Dinosaurs Prehistoric Survivors

i personally don't like the survival mode, it's too "video game" for me. i have the misfortune of living in america in the year 2025 as a trans person. sometimes i get so SICK of human beings and their petty self-centered hate and blind gullibility that i just want to be LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE. i just wanna waddle around and eat bushes and not have to care about who's president. i love that the arcade mode lets me do that and my character can actually progress just by existing. i don't have to go fight for exp, do silly quests, etc, no objectives, just exist as something else for a while.

not everything works 100% perfectly but the only glitch that really bothers me is the camera tends to completely freak out when i load a new game, i mean it goes completely INSANE for a couple minutes.

i only have to lower the graphics by 2 notches but it doesn't keep my settings and i have to set it again every time i load a game (switch between survival/arcade/roam, switch species, restart, etc), despite it asking me when i first launch from steam. the ultra graphics look very pretty and i love that the dinos get wet in the rain.

i can't comment on the sound design since my computer is always on mute, which makes the lazy "there is no such thing as hurry" ankle-saur look like he's yawning, lol.

i like that the corpses don't just magically vanish and have the toxicity/decomposition element. it's nice to have something for baby rex to eat so it doesn't starve while learning to fight, and adds a creepy horror element when you see members of your own species lying dead all around you as the baby trike.

the only thing i'd change about the game is why does arcade mode have only rex and trike? all the other species are already there, just shrink down their character model size and have all the herb's follow the trike skill path and all the carn's follow the rex skill path. i do like that they are all available right away in "roam" mode without having to unlock them first and don't have to play the survival mode if i don't want to. i get why sauropods are not there but where is stegosaurus?

i appreciate that they just bite and scratch and whap stuff with their tails, no magical nonsense or shockwaves or stuff like that. i like the "eat enough toxic plants and you're poisonous" bit because it gives you something to earn even if you don't want to focus on fighting, and it makes some bit of sense both for having immunity to plant toxins in your bloodstream (i think stuff irl does that?) as well as carnivores having toxic bacteria like komodo dragons.

overall i like it, because this is what i want to do. be lazy and eat bushes and wander around and just not have to be human for a while or even be in a world where humans and their ignorant cruelty even exist. i think it will bore kids and people who need more mental stimulation as opposed to being mentally over-stimulated and needing to calm down/relax. i like that i don't have to hunt or constantly fight fight fight, but the element of danger is still there and when i get randomly attacked for doing absolutely nothing but minding my own freaking business and not affecting anyone else's life in any way whatsoever, i can turn around and beat the living daylights out of them.

its funny that you can bunnyhop as a dinosaur, and i see the vision, but the execution is scuffed. the first level youll notice that other dinosaurs can very much go through the environment, making them impossible to locate and attack

What compelled me to try this game was the life cycle progression. At first I was disappointed that the game mode that features this - Arcade - only allows you to play as a Triceratops or Tyrannosaurus. However, due to the relative simplicity of the combat I no longer think this. There would not be a great degree of difference in game play.

The other game modes did not capture my interest so this review will focus on Arcade. The progression is interestingly multi-faceted for a game of this type.

First, the main leveling. You gain XP from consuming resources, killing other dinosaurs, and completing "Missions". Missions are simple and can be randomized at-will to find an objective that you can complete easily. Examples include traveling to a specific region during either the day or not, killing x number of x dinosaurs, consuming x resources, etc. Taking the time to cycle the mission to something that you are nearby already will drastically hasten your dinosaur's leveling. New levels unlock traditional skill points that can be invested in tiered options based on your growth stage. Most skills have a positive and negative effect with the positive being the stronger element by varying margins. Thankfully you can re-spec by expending XP. NOTE: the increased poison and bleed chance do not seem to function as intended, avoid these skills.

Apart from the skills you can also attain abilities. On the map there are areas (Anomalies) marked that can be accessed at certain levels. Two each for levels 3 and 6 and one at level 8. These anomalies either have a special resource that must be consumed (a plant or carcass) or a high-level dinosaur to defeat. Once completed, a new ability is unlocked. These are mostly useful but do not set your expectations terribly high. The triceratops gets a charge ability but it is not a charge attack but rather a forward sprint. I primarily used this ability to traverse the map more quickly instead of in combat (quite useful in this context). The locations of the anomalies are erased from the map once you are the appropriate level so take a mental note in preparation.

Lastly and most interestingly, there are traits. Traits are effects that you gain from repeating specific actions and are without question the most impactful progression. Consuming resources with a higher toxicity level will improve your toxic tolerance (somewhat), fighting certain types of dinosaurs (herbivore, carnivore, armored, etc.) will improve your damage against those same types, performing actions during the day or night will yield benefits, and a decent host of others. I believe that this is the core of the "survival" game play and the other two systems above fall more into the "RPG" format.

Overall the game is fairly basic but that makes it convenient to jump into for short sessions on a whim. I mostly played with my young daughter watching (there is no blood in Arcade) and she quite enjoyed the experience. Having reached "Victory" for both dinosaurs with less than 10 hours of game time, I'd say that this is a simple title that provides a decent amount of satisfaction for those who like this type of game.