Planet Zoo South America DLC Pack Review / Test

Planet Zoo gets plenty of new content with the South America Pack DLC

The new Planet Zoo South America Pack has arrived and I show you what’s inside, all the animals and many of the objects to look at beforehand so you can decide if the Planet Zoo South American Pack could be something for you.

German Version:

This article is available here as text, but also as a YouTube video (German voice-over, many subtitles). This way you can choose how you would like to enjoy it most.

Video:

German voice-over, many subtitles

Planet Zoo South America Pack Test – Introduction

Hi there, this is the Zap. In this article I would like to introduce the Planet Zoo South America package. I’ll show you exactly what’s inside and if it would be worthwhile for you to buy the package.

Planet Zoo in general

If you haven’t seen or heard anything about Planet Zoo yet, here’s a very short introduction. The game is developed by the British studio Frontier Development, who have been making games since the mid-90s. In recent years, their greatest successes have been the space shooter elite Dangerous, as well as the very popular business simulation Planet Coaster and the Jurassic Park-based spin-off Jurassic World Evolution.

Frontier has a lot of experience in the business simulator field. In addition to Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, they have also developed the very popular Zoo Tycoon for Microsoft. With Planet Zoo, they brought a completely new edition in 2019, which, in addition to the economic aspect, brings an enormously deep simulation of the animals’ needs and extremely detailed, sweet and cute presentations. You can learn a lot about the different species of animals and with research programs, reintroduction and some asynchronous multiplayer elements, it also offers a depth that is rather unusual for the genre.

However, the economic part of the game is somewhat less demanding. The title’s greatest strength, similar to Planet Coaster, is the creative building. The game offers hundreds of different construction elements and objects, from which we can assemble pretty parks and buildings. And via Steam-Workshop it is also possible to share these creations with others or just import the most beautiful buildings of talented builders into your game.

What’s in the DLC?

To begin with, what is the Planet Zoo South America Pack and above all, what does it offer and what do you have to pay for it? According to the name, everything in the DLC Pack for Planet Zoo is of course oriented towards South America.

The first big content is 5 new animal species. Here it ranges from the jaguar, llamas, Capuchin monkeys, and anteater, to the colorful red-eyed tree frog. I will introduce these animals in detail one by one in a moment.

A total of 250 new components will then be added.

The DLC costs about €10 as a base price, with an introductory discount or at my partner site Gamesplanet you can get it a bit cheaper, so you can buy it for 8,50 to €9.

Planet Zoo Patch 1.2 free

A free patch for the main game was released at the same time as the South America Pack. The patch notes of this update have far more than 100 sub-points in almost all areas of the game.

Besides a lot of bug fixes and balancing improvements there were also some new game features. The most important one is that you can now choose different difficulty levels for all game modes. In addition, new items have been added for free in numerous categories, such as these new mosquito painted stones or a termite mound.

The new animals in detail

In the following, I show some impressions of the 5 new species. Here are 4 animals for the enclosure and the last species, the roach frog, is a vivarium animal.

Of course, this is shown only in a demo zoo. In the actual game, I would not arrange things the way you can see it here. The layout is only for a better presentation of the new things.

1. Jaguar

This big cat species can weigh up to 100 kilograms and be almost 2 m long. This species is not considered endangered, but nevertheless its habitats are becoming scarcer and therefore more and more protected.

Since it lives in the rainforests in the wild and is a thorn in the side of the cattle breeders as a threat to their herds, it is being pushed back more and more.

2. Llama

This tame animal species is related to the camels and lives mainly in western South America. They can weigh up to 200 kilograms and particularly large specimens reach a height of up to 1.60 m.

Llamas are domesticated pets. They are mostly benign and through their curiosity, they quickly approach humans. Since they have been living together with humans for a very long time, they are also easy to train.

3. White shoulder Capuchin Monkey

This small primate species lives mainly in the northern part of South America. There are 11 main species and numerous subspecies.

They can live up to 50 years old and live in groups, some of which consist of more than 30 animals.

The Capuchin monkeys are not threatened, but due to heavy deforestation, their habitats are more and more reduced.

4. Giant Anteater

The Giant Anteater belongs to the endangered species. It lives in the grass and forest areas of Central and South America and feeds almost exclusively on ants and termites.

Due to deforestation and plantations of the people this species was very threatened. It is estimated that only about 5000 live in the wild. That is why there is a reintroduction where the species has lived before.

5. Red-Eyed Tree Frog

The brightly colored red-eyed tree frog lives mainly in Central America. The species is not endangered, but is also strongly pushed back by deforestation.

With its eyes closed, it can hardly be distinguished from the trees on which the species lives. With open eyes, however, the bright red pupils act as a deterrent to predators.

250 New parts

The vast majority of the new DLC’s content consists of building elements that can be used anywhere in the zoo. In total, the DLC adds about 250 new flowers, trees, decorative items and, above all, components for new buildings.

Completely in the style of the topic South America, it is of course about large temple complexes in the style of the Mayas and Incas, including golden llamas. But also numerous new prefabricated buildings for shops or employees, which were assembled from the various new components. And a big topic are besides the anteaters, also big butterflies and orchids.

I show here some examples in my Demo-Zoo.

Opinion and conclusion

I like the Planet Zoo South America Pack very much. It doesn’t tear a big hole in your wallet but still has more of the usual.

A very extensive expansion of building parts and design elements are included and the five new animal species are of course also an absolute enrichment of the game.

Unfortunately, the pack does not really offer any new missions for the campaign or new scenarios. Here I would have liked to see some new levels.

On the positive side, unlike many DLCs for other games, all the content of this package is available throughout the game. So here the whole game is upgraded, not only new content, which you can only see in 1-2 specific missions. I would like to mention and praise this explicitly.

Rating

For the base price of 10 Euros, fans can get a reasonable amount of new content with the Planet Zoo South America Pack.

Unfortunately, there are no new maps or levels included, this clouds the otherwise positive impression somewhat. Here I would have wished more actual game content. For that an enormous amount of actually almost everything is offered, which can be used in the whole game.

And as the franchise mode and the sandbox mode are the main part of the game anyway, this is easier to accept than in purely mission-based games.

All in all, I would like to give the South America Pack with this, a rating of 78 %, in comparison with the offered one for the basic price of €10. If one then gets the pack a little cheaper, this rating improves up to 5 %, depending on the discount.

If you want to save some money, you can find a link below, where you can get the pack a little cheaper at my partner site Gamesplanet. With this you save something and support my work, because I get a small commission.

Outro

Have the cute capuchin monkeys won your heart or do you find the lamas cuddlier? I am interested in your opinion, so please write it in the comments below. You can always find more gaming news, game reviews and guides here on my website zapzockt.de. I am very happy about depressed comments and shares, and then I wish you a great day, have a good time and stay healthy, ciao ciao, your zap

Purchase recommendation:

(Advertising / Affiliate Link)
Buy Planet Zoo and DLCs cheaper at Gamesplanet

Or at Amazon, maybe later also for consoles
For each purchase via one of these links I receive a small commission. This way you can save money and support my work at the same time.

Links and sources

Planet Zoo Website:
https://www.planetzoogame.com/

Planet Zoo Twitter:
https://twitter.com/PlanetZooGame

Planet Zoo Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/planetzoogame/

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