Planet Zoo: Twilight Pack & Update 1.11 Review

Planet Zoo: Twilight Pack & Update 1.11 Review

Frontier Developments return with an Autumn update to their fabulous building/management game Planet Zoo, and, in a somewhat appropriate move for the month of October, this one has a spooky theme… Introducing the Twilight Pack DLC, and the free Update 1.11.

Review – Planet Zoo: Twilight Pack DLC

As the name of the DLC suggests, this pack adds various “crepuscular” (i.e. Twilight) species to the game. They include four habitat animals: the mischievous Raccoon; Australian marsupials, the Common Wombat; The Red Fox, and the Striped Skunk. The DLC also adds a new exhibit animal, the Egyptian Fruit Bat, although this one is extremely unique as it requires a totally new type of exhibit!

One thing that has been missing from the game since the beginning is any sort of flying animals. That all changed with the addition of the Egyptian Fruit Bat. Rather than adding it as a habitat animal, they have introduced the “Walkthrough Exhibit”. This has a much larger footprint than the usual square exhibit (20m L x 12m W x 8m H), and I would actually describe it as more of a habitat/exhibit hybrid. With normal exhibits, you can’t actually decorate the inside, other than with the defaults you are given in the exhibit options. With the walkthrough, you can add place whatever you like to make it fit your zoo’s desired look.

The Egyptian Fruit Bat is the only animal, at the moment, to use the walkthrough exhibit, and the creature is exclusive to the Twilight DLC. However, the Walkthrough Exhibit itself is available as part of the free 1.11 Update, so you can play around with adding it to your zoo and decorating in preparation for when you do get the DLC, or more flying animals are introduced.

For the builder amongst you, the Twilight Pack adds in a whole new set of gothic-inspired building pieces including a range of Romanian architecture, a portcullis, and even zoo-thematic gargoyles! And if you want to set up your zoo for Halloween, there are jack-o’-lanterns, glowing mushrooms, spider webs, and even a cauldron! On the plant side of things, we have Bristlecone Pine trees, Ghost Fungus, Foxglove, and piles of scattered Autumn leaves.

One last surprise in the Twilight Pack DLC – a brand new Career Scenario! This is the first new career mission since the Arctic Pack was released in December 2019. Here, you head to Transylvania to help out Nancy in fixing a zoo left abandoned by our old “friend”, Dominic Myers. As you would expect, it is set up around all the new Twilight Pack animals, but also a mistreated Himalayan Bear who needs a new home in your spooky-themed zoo.

Review – Planet Zoo: Free Update 1.11

Moving over to the free Update 1.11, which brings with it some lovely game enhancements and quality-of-life changes.

Exhibits are getting some upgrades, as you can now add in custom backdrops to anything you want! The default 2D and 3D options are still there, but if you want to upload your own backdrop to fit the theme of your zoo, now you can!

Exhibits are also finally getting population management. Some of the exhibit animals have a tendency to… mutiply… and quickly! This has always been a pain to micromanage, but now the Population Management Tab will allow you to automatically handle the overpopulation of your exhibits. You can set your max population count for each, your priority filters (such as if they should be removed by oldest first), and decide what to do with the excess – put them in storage, sell them, or release them to the wild.

We all know education is important to Planet Zoo, but information about the Exhibit animals has always been somewhat restrictive… Not anymore! Now, Educators are able to take exhibit animals out and hold them for display and demonstration when giving talks to guests. This is available for a wide variety of species, but not all… Which is fair. It’s probably not the best idea for your Educators to be waving around a Common Death Adder or Golden Poison Frog in front of a crowd! During Exhibit Education Talks, an Educator will proceed to showcase them to guests, before resuming the talk as normal. Educators will either hold them one-handed, two-handed or on their shoulder depending on the species.

Lastly, on Exhibits, they have improved the cameras. Exhibit Interior Cameras have been improved to allow you a better view of inside your Exhibits, and you can get up close and personal with your animals with the all-new Orbit mode. This will be familiar as it works similarly to the Habitat Camera and will lock on and track whichever animal is selected.

Outside of the exhibits, habitat animals have a few additions and changes too. Nyala, Pronghorn Antelope and Springbok get a new “Piebaldism” pattern. This rare genetic expression describes patterns of unpigmented spots across an animal’s skin or coat, resulting in some really unique-looking variants.

Habitat animals will now cause a little more havoc when the naughty creatures manage to escape. Larger animals will knock over your bins and eat the rubbish! Whilst this won’t make them ill, it will affect their last meal quality (because hippos and half-eaten burgers don’t really mix!)

Moving away from the animals, the biomes have been given some new tools and changes. There is now a Ramp Terrain Stamp, making it much easier for you to make a path to those hard-to-reach places. The biomes themselves will have a set of brand-new biome skirts. These 12 new biome skirts and 1 reskin design allow you even more variation when determining the look of your landscape.

Lastly, the Planet Zoo: Sounds of Summer soundtrack will be available through your in-game speakers for your guests to enjoy as they wander around your zoo. There are also various bug fixes and improvements, as you would expect with any update to the game.

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 Twilight Pack DLC comes in at £7.99 and is perfect for adding some Halloween when it is released on Tuesday, 18th October 2022. Update 1.11 is free and gives you lots of enhancements for your exhibit animals, alongside some nice biome changes and new animal escape behaviours. If you’ve not yet joined the ‘Planet Zoo’ family, now is a great time to jump in!