwater plants?
6. Africa DLC - The only animal I use from this pack is the Rhino. Some of the scenery pieces are go-tos for me, but I play for the animals, and this one was lacking.
5. SE Asia Animal DLC - Simply the fact this was an animal pack automatically puts it near the top half, and the best choices are the Clouded Leopard and Babirusa, but there were some misses here.
4. Australia DLC - A decent roster and a good build/scenery set.
3. South America DLC - Easily the best option for a potential early-game animal pack due to such a severe lack of representation. Still, solid hits on 3 of the 4 animals(not a fan of the Capuchin) and a decent scenery set.
2. Europe DLC - The Ibex by itself puts this one up near the top, and I'm shocked that the Fallow Deer has actually turned into one of my favorite animals to use in game.
1. North America Animal DLC - the only "miss" in this pack was the Arctic Fox - don't get me wrong, I love the animal, but it should have been in the Arctic DLC, and the Wolverine or Porcupine could have made this one even better.

 

[Doran]

I judge packs with my own special criterium.

8. SEA animal pack - dhole bullet + no gibbon
7. Arctic pack - arctic wolf bullet + no exhibit species
6. Australia pack - dingo bullet
5. North America pack - arctic fox bullet
4. Africa pack - fennec fox is probably the only one dlc canine i can tolerate
3. Europe pack - i was so glad there was no red fox
2. South America pack
1. Aquatic pack

 

[Iben]

1. Europe Pack
   I had a hard time choosing my favorite DLC, but given that I go back to the pieces in this DLC so often in literally every build I've made since the release of the pack, I had to put it as the first one. The animals are all nice, although I might not have needed them specifically, they're all still very well made.
   
   But in my eyes, the scenery is where it shines. There's plenty of themed stuff for those who want it, but there MUCH more generic stuff. A lot of it is small, it's flexicolor, it's super versatile. Big fan of it. They used the same strategy of the Africa pack; taking a theme and splitting it up in small individual versatile pieces; but this time doubled down on it and it works incredibly well in my eyes.
   
   In terms of quality of the animals and scenery, this pack is my golden standard. In terms of foliage, they need to do a few more quality checks here and there.
   
   
2. Africa Pack / North American Animal Pack
   Yup, shared second place here. Contrary to popular opinion I quite disagree that Africa should have been an animal pack. Whilst there sure are plenty more African animals that can be added to the game, the majority of the animals in the game are already from Africa and cover a very broad basis. The animals that the pack added were the ones I felt where the most "uniquely" missing in terms of African animals. There are still some more niche animals that would be a welcome addition, but for building African areas in zoos you now have a roster that offers more than just a solid basis.
   
   On the other hand, the North African theme was a must in terms of modern zoo design. The days where the typical thatch and mud architecture is used to represent an entire continent with very different architecture styles are over, modern zoos have taken North African architecture into consideration with a lot of the more recent themed habitats, and I find it very important that the game also included that.
   
   It's a shared second place because the North American Animal Pack is what the Africa/Europe packs are for scenery. Had it been the first animal pack, I think the perception of animal packs would have been better. It brings enough North American animals to the game to make plenty of variations of a North American area, but on top of that plenty of these animals are individually usable in other areas. Arctic Fox can be used in Arctic areas, Sea lions are classic zoo animals on their own, alligators can easily be used in and around reptile houses and crocodile farms, cougars are perfect for when you make a Florida zoo which always end up having rescue cougars, etc. The choices were versatile enough to work well.
   
   
3. South America Pack
   Although it ended up with more themed pieces than we might have liked, I think that the South American Pack still introduced a bunch of pieces that I cannot imagine not using in my zoos on a daily basis. Bamboo pieces, coil pieces, the beams. The flexi-color temple pieces are also super useful in all kinds of builds, and let's be honest, the lost temple architecture trope in zoos justifies us getting the more themed pieces. The reason why it's lower than the other ones is simply because this was at a time where scenery packs had a bunch of non-flexi-color and flexi-color variants of the exact same pieces. I'm glad that's mostly over and only limited to actual material variants now.
   
   The animals were overall great, and I had no regrets when it came to these.
   
   
4. South East Asia Animal Pack/ Aquatics Pack
   Another shared place. SEA was all in all not a bad pack, but it wasn't the best pack to start the animal packs with. Where the North American Animal Pack had a bunch of animals that could be used in a multitude of areas, the ones from South East Asia all felt more like somewhat classical Asia section zoo animals. You had some that you can use creatively, but not to the extant of NAAP.
   
   The aquatics pack hasn't aged as well for me as the other packs unfortunately. It was the pack with the lowest amount of scenery pieces and then there were a bunch of duplicates and mirrored versions of statues. I liked the scenery we got with it, but I really wanted more out of it. Like, there's plenty of aquatic and marine themed scenery to draw inspiration from when you look at zoos, and I felt like there was a huge missed opportunity with that pack to add them in.
   
   It was also the first time where I felt that Frontier made a mistake animal wise, to this day I still think that the Grey Seals should have been replaced with the far more common and far more well known Harbor Seals.
   
5. Australia Pack
   This one was a bit of a miss for me in terms of scenery. I felt like the theme was super inconsistent. Later packs like the Europe pack clearly show that you can have multiple sub themes in a pack without each theme feeling like they missed pieces; whilst for me it felt like the pack came with an incomplete Outback theme and an incomplete Aboriginal theme. What was there in terms of scenery is really good though, the rod pieces and the metal sheets pieces are obviously amazing.
   
   With this pack I also for the first time had the feeling that there weren't enough animals for the pack. I haven't really had that with the other packs, but for some reason I had it with the animals here.
   
   
6. Arctic Pack
   In terms of animals and Christmas decorations, I feel like this pack did a good job. I didn't even mind the Arctic Wolf, it's nice to be able to switch between these two wolves in different zoos you make.
   
   However, I cannot get over the snow and ice sets. Just knowing how this could have been a chance to introduce the fake ice and snow walls many more themed zoos use breaks my heart every single time. It's one of the biggest misses in my eyes, and it's two sets I'll never see myself using.

 

[Mjmannella]

This is my general ranking of each pack and their provided habitat animals. I'm not factoring in quantity, but taking a general average from each.

More than welcome to elaborate on a position if need-be.

 

[yoav_r]

This is my general ranking of each pack and their provided habitat animals. I'm not factoring in quantity, but taking a general average from each.

More than welcome to elaborate on a position if need-be.

I have questions.

Why is Africa so low? Why is the Deluxe so high? And do you factor in scenery pieces?

 

[Aramar]

I like all packs and I can't imagine playing without any of them, so even the pack at the bottom of my list is still worthy. That being said, here I go:

8. Arctic pack
I love the polar bear, the reindeer and the Arctic wood set. However, this pack has the less animals of all DLCs since it doesn't even have an exhibit. It also has many pieces which I don't use. So, despite having my favourite animal, this pack falls to the last position.

7. South America pack
The 4 animals are food. The exhibit is ok. The bamboo and temple pieces are ok, but I don't think those pieces are really essential. As many people, I feel that this pack feels incomplete for such a rich area of the world in terms of nature.

6. South East Asia animal pack
It's great for being the first pack that brought more animals. However, for me, those animals were not a priority. If this pack would have been released later, it would rank better. Also, the clouded leopard, which is for me the star of the pack, is still broken with the slow motion jumps.

5. Australia pack
This pack is great, I use the 5 animals a lot. The plants were top too. And the building pieces are definitely useful and beautiful. This pack was the first that took the right direction.

4. Africa pack
The 4 animals are a must, so their inclusion makes the pack jump high on the list. The building pieces are superversatile. Plants in the pack are very good too. The only bad things were the choice for the exhibit, the camel issue and simplifying Africa to 4 animals.

3. Aquatic pack
The phoneack that proved that Frontier can do almost anything. Even if the animal choices were not the most popular species of aquatic animals, they were amazing. The waterfall pieces saved my life because I never was able to build a waterfall with the other special effects. The building pieces (rocks and painted wood) work in every single zoo you want to build. And don't forget the cute exhibit!

2. Europe pack
I had to wait until the eighth DLC to finally be able to build a small zoo in my home country (a country with a huge biodiversity though). All the animals are perfect. The new path is gorgeous and the new stone set is what I always wanted it to be. Having finally some Mediterranean trees changed the game forever.

1. North America animal pack
It is not just an animal pack, it's an animal pack where every single animal is a perfect option. It is the pack that has brought the most of my most wanted animals. I couldn't change anything. If this was Eurovision, it would get my 12 points, but since it is just a list, it gets the leading position.

 

[Mjmannella]

I have questions.

Why is Africa so low? Why is the Deluxe so high? And do you factor in scenery pieces?

I've discussed my umbrage with the Africa Pack's animals at length before, I won't repeat the details here. I'm sure you can find what I've said back in June when the pack was announced.

The Deluxe Pack having just 3 animals skews its weighting a bit admittedly. I really like the pygmy hippo and Komodo dragon, and I'm pretty meh on the gazelle. This gives it a pretty high average due to the small sample size.

I should've mentioned this sooner but I'm only factoring the habitat animals. I'm not a builder, and only a few building pieces really appeal to me (ex. Mecharoo, modular animal signs in the Europe Pack).

 

[Antonin]

9. Arctic pack - What a scam... Ok, the Reindeer is super cute and cool... But the Arctic Wolf is a reskin, the Dall Sheep is a bit annoying (need a Musk Ox...), there is no exhibit animal and the Polar Bear is unplayble (and it should have been in the game at the launch). Scenery pieces are "meh", hard to use them when your zoo is not in a toundra biome (who build its zoo in a toundra biome ??). First pack, worst pack.

8. Deluxe pack - Komodo Dragon is incredible, Thomson's gazelle should have been in the base game, baby Pygmy Hippopotamus is one of the cutest creature on the earth, so it's ok.

7. South America pack - Cool animals (Anteater <3), but... where is the capybara ???

6. South East Asia pack - I like when there are a lot of animals, and all are pretty unique (except the Dhole, pretty boring reskin, we already have a lot of canines). Babirussa is a must-have for me, in all my zoos. It's so weird and we lack of weird animals !

5. Europe pack - Cool scenery pieces and incredible Fallow Deer, which is super common in our european parks and zoos (specially here in France).

4. North America pack - Lot of cool (Beaver, Moose) and unexpected (Black-tailed Prairie Dog) animals ! Like a lot the full animals pack.

3. Africa pack - Southern White Rhinoceros is a must-have. When Planet Zoo was released, I was "no way... it can't be possible... they didn't put an african rhino in their game ??????". So I think it's a bit of scam to have waited 1,5 year to have it. But what a masterpiece. Others animals are amazing, but... where is the Secretary Bird ? So much african animals to put in this pack (Crested Porcupine, Caracal, Red River Hog, etc...), so it's a bit frustrating. But the scenery pieces are surprisingly good !

2. Aquatic pack - Love the scenery. It a must have in my opinion, there are a lot of assets that I've seen on a lot of IRL zoos. All animals are amazing, except the Dwarf Cuvier's Caiman which is not a must-have for an aquatic pack with diving, but still absolutly cute (used in all my zoos).

1. Australia pack - A must have for the animals (except the Dingo, not a big fan and we have already a lot of canines) : the Casoar is stunning (on all my zoos) and we don't have enough birds on the game, Red Kangaroo and Koala are crazy. Vegetation is super cool : Eucalyptus scoparia is incredible to give a new "outback" look to your zoos, and scenery pieces are very cool !

 

[arafan]

Interesting to see all these different opinions on the packs. I don't really like to build, so I'm gonna focus more on the animals.
9. Arctic pack: definitley my least favorite pack. Even tough I really like the inclusion of the reindeer and the Dall sheep, the polar bear should have been on the original roster and the Arctic wolf doesn't offer anything new. And even tough I like the sheep, I would have preferred a Musk ox or even a mountain goat (which also wouldn't live in the Arctic but that's an other story). I'm still not fully convinced by the polar bear, there's something that looks odds on it. I just bought this pack during the last sale and finally it was on a ok price.
8. Deluxe pack: I don't think the animal choices are bad, actually I like them a lot (maybe the Thompsons gazelle could have been changed for a blackbuck). But I don't think it's worth the price. I bought this pack mainly to get the beta access, so I don't regret to have spent "so much" on it, but I definitley wouldn't recommend to buy it for the full price anymore.
7. Europe pack: I still haven't bought it and don't pretend to buy it anytime soon. The animal choices were OK, but still would have preferred a wolverine over the badger.
6. Australia
5. South America
4. Africa
3. SEA Animal pack:
2. Aquatic:
1. North America Animal pack: definitley the best pack yet released. It added some species we needed and all the animals seem to be of very high quality. The only thing I would nag about, is the inclusion of the Arctic fox, it isn't bad by any means, but probably an other species (the after-mentioned porcuipine, the wolverine, musk ox or even a peccary) would have made it even better.

 

[arafan]

Interesting to see all these different opinions on the packs. I don't really like to build, so I'm gonna focus more on the animals.
9. Arctic pack: definitley my least favorite pack. Even tough I really like the inclusion of the reindeer and the Dall sheep, the polar bear should have been on the original roster and the Arctic wolf doesn't offer anything new. And even tough I like the sheep, I would have preferred a Musk ox or even a mountain goat (which also wouldn't live in the Arctic but that's an other story). I'm still not fully convinced by the polar bear, there's something that looks odds on it. I just bought this pack during the last sale and finally it was on a ok price.
8. Deluxe pack: I don't think the animal choices are bad, actually I like them a lot (maybe the Thompsons gazelle could have been changed for a blackbuck). But I don't think it's worth the price. I bought this pack mainly to get the beta access, so I don't regret to have spent "so much" on it, but I definitley wouldn't recommend to buy it for the full price anymore.
7. Europe pack: I still haven't bought it and don't pretend to buy it anytime soon. The animal choices were OK, but still would have preferred a wolverine over the badger.
6. South America: initially I was really disappointed with this pack. South America had almost no animals and how could they just give us a pack with 5 animals of one of the most biodiverse regions of the world? The fact that we got a domestic animal and two species (the frog and the capuchin) who mainly occur in Central America didn't make it any better. The jaguar (specielly the baby) hasn't got the best model either. On the other hand, the more generic pieces were quite nice. And luckily we've got some more species from this region with the Aquatic pack.
5. Australia: the aboriginal art gave it a really nice touch, wished this would have been done from some other packs too. The dingo was a very strange inclusion, there would have been a ton of other marsupials that need representation in game. Kangaroo and koala were some inclusions everyone was expecting, but I'm still a bit disappointed about the pouch behavior of the two, I was really expecting it to be something that would happen on a regular base and not just one. The fact that koalas don't stay at the trees is also kind of annoying, as is the eucalyptus enrichment item which is a living tree. The cassowary was also an odd choice, but it was a good one. The emu would have made more sense, as it would have been nicer to combine with kangaroos, but still.
4. Africa pack: that's the toughest choice. The chosen species were nice and all of them were highly requested, but on the other hand we've got some building pieces I rarely use, as we don't really have the right species for them. I still belive that it would have been better if the scenery would have come in a Mena pack, together with some animals from this region and a animal pack for an Sub-Saharan area.
3. SEA Animal pack: this opened a whole new path for the game, and I'm really happy we've got it. Species-wise I belive its one of the most interesting packs, as many players have probably never heard of some of the species. The tapir is still a major problem, as it really shouldn't just be a reskin. The Proboscis monkey was among the species I wasn't hoping to see in game, as there are a lot of other really interesting primates from this area (gibbons, macaques, even some other langurs), but a lot of people really wanted it. The dhole for me was the least expected, as we've gotten so many canids before. I would have preferred an otter over it, but never mind, it's still a great pack.
2. Aquatic pack: at the time it was released it was really a must, as back then we didn't have any penguins or pinnipeds. I also would have preferred the much more common harbor seal over the grey, and even tough there was a lot of criticism on the giant otter, I still belive it's actually one of the best inclusions done until now. I was really looking forward for this species and, together with the caiman, it gave a good boost to South America. In this case, I also think that the rocks were a really nice addition.
1. North America Animal pack: definitley the best pack yet released. It added some species we needed and all the animals seem to be of very high quality. The only thing I would nag about, is the inclusion of the Arctic fox, it isn't bad by any means, but probably an other species (the after-mentioned porcuipine, the wolverine, musk ox or even a peccary) would have made it even better.

 

[coatifan]

1. Africa Pack -- What can I say, I'm a sucker for South Africa. While I wish we got some more appropriate pieces for the Southern species (looking at you, Egyptian meerkat statue), I love the theme, and all four habitat animals are adorable must-haves which I always find space for in my zoos.
2. North America Animal Pack -- I'm biased here too; I love the wildlife of North America. Honestly, the sea lion alone sells this pack for me, but all eight animals are super high quality and unique. The sea lion, gator, prairie dog, and beaver are all must haves for me, and the other three are also very cool. My only wish is that North America's architecture got something prettier than that atrocious new world style.
3. South America Pack -- It's almost impossible for me to rank these mid-level packs. A good selection to start off South America. Probably my least favorite theme.
4. Australia Pack -- Similar feelings to SA pack; I like the theme here slightly more, but use Australian animals less often, since I generally use East-Coast US zoos as inspo.
5. Aquatic Pack -- Notable for what it represents, and I've been getting a lot of use out of the theme recently. With that said, subsequent DLCs have introduced a better alternative (for my purposes) to every species except the otter. The alligator is more common in the US, the African penguin is cuter and easier to integrate into existing areas, and the sea lion is more active and entertaining.
6. Southeast Asia Pack -- Love all the animal picks in here, but IMO the actual model and animation quality is fairly mediocre compared to the most recent DLCs. Doesn't help that many species are uncommon in US zoos. Still love the dhole and sun bear though.
7. Arctic Pack -- I may not be a hardcore southerner, but I live south of the Mason-Dixon, dammit, and I just don't see any of these species in my local zoos. Very good additions, just not really ones I use. The pieces are sometimes useful, though, and I do have a special soft spot for the sheep.
8. Europe Pack -- An absolutely beautiful theme, and probably the most masterfully crafted animals in the game. But all of the species are far more common in European zoos. Absolutely amazing quality and I'm very happy for those who wanted it, but I've yet to find space for them in my main zoo beyond pretending the ibex is an African species.

 

[Fabian]

There are no real front-runners on my list, so even the lowest-ranked pack isn't that much worse than, say, #5 on my list. #1 to #3 are pretty much interchangeable. But here we go:

8. Arctic Pack – I want to jump at this pack's defense whenever I see people outright trashing it, but then I remember that I really don't use three quarters of this pack at all. The dall sheep is my favorite by a wide margin, and I use it in almost all of my zoos. The reindeer isn't too appealing to me, the polar bear is a great animal that I don't really care about too much and have not put into any of my zoos so far, and the arctic wolf is an animal that I have somewhat warmed up to, but still never used regardless. The building pieces are very useful to avoid climbing animals escaping their habitats, but other than that, the pieces are not really my go-to building items. So, last place it is for this pack, even though it still has quite a bit going for it.

7. Africa Pack – this was a tough choice for me to make, but ultimately I came to the conclusion that I liked the other packs more than this one. The building items are all beautiful, but I rarely use them, and while all the animals are utterly fantastic and perfect representations for the African continent, I still felt a little underwhelmed considering that there would be so many more African species to choose from (I'm still sad at the possibility that we might never get secretary birds or servals in the game). The four animals are all some of my favorites, but the building items themselves did not convince me as much as in other scenery packs, even though I can remember a lot of praise for its versatility when it came out.

6. South America Pack – what is in here is great. I love all the animals (even the llama, even though I would have loved to get a guanaco instead), but what's missing is key here. The severe lack of South American fauna in the base game was not really compensated by this pack, and although the Aquatic Pack made up for that to some extent, there are still some iconic species missing. If we had gotten three more species in the base game, such as one more new world primate and something like the spectacled bear, patagonian mara or greater rhea, that might have made me less grumpy at the SA pack for being so slight in terms of much-needed SA representation. Still, the downside of this pack is what's missing, and not what's there, because I really like the building items and frequently use all the animals in here.

5. Aquatic Pack – it's probably unfair to not rank this in the Top Three, but my main complaint about this one retrospectively is that all the animals in here except for the otter have more interesting alternatives by now, and if the Asian Small-Clawed Otter made it to the game, that would make it four. Don't get me wrong, I like all the animals in this pack, but sea lions, african penguins and alligators seem more serviceable to me than seals, king penguins and caimans. That said, I still dislike that we got the grey seal over the harbor seal, and would have loved another Antarctica penguin species (gentoo or southern rockhopper) to put into mixed habitats along with the king penguin. But I guess we'll have to rely on mods for that. Still: the building items are incredible, and I loved the pack when it came out, so the negatives are only mentioned because I needed to somehow explain not putting this on the top of this list.

4. South East Asia Animal Pack – most people rank this lowest, as far as I can tell, but I love almost all the animals in here. The sun bear, binturong, dhole and babirusa are all animals that I couldn't imagine my zoos without anymore (with babirusa & sun bear turning into some of my all-time favorites in the game, and the dhole a rather surprising inclusion that I warmed up to quickly, and now consider my favorite canine in the game second only to the arctic fox). The clouded leopard would join those afore-mentioned species if it wasn't so bugged, and the malayan tapir if it was a better model. The proboscis monkey is a great inclusion, but I have to agree that it's not very useful for making general zoos, and a more generic primate species might have gone a long way to make this more utilizable. Having the komodo dragon in here and one of the other animals (e.g. the tapir) in the deluxe edition instead might have made it more appealing to people as well.

3. Australia Pack – second best scenery pack, in my opinion. The building items are fantastic and very useful for themed areas, and the animals are great all around. Even though more animals from Oceania are still missing and the dingo was an annoyance for many, I can't find myself disliking any of the additions in here, and the kangaroo is still one of my favorites. Would have loved a wallaby as well, but understand why it wasn't included.

2. North America Animal Pack – all-around amazing animal choices. Some people criticize the inclusion of the arctic fox, but I'm so thankful we finally got it, and I love all the other animals from this pack as well. In retrospect, even though I was against it at the time, I think I would have appreciated an American Black Bear as a "clone animal" as well to get more versatility for NA sections, but I wouldn't really know what to replace in this pack.

1. Europe Pack – might be recency bias, but this was the perfect pack for me. The building items and scenery pieces are so useful and interesting, but it's the animal line-up that makes this so great for me. All four of these animals, the ibex, the lynx, the beautiful fallow deer and the badger are now integral staple animals for my zoos. There is not a single thing I would change about it, and I was over-the-moon excited when it came out.

 

[Spiderhawk]

Personally I will buy whatever pack frontier releases.
8. Africa pack: coming out right after the first animal pack, this felt as if frontier was one and done thus returning to 4+1. While I welcome the rhino and the fennec fox, I don’t often use meerkats or African penguins. The North African theme is pretty cool but it felt odd to me that only the fennec fox represents North Africa.
7. Aquatic: I certainly liked giving more animals to my SA zoo as 3 of the 4 are found in South America. The themes don’t feel right if you ask me, the Atlantic theme complements the gray seal but the rest doesn’t seem to complement the others. The murals were great and I wished frontier could have included more in the future.
6. Arctic: this pack has been mixed for me. Really glad Dall sheep made it in the game, I love all canines so the Arctic wolf is welcome to me, reindeer do their job fine but the polar bear has been a nightmare to all. Even though frontier reduced habitat requirements, I still think it’s too much. While this was the first dlc, we didn’t know how the future of dlcs would go. I don’t know if I like the Nordic/Christmas theme.
5. Australia: great selection of animals. The theme is unique. While other packs have some animals that are multi continents, Australias wildlife is exclusive. I’d like some sort of love to be given to our Australian roster at some point.
4. Europe: I really wasn’t looking forward to a Europe pack but I knew it was going to happen. I ended up really liking the European city theme.
3. South America: My favorite zoo is my SA zoo made to look like a functioning SA temple. While there’s an abundance of SA exhibits, there certainly has been demand for more habitat animals, fortunately the roster went from 2-6-9-10 as packs came out and I hope to do a lot more with it.
2. SEA: a happy change of formula many of us were happy for. It was time to give us an animal pack, the animals chosen were a mixed bag but here’s my opinion. I wanted Dholes, clouded leopards and babirusas, we knew we were getting the sun bear, P monkeys were unexpected, Binturong was on a lot of peoples minds, we were excited and then horrified. Very glad that frontier quickly redesigned the binturong (kinda like how sonic the hedgehog movie listened to fans and redesigned him). I honestly didn’t care about the Malayan tapir. Finally got an Asian exhibit critter. There are a few more SEA animals I would like such as the Gibbons but I would prefer to wait until brachiation is considered.
1. North America: many of the top requested animals were included and it showed that frontier wasn’t doing a one and done animal pack. While NA started as 4, it grew along dlcs from 4-8-9-16 and had a fine amount of exhibits. NA really and truly needed it’s own pack and we got it. Having diving implemented really made life possible for the sea lions and beavers and the alligators. Moose and cougars were highly requested. I wasn’t expecting the Arctic foxes and I love them now. The prairie dogs however I am indifferent on.

 

[TheYeti]

8. Arctic: The first pack to come out, so it makes sense that it isn't the best. It has some nice animals, with the polar bear and reindeer being must-haves. However, the arctic wolf is unnecessary and the Dall sheep, while a cool animal, is an odd choice for this pack. An arctic fox, musk ox or wolverine would have made much more sense. Scenery-wise, the wood texture is great. However, for zoos without an arctic theme its something I'm only using due to the lack of better generic wood textures. Other than that, the scenery is not that useful in my opinion and the animals are also not useful for zoos in each location.

7. Australia: This pack brings some nice animals, with the kangaroo a must-have for each zoo and the cassowary a surprise choice that became very popular (it's also one of my favourite animals). The koala is an obvious choice, even if it's not so common in zoos everywhere, but the dingo could've better been replaced. Thematically, the pack is okay but not great. All of the items are original, and it's great that the artists bring attention to Aboriginal culture, but some items like the wood texture are a bit off. In the end, few items are versatile and also few feel exclusively Australian. Perhaps, this region would've worked better as an animal pack.

6. South America: I love South America and I also love each animal that comes with this pack, though I missed a capybara. My main issue, however, is with the scenery. Although I love the fact that we get bamboo pieces, the construction set doesn't look great. Walls and floors doesn't look like they are composed of the individual bamboo pieces as it should be. Instead, it feels like a pattern is drawn on a flat surface. The stone set has some nice items, in particular the ruins, but other than that is also disappointing. The wall textures have the same issue as the bamboo walls and the support beams are simply recolours of the East Asia pieces. They add pieces to the already long construction list without really contributing to diversity of choice.

5. North America: The only pack I haven't bought yet, which is only because none of the animals fit in my zoos. Objectively speaking, however, it has the best animal selection by a long shot, with multiple species that could have been headliners. It has animals of widely different sizes, with the moose being the tallest DLC animal so far and the prairiedog the smallest. It also adds the first new diving animals since the Aquatic DLC and multiple animals have unique behaviours with a special shoutout to the beaver. If I would make this list purely objectively, this pack may have topped my list. However, judging by personal usefulness, it ends a bit lower.

4. Southeast Asia: A controversial one. I am personally extremely happy that Frontier gave attention to Southeast Asia, an often overlooked continent. However, it is the worst possible choice to introduce the concept of animal packs, considering Southeast Asia is also the least represented region by scenery. That said, I admire the risk Frontier took. None of the selected animals were particularly high on the wishlist (and we should've definitely gotten a gibbon and otter), but it is nice to see some less popular animals too. Overall, I think there are a lot of positives about this pack: it comes with original species and it's the first pack that allows you to build a themed section that has a solid number of animals living in the same region. Also, the small amount of scenery (signs etc.) that is included is of really high quality.

3. Europe: Frankly, I wasn't excited for this pack. I'm from Europe and didn't have any local animals high on my list. I also think most of the scenery is unnecessary and not very versatile. My main issue is that we get detailed items to recreate cities like Venice and Amsterdam while we still don't have any scenery representing Southeast Asia. That being said, the pack offers an amazing rock wall texture, which finally allows for more realistically looking paths, walls etc. The damage decals also really help this cause, though they should have been a main game item. Also, let's not forget the first realistic path we got with this pack. Animal-wise, the pack is well-executed despite a not extremely exciting selection of animals, with the fallow deer probably being the best-looking animal in the game. Like North America, I would rate this pack higher if I judged objectively.

2. Aquatic: One of the coolest packs animal-wise. It finally adds penguins, seals and otters. The caiman and the otter also complement the South America Pack, so we can finally make more complete Amazon sections. My only issue with the animals is the ridiculous habitat requirements for the caiman. Scenery-wise, the pack adds new very useful items in the form of wallpapers and gives us the wonderful and versatile faux rocks. This appears to be the first (and perhaps so far only) pack where scenery is based on what can actually be found in zoos, rather than on what scenery in certain cultures is like. My only objection against the scenery is regarding the stained wood walls, which - although very useful - are identical to the main game vertical wood walls with the flexicolour addition.

1. Africa: An excellent pack in many ways. The selection of animals consists of only favourites that can be found in zoos of all regions, the new addition of digging is amazing and the scenery items are incredibly versatile. However, there is one big problem with this pack, as it just doesn't feel like it fits together. There's 3 animals from the South and one from the North, with the theme being North African. It would have been much better to instead have an African animal and an Arabian/Middle East pack with the fennec and some more species from the North. Poor decision-making in my opinion, however it still brings us one of the most versatile, most useful packs in the game. For me the top 3 packs are equally good, but this is the one with the most universally useful animals and a slightly more interesting penguin than the number #2 on my list.

 

[nutrit]

1. Europe pack - amazing buildings which I all love sooo much and animals that I actually was surprised to adore like crazy.
2. Africa pack - really impressed by the foliage and themed North African building pieces that I use in my every zoo. Would like to see more desert species though.
3. S.A. animal pack - love animal packs and that one is my beloved region. I just hope they would fix Malayan tapir one day.
4. N.A. animal pack - quality and the selection of animals
5. Aquatic pack - I really like the otter and plants selection
6. S.A. pack - really like the anteater and not really liked the llama idea. Building pieces are useless for me.
7. Australia pack - liked the kangaroo and plants - rest is meh
8. Arctic pack - animal selection is controversial for me - building pieces not so diverse and has limited usability
9. Deluxe - really like the hippo but have no idea why it is limited to 3 animals and not 5 Also no plants? Really?

 

[Aidan635]

LOVE THIS THREAD!!!

I'll keep my thoughts brief here. I don't consider the Deluxe Pack to be DLC, even though it's paid content. It just doesn't seem like the rest of them.

1. North America Wildlife Park - I absolutely love North American animals, they're incredible. This pack knocked it out of the park with the animal selection and models. The lack of scenery didn't bother me because I feel like we can make do with what we have pretty easily.

2. Australia Pack - The animals are top notch, the scenery is top notch, and the hype for this pack was insane. I remember waiting MONTHS for this, so I was really excited for it, and it lived up to the hype imo.

3. Aquatic Pack - Obviously high on the list, the only reason why it isn't number one or two is because the scenery, while amazing, was very all over the place, with no definitive theme you can go off of. Might just be a nitpick but yeah, and the animations are killer.

4. Europe Pack - This pack surprised me. The animals I did not expect to impress me, but the fallow deer and lynx are incredible models. The Lynx became one of my favorites in the game. Now only if the nodding community can make the Canada Lynx out of it... no pressure, no pressure.

5. Africa Pack - This pack shined with the animals imo, even though the scenery was a focal point. All of the animals are so well done, even the little beetle.

6. Arctic Pack - So much hate for this, but why? The scenery is incredible, the animals (aside from the Arctic Wolf) are incredible, so yeah, I was just really into the whole vibe of this one.

7. Southeast Asia Animal Pack - Everyone gives this pack so much hate, and I mean yeah it was underwhelming, but the animals aren't terrible. Eh, the Dhole kinda ruined this pack for me, and the Sun Bear too.

8. South America Pack - At the time, this pack was great. Now, it's kinda sad. Just four animals to represent the most biodiverse continent (maybe it's not the most, but you get what I mean) in the world?! That's a shame.

* Lol I just realized that I put North America Wildlife Park instead of Animal Pack. That's just the protect I'm working on now. Just goes to show how much I love North American beauty! *