Theropods- Review

Why does no one ask you about your favourite dinosaur once you become an adult? That makes me sad because we all know dinosaurs are cool. Some of the coolest dinosaurs are the theropods; they walked on 2 legs and were fierce. Common examples are velociraptors and the T-Rex.

Developed by Lost Token and published by Dionous Games, Theropods is a short and sweet point-and-click prehistoric and sci-fi game with an emotional punch right from the start. Without spoiling too much, you play as a cavewoman who wakes from a dream about losing her mother. The tragedy of her past meets her in her present, and soon a meteor crashes, drawing a bloodthirsty rival tribe to the area. Inside the glowing orb is, surprise, a stranded spaceman, and you end up controlling both female protagonists as they look to get back home.

Together, the 2 unlikely friends will climb mountains, navigate rainforests, and avoid underwater threats. All while facing off against barbarians and, yes, even a T-Rex.

The mechanics are simple, as expected from a point-and-click game. You will walk back and forth between scenes, locating items and trying to figure out how they combine to solve a current problem. There is generally only one solution, but that didn’t bother me too much. With the choice of design, it makes sense that it would lean into the nostalgic 90s gameplay with its linear solutions. Because of this, you may find yourself stuck trying to figure out what you need to do next and randomly clicking all around the screen. I’m not even embarrassed to admit I had done this on a few occasions. Using the H key will highlight items that can be interacted with. I am embarrassed I wasn’t paying attention to that detail in the beginning. Your cursor will also change colour when you hit upon an item to interact with.

You will also have some situations where you need to treat other characters as items and use them to help you solve a problem, like hunting a dinosaur. Once you have control of both the huntress and the space woman, you will encounter puzzles that require you to switch between both to find the solution.

While the graphics harken back to another time, the pixelated design somehow drew me in quickly and managed to express a lot of emotion without a lot of detail. The soundtrack and sound effects are also well done. With no dialogue, you will rely on simple sounds and gestures to further the story. The subtle head shakes and audible ‘uh uh’ when you click on the wrong thing go a long way in directing you away from certain items. The environments and enemies also stood out in their sound design. Dynamic weather changes, including lightning and a nice day/cycle add to the ambience.

The game has a short play time of about 3 hours but packs a lot into that time. It’s a nice tale of family and friendship and has a nice nostalgic gameplay design and style. It had some puzzles that left me scratching my head at times, but nothing that felt unsolvable.

While I went into Theropods assuming a simple point-and-click adventure, I was pleasantly surprised to find the story had a lot of heart and somehow managed to tell the story of family, loss, and friendship all without saying a word.

I started this out by talking about how no one asks you about your favourite dinosaur once you’re an adult, so I will ask…What is your favourite?

I have a lot of love for the Therizinosaurus, which just happens to be a theropod. It was 30 ft long, 16 ft high and had 3 ft claws, but it was a plant eater. Fierce-looking, but not a predator.