Dinosaurs are cool. Prehistoric super-monsters that actually did roam the planet at one point in time? Creatures one step removed from being real-world dragons? They’re awesome! Why is it, then, that dinosaur-themed video games are neither here nor there, with so many of them being multiplayer experiences, specifically?
Note, too, that I’m not talking about the usual suspects her. The mainstream dinosaur-themed games like Ark, Dino Crisis, and Exoprimal (though you might be hard-pressed to call the latter mainstream) have some strange sci-fi quirks that – in my book – take away from the dino fantasy angle. No, today I’d like to talk about games such as Path of Titans, The Isle, Beasts of Bermuda, and Isles of Yore. This is an inexhaustive list, too, so the odds are good that you may come across a few more as you look them up.
The thing about these games is that they are survival experiences where players step into the… uh, paws? Of dinosaurs. They are also almost exclusively multiplayer games, and I take personal offense to those. All cheekiness aside, it is quite strange that so many of these games are practically dedicated online survival experiences.
It’s the survival of the fittest, with pettiness thrown in for good measure
I’ll be perfectly honest here: I don’t understand the strange level of intertwinement between dinosaur survival games and multiplayer/MMO mechanics. Is it because programming the dinos’ AI is hard? AI is, generally, problematic to develop and while I’ve got no doubt that setting this up for multiple unique, distinctive species of prehistoric creatures would be a feat in and of itself, the developers of The Isle stated in 2022 that “While we will have varying degrees of AI, they aren’t aimed at providing a balanced singleplayer experience as that’s not the focus of the game.”
In the case of Path of Titans, on the other hand, the game does allow you to set up your own private server, but as there’s only a minimum amount of AI present, it’s not really worth playing as-is. Players have been discussing this option for years now, and the general consensus is that solo players can enjoy their embodying a dinosaur on official servers, but they run the risk of running into general assholery. While some do enjoy the immersion provided by Path of Titans, a non-insignificant number of players are just in it to attack, maim, and kill others on sight.
It’s a curious predicament: both The Isle and Path of Titans are trying to offer a deeply engaging RPG-tier experience of growing a dino basically from the moment it hatches onwards, but a good chunk of their communities wants to play straightforward PvP with a prehistoric skin, instead.
Will dinosaur survival games ever untangle themselves from multiplayer?
From my point of view, the issue stems from the fact that we’re seeing two completely different playerbases being forced to interact with one another by default. Those who are trying to play for immersion and enjoy a dinosaur-based ecosystem often simply have no recourse against those who are in it to rack up kills willy-nilly. The bit that’s confusing, then, is why is this highly specialized niche so insistent on staying within its self-appointed limits.
Isles of Yore is the newest game of the bunch I’ve highlighted here, having released in 2022, but it too succumbs to many of the same problems as its predecessors. There is a clear and pointed insistence from multiple development studios that the dinosaur survival niche ties in phenomenally well with multiplayer, but I’m not sure I subscribe to that same idea.
And that’s not only because I always end up playing multiplayer games on my own, just for the heck of it. It’s just really strange that so many separate, unrelated studios would be trying to deliver on that one particular promise over and over again. There’s also the fact that none of these games are even close to being feature or content-complete, so they’re clearly not projects to be taken lightly.
A solo survival dinosaur game, please?
It’s a bit sad, I think, that the best option for single-player dinosaur survival gaming is none other than Ark: Survival Evolved. Not even the new Ascended version, mind, as it’s loaded with performance issues and other assorted problems that don’t plague the old build. And, of course, there’s the brachiosaurus in the room: you don’t get to play as an actual dinosaur in Ark, but a human survivalist, which is infinitely more boring in my book.
I’d mention Saurian here, which was – credit where credit is due – trying to do something similar to The Isle without resorting to multiplayer. Saurian, however, released as an Early Access project back in 2017 with the developer estimating it’d take about two years for the game to be completed. It’s 2024 now, though, so your mileage with that game may vary.
From the look of things, the market simply isn’t there for a solo dinosaur survival game. It is a bit strange to consider, given how ridiculously popular survival games were for a while, and especially since games like The Sons of the Forest end up commandeering entire armies of fans by default. Yet, no such luck for our favorite oversized lizards (yes, yes, I know).
So, it is what it is, in the end. There may well be a dinosaur survival game for solo players on the horizon, eventually. For the time being, though, it’s just not in the cards I guess.
In an ideal world, we’d have something like Ancestors: A Humankind Odyssey but for dinosaurs. This wasn’t an amazing game, I’ll give you that, but it sure as heck was interesting and it did try to do something new with its concept. Dinosaurs, too, deserve this, and this is not just my inner kid saying it. I genuinely hope something like this comes up eventually, even if there’s no obvious mainstream studio tackling the concept yet.
But hey, if you’re in the market for dinosaurs and dinosaur-themed games, here’s a shortlist that may or may not be helpful:
Not perfect, of course, and not even remotely close to the niche discussed in this article, but there are cool dinosaurs in each and every one of these, so have fun.
