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Vurhonga Savanna has been my favorite map in this game since I first started playing and is probably the map I've logged the most time on. Simply put, I am a massive African wildlife lover.
Environmentally, Vurhonga captures the essence of south and east Africa in a nutshell. A massive savannah broken up by areas of thicker brush and occasional acacia and baobob trees. There are areas of healthier and more fertile green grass and areas of more stereotypical yellow or brownish savannah grass scattered throughout. There are also swamps and fever tree forests on the outskirts for a wetter and more forested environment. The reserve itself is largely a huge island bisecting a section of a river.
Story-wise, I also like this reserve. It gives our character some interesting backstory in that this is where we're from, we were adopted by a local family at a young age which partially explains why our grandfather is the warden, and explains why we are respected as a world-class hunter. Africa would be kind of a "throwing someone into the deep end immediately" place to learn how to hunt, so that makes sense. It also highlights the real world issue of poaching and narratively explains in part why some of Africa's iconic species aren't here. However, for gameplay reasons, this does create some problems which I'll get to shortly.
Now, as to the reason why the story creates issues for gameplay, this means that this map lacks a lot of iconic African savannah species that should be here. The map sadly feels a bit empty without them. The roster of species when the map launched consisted of scrub hare, side-striped jackal, springbok, lesser kudu, warthog, blue wildebeest, and cape buffalo. About a year later, they introduced the gemsbok. About another year after that, they brought in lions (yes, you heard me right, it took about two years for Africa's apex mammalian predator to be added to the game). A couple of years ago as of the time of this review, they put Eurasian wigeon on the map (which first appeared on Revontuli Coast), and to date that's it.
Do you see the obvious problem? A lot of Africa's iconic savannah species are just plain missing. The rest of the Big Five (African bush elephant, white or black rhinoceros, and African leopard) are missing, there are no giraffes, zebras, spotted or striped hyenas, cheetahs, baboons, gazelles, nyalas, elands, hippos, Nile crocodiles, flamingos, ostriches, Egyptian geese, helmeted guineafowl, and many other iconic species present. This a big problem not only for the purposes of this game, but I point out that Ultimate Hunting is coming out next year and their South Africa map is pulling out a lot of the stops as far as iconic animals to hunt. The only major things their release roster doesn't have are rhinos and leopards if I recall, but I figure that will only be a matter of time.
The point is, Ultimate Hunting's South Africa Reserve will sink Vurhonga Savanna in terms of animal variety if Expansive Worlds doesn't step up their game and add some of the animals needed to make this a fully-fledged Africa map. And also with that, that will require bigger caliber guns too. I'm hoping with the Community Weapons Pack coming at the end of this year and adding the .375 Magnum, that maybe they will add some bigger caliber stuff for bigger African game like the .416, .458, .505, and .600 and/or .700 Nitro Express. Like I said, Ultimate Hunting isn't holding back in that regard, so why should EW at this point?
Suffice to say, while this is my favorite map, it could do with a lot of improvements still. Hopefully, EW is paying attention to this and other similar reviews and working on things to that effect. In my opinion, we don't need a second Africa map, we need major improvements to this one.