izigame.me

In my opinion Revontuli should be held up as what COTW Map DLC should be like moving forward; Its well designed map with a very unique characterful presentation, conceived around a strong central theme, in this case Bird Hunting. You can tell they put a lot of effort in this map considering EW is Swedish and Finland is just next door. All told this is one of my top 3 maps alongside Silver Ridge Peaks and Vurhonga Savannah.
PROS:
+Bird-Hunting: You've got eight species of waterfowl and five species of grouse and the map is optimized for using blinds and decoys unlike the back fills on other maps. Its fun, its easy and lucrative. This is the most chill way to amass cash as well as raise your pistol and shotgun score to get at those gated slugs and hard cast bullets. And if you get bored there's still deer, bear and moose for you to hunt and no aggressive predators to harass you.
+Vegetation: Unlike notorious maps like New England and Mississippi Acres, both the undergrowth and tree spacing is well balanced. Dense enough to hide the various species of grouse, racoon and lynx but not so oppressive as to effectively conceal a moose or bear standing ten feet in front of you.
+Traversal: Roads crisscross the map, making it easy to get around, and off-road the terrain is relatively gentle with only gradual shifts in elevation. More importantly the map, despite having a lot of water, dispenses completely with the glitchy foot bridges that first appeared in Mississippi Acres in favor of using just row boats.
+Aesthetics: Beyond the woodlands and coastlines dotted by occasional signs of habitation, you have characterful outposts that range from proper houses to simple lean-tos and the night sky is truly a thing of beauty.
+Game Warden: Oiva is just a ball of fun, with greater banter and energetic delivery. Too bad there are not many opportunities to chat with him given the lack of in-game missions.
CONS:
-Layout Waterblind: Don't get me wrong this is useful piece of kit and I like having it but its so specialized that its practically useless in any other map other than Revontuli which is really tuned for it and you can achieve the same effect using all the other stands and blinds already available. Honestly I would have preferred a unique Finnish gun, like the Valmet combination gun.
-Expensive: While its easy to earn money on this map, getting started on your waterfowl killing spree requires a hefty investment. A tent, a blind, a lure and a twenty of decoys for just one species will run you nearly 42,000 credits before you've fired a single shot. It might be advisable to get the Wild Goose Chase or Duck and Cover DLC to get a head start on the map.
-Very Lean Animal Selection: While Class 1 is heavily stacked, everything else is relatively sparse, you get one animal each in Class 2,3,4,7 and 8 and that's it. Thing is Finland is home almost every species found in Hirschfelden and they could've easily just transplanted all of them to fill out the roster. That would've included boars, bison, fallow deer, roe deer and even reindeer.

-No Story: Unlike the reserves which are tied to some particular overarching plot involving the game warden, Revontuli's plot is simple; You're on vacation and Oiva is your funny guide. There's no poachers, no demons to exorcise, no racial tensions. While not a big issue for me since I wasn't a fan of Layton Lake and Hirschfelden's convoluted hunting challenges, I would've wanted something more substantial like Silver Ridge Peaks' vignettes rather than what we got, which amounted to a check list of stuff to kill and photograph for an achievement.