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I have been waiting for an Australian map since the first map DLC was released so writing a negative review for it is not something I ever expected to be doing. Having said that, while Emerald Coast isn't by any means terrible it also offers very little experience comparable to singleplayer Medved or the two free maps.
I'll start with the positives, because like I just said this is by no means a terrible DLC!
- The animal roster - you've got 8 entirely new species, where one is an entirely new and unique animation rig (Grey Kangaroo) and one is, while not unique, still a very rare and (as of writing this, at least) exotic rig, that being the Saltwater Crocodile. 8 entirely new species is pretty big, and the roster itself is very good in my book! Also, as an added bonus, the map also contains the Axis Deer which before was restricted solely to Parque Fernando, so there's that too.
- The scenery - absolutely beautiful. Both the wilderness and the buildings are amazingly well done and the landscape itself has open grasslands, forests (tropical, too! very pretty) and wetlands, which basically sums up almost all environments present in the game until now on one map
- They tried something new with the animal sanctuary PoI and I applaud that - the idea is novel and really nice. It actually was done better than I expected (I fully expected no animals to be there) but it still had some flaws I'll outline later on
Now onto the actual bad part of the DLC...
- The story is horrendous. Seriously. Not only are the main missions extremely short, they also feel like the actual mission chain got cut halfway through due to a deadline or something because the final mission ends at you checking out crocodile tracks, the narrator saying they have to be investigated... and then the narrators both thanking you for your help because that's it. The story had some interesting parts and the inclusion of two narrators offered amazing potential that was thoroughly wasted. Side quests I'll cover later on, because I don't believe they are fully negative.
- The landmarks are pretty bad. Most of them are just mountains, and while I didn't expect an entire castle like in Hirschfelden only seeing mountains and two caves was... disappointing. The caves themselves were also extremely dull, but that's next.
- The caves deserve a separate point on this list of crimes because I am comparing them to the caves in Medved. Medved caves had cave paintings and/or collectibles inside them - Emerald Coast caves are way smaller, much less realistic (not only is there sunlight shining in them through the rock roof, there's also trees growing in one of them???) and ENTIRELY EMPTY! In fact, I've not seen any collectibles on the entire map, though I have to say I've not explored it fully as of writing this review.
- The animal sanctuary, while a novel idea, is insufferable to be in if you've got the Bloodhound DLC and your Bloodhound with you. The dog will continuously growl at the animals thinking they are hostile, so sticking there will make your ears bleed after a while.
- Some parts of the map feel half-done only, such as some outposts having stores... inside the walls...
Now, subjective issues - or make up your own mind because I feel like there can be positives here if you're an optimist
- The sidequests are... weird. They basically offer no story of their own. They all consist of either long term challenges (kill 150 deer, kill Leucistic/Coat X/Coat Y Kangaroo, photograph 3 different rare coats of Banteng from 50m) or are the type of "kill X amount of this species and enjoy". Now, the latter did appear in other DLCs and free content, but it typically was kill 2-5 of the anima from specific range/weapon/at specific time of day/at specific region. Here, it is literally kill 10 feral goats. That's it. That's the quest. I didn't feel comfortable putting it as solely negative because while I'm not a fan, I know for some the long-term-goal quests may be appealing.
- One of the sidequests that doesn't fall into the above is the one that... shows you all the landmarks on your map. It's a quest to find all the landmarks and it marks every single one on your map. So exploration basically goes out the window here, doubly so with the beforementioned likely lack of collectibles on the map. Leaving it as subjective since I know not everyone plays this game for the exploration so for some this may not change anything.
- The animal spawns are kind of all over the place. Some animals are everywhere (Feral Goats are a good example of this - absolutely EVERYWHERE in the starting region) while others barely appear (a good example for this are Feral Pigs! Should probably be comparable to the goats, no? But after going through 3/4 of the map I've seen a grand total of about 3 pigs). Possibly the biggest offender here is the Saltwater Crocodile, which, if you're travelling the coast you'll see dozens of. Sure, there's not much else they could have put at the coast, but it effectively means you have piles of sand with 1-1.5k of cash laying on top of it for easy pickings, especially with how long it takes for them to start fleeing (if at all, since they will often attack you instead)
With everything said above - one final complaint. The DLC very much tries to incentivise playing solo. Long-term quests very much mean that you're not gonna be able to complete them playing with friends, so if you want to finish all of them you'll be hunting 150 deer alone. I despise that, personally. Sure, not everyone has friends to play with, but the DLC tries to make you play solo... while actually not having any solo content (interesting quests or story quests) that warrants it.
At the end of the day... Emerald Coast feels like a weird mishmash of an absolutely gorgeous packaging with nothing to offer. Is the map great? Yes, the map is amazing. But the DLC is not. I refuse to give a positive review to the DLC, because you can experience the good parts of it (the scenery and the animals) by playing on someone else's hosted session without paying anything. And the things you would get if you paid - quests, primarily - are not worth it at all. I truly hope it'll change in the future... but I'm not sure if I should expect a followup free update for the story content of a DLC...