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The Hog is Pog.
This is a really tricky pack to review, especially compared to previous ones. The pieces are solid but nothing stands out as super amazing or must have. The animal choice is a very mixed bag in my view, the Hog is as stated before amazing, like the horse from the conservation pack they went above and beyond on it. I was concerned they would miss out on the male dimporphism but they not only got it right but even added little details like the hairs I was sure would get lost. The fossa is another great choice, I do wish it had a few more animations and would have loved the inclusion of one of those giant hamster wheels you often see in zoo fossa exhibits for them to exercise on, if that did sneak in I missed it but I don't think it is present.
The other two animals really hold the pack back. The gibbon is extremely similar to the siamang from conservation and is strange it was chosen as the focal animal for the pack. The monitor is so similar to the nile monitor that if I wasn't told it was new I might have just thought they just touched up the textures a bit. It does look better than the base game one but thats less because of species difference and more that most of the dlc animals get more 'love' than the base game animals. Creatures like the water monitor or specatacled caiman really make me think that frontier has a dart board they use to pick an animal for each pack, because it's such a random and personally pointless feeling addition it makes the pack feel to me like it has 3 habitat animals and not 4. It feels the same way it felt in arctic to get a white wolf that was otherwise the same as the base game grey wolf. This is another grey monitor with some yellow spots that is about the same size. Giving them deep diving is a nice touch and it's nice to see they are going back to adding stuff to existing animals but there could have been much better choices in my opinion, a crocodile monitor would be able to swim and look more distinct, a caiman lizard would be an even more unique choice.
The sloth finally makes it's way in and aside from the tasmanian devil is the last of the hugely requested animals to come to the game. Almost every zoo that has sloths has two toed sloths, so the choice to use the virtually unheard of three toed sloth is unfortunate but can be overlooked in the larger scheme. Given their similar size and behavior to koalas I think it's a real shame these ended up as exhibit animals and not habitat animals, but it hurts less than how the bats got handled and Im happy they are here at all. I do hope in the future their exhibit box can be edited a bit more, right now their climbing frame is very articifial looking and its very difficult to work it into a more naturalistic setting.
Overall the pack is decent but the animal choices, as so often happens with 'building/scenery' packs, feel really weird. I think there are much better primate choices than a second gibbon and almost any other tropical animal would have been a better choice than a nearly identical lizard to the base game one.
The only reason this pack gets a reccomend from me is the incredible quality of the red river hog and my biased desire to have on in the game, and I would arguably reccomend this pack over the conservation pack. Both come with a gibbon, but I think the fossa, hog, and sloth here narrowly beat out he contents of the conservation pack for me.
Must Have
- Aquatic Pack (Excellent faux rocks and wooden scenery, plus diving animals)
- North America Animal Pack (Sea Lions, Prairie Dogs, and numerous iconic species that fill various niches in your zoo)
Great Choices
- Europe Pack (Good selection of pieces with four animals that can be easily fit into most zoos and give more 'low tier' representation)
- South America (Lots of great pieces, if a bit overly themed, with some really great animals that have surprising versatility)
- Grassland Animal Pack (Can probably replace Australia if you don't have that already, unless you want peices)
- Australia (Amazing pieces and decent animal selection, if you already have Grassland you might want to skip or save for later unless you really want the pieces. This pack was a bit weaker at launch but has had some pots launch support)
- Conservation Pack (Great pieces and decent animal selection, albeit this is probably the lowest ranked of these packs)
- Wetland Animals Pack (Mixed animal bag, some great ones but user preference will vary. This pack, like all animal packs, will likely be influenced by your preference on individual animals)
- Tropical Pack (Solid pieces and animal selection, if you don't already have conservation you might want this one first. Otherwise bump this down a tier)
Later Choices
- Africa Pack (Mediocre pieces in actual dlc, but amazing ones came with accompanied free update. Decent animal choices but if you already have aquatic and NA packs might be a bit of overlap, probably save till later)
- South East Animal Pack (Some amazing animals like Clouded Leopard and Babirusa, but some odd ball choices like Proboscis Monkey and Dhole. The Tapir model in this pack is notoriously lower quality than the other animals, but thankfully it has an excellent remodel mod available, unlike base game Baird's)
- Twilight Pack (Animal selection is extremely controversial in community, and pieces are decent but extremely similar to the Europe Pack, which is arguably far superior. Bats are a nice addition but feel unfinished)
- Arctic Pack (Decent animal selection and decent pieces, nothing super stands out but if you really want an arctic or Christmas section in your zoo it is a must have)
Save For Last
- Deluxe Edition (Only comes with three animals for almost same price as normal packs and no pieces, and one of the three animals is virtually identical to a base game animal, Thomson's Gazelle vs Springbok)