My folks lived for quite a few years outside Aiken, and I spent a lot of time up that way while stationed at Parris Island. Big time horse country, deer are thick as thieves, even if small, but you get to take five a year so still can fill a freezer pretty well. Lots of yotes and turkey too, been a number of years since they moved away but I'm certain they've only gotten worse like everywhere else. Saltwater fishing two hours south in Beaufort area is top notch, caught many flounder and redfish (they call them spottail bass there) as well as all the shark I cared to eat, and could fill a 5-gallon bucket with jumbo shrimp in 30 minutes flat. Santee-Cooper and other lakes in the state are catfish and bass heavens.
Like anywhere in the south, stick to the outskirts/countryside and you'll love it. Live in any town, ANY town, you get town shit. Folks around the area are good people, of any color or creed. I'm not saying not to bother locking your shit up, but there's a lot of good people in that area that work hard and want to be left alone.
Along the eastern seaboard I'd take any town south over absolutely anywhere north of Richmond, hands down and no questions asked. It's no mountain west, but the deep south is far better than Bidenland New England.