Planet Zoo – North America Animal Pack & Update 1.7 Review!
Planet Zoo is back with another slew of content as the zoo management game releases possibly their cutest bunch of editions so far with the North America Animal Pack, along with the free Update 1.7, which adds some great new features and “quality of life” additions.
North America Animal Pack
The North America Animal Pack is possibly my favourite release to date because so many of the new additions are just so freaking adorable! First, the industrious American Beaver. Not only can you watch them gamble around, swim, and play, but they also come with their own Beaver Pool enhancement which will help the little furry creatures show off their building skills. You also have the burrowing Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, which are too cute for words, the tiny Arctic Foxes which are just adorable, and the brilliantly fun and entertaining California Sea Lions. On the less-cute side, but also great editions, there is the Moose, the Cougar, and the enormous American Alligator, along with a new exhibit animal, the American Bullfrog. It is a really solid addition to the (already huge) menagerie of animals available in-game.
The pack also comes with some new enrichment items for your new animal friends, including the aforementioned Beaver Pool, the Pronghorn Piñata, Skittle Feeder, and Melon Feeder. There is also a new timed scenario set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which lets you put your skills to the test and make this small zoo a success story!
Update 1.7
In addition to the North America Animal Pack, today also sees the release of Update 1.7, which adds some much-requested features to the game. Top of that list is custom heightmaps and terrain options when beginning a new map. One of the biggest issues with the game for me has been that, when you start a new zoo, you are presented with a completely flat map. This means you can spend hours sculpting out terrain, just so you have a more interesting environment to build on, before you even lay down your first path. This new update changes that by giving you a few new options.
Option one – import your own custom heightmap, either made from scratch or based on real-world topography. Option two – use the new “Sculpted” terrain option, which gives you pre-made sculpted topography based on the biome type. Option three – use a Scenario Zoo map which you can now import to Sandbox Mode, but also has a “Terrain Only” option which removes all the existing buildings. Whilst it would have been great to have a button that gives you completely random topography each time, I do understand that the system wasn’t built for that, so this is a really good compromise, and I’m sure the Steam Workshop will be filled with custom heightmaps for you to pick from before too long!
The other big addition to this update is the Animal Talk Seating Areas. No longer will your visitors have to stand around to listen to your educator! They now have rows of seats where they can take the weight off their feet and really give their full attention! One minor little annoyance for me is that they don’t quite line up exactly or “snap” with the building pieces, although I did manage still to create some satisfactory surroundings to spruce up the seating for my seals and polar bears.
Other changes in this update include “deep swimming” for the Jaguar, Bengal Tiger and Siberian Tiger, so you may want to add some deeper water to those habitats. They have also added in Path Barriers, which render areas of path inaccessible to guests and staff allowing you to direct the traffic in your zoo more accurately, and Kerbs, which discourage guests from crossing, but they will still use it if the area is otherwise too crowded or there is no other route.
The last few changes fall under “quality of life” enhancements for the players. There is the new Randomisation Placement Toggle which, when turned on, will randomly change the rotation of the item you are using in between each placement. The Zoopedia has a number of search and filter updates, allowing you to check the habitat space you need based on the number of animals, filter the animals by biome, and some buttons linking directly to the Animal Management and Animal Market. They have also added a quick trade option from the Animal Management screen.
If you’re a fan of business sim games and/or building games, ‘Planet Zoo’ continues to be one of the best on the market. The North America Animal Pack DLC comes in at £7.99 and for the pure adorableness of the animals, it’s well worth the money. Update 1.7 is free and adds some great new features and enhancements. If you’ve not yet joined the ‘Planet Zoo’ family, now is a great time to jump in!
