I have been incredibly lucky that indie game developers and PR teams reach out to me and trust me to write about their games. It’s been a fantastic way to find out about some games that would otherwise not find their way in front of my eyes, and there have been some wonderful gems to unearth. My newest email discovery is Dino Time Raiders from Webbysoft and Armor Games Studios.
In this incremental park-building strategy game, you play as a professor who has unlocked the secrets of time travel and decides the best way to make money is to go back in time and capture dinosaurs to start your own Jurassic Pa…ah, I mean, Legally Distinct Dinosaur Land. The game is very much aware of its inspiration, and I loved how tongue-in-cheek it was at times.
It’s a game that is simple in style, sometimes looking like simple sprites wandering in your park, but the game does a good job of relaying just how large and dangerous the dinosaurs are when you travel back in time with your team to collect them. I appreciated the pixel style when it came to the blood and carnage in those battles, both animal and human variety.
Before any time jump, you must assemble your team of scientists. Each has their own skills and energy cost to use them. You will need to manage the balance between the number of people versus their skills; the stronger they are, the more energy required to take them with you. You don’t need to worry about saving members of your team for later use, as they will respawn in your present time even if they are killed in action. No need to worry about the space-time continuum, meaning you will never permanently lose team members.
Time to jump. Choose the period of time you want to jump to and what dino you want to target, and away you and your team go. Once you spawn, you will travel from section to section of the map, battling smaller creatures until you find your target. Fights do not require any input from you; you will only control the movement around the map or to select a perk if you find a rift. These perks will be things like giving you more time to spend in the past, more damage against creatures or more people to join your team. The battles are easy in the earlier periods and become more difficult; some are fierce. The dinos you encounter will be green, blue and red varieties, from least to most profitable/hardest to kill.
Once you run out of time, everyone dies, or you’ve collected your specimens, you will return to the present with your trophy. Build the appropriate pen for your new attraction, and you’re set.
In the present day, you manage your park. This isn’t an in-depth management sim but was fun. Make sure the visitors have pathways and facilities. The more paths that surround the pens, the higher the value the visitors will pay, and it will also contribute to a higher star level. More stars can also be earned by having a higher variety of dinosaurs and a higher number.
What do you do once you have too many dinosaurs and not enough space in Dino Time Raiders? You use a sniper rifle and sell their meat to the on-site restaurant, making a hefty profit. While this sounds horrific, it’s balanced with the mechanic of literally slapping your attractions if they get too ‘frisky’. If they become too excited, they will break free and endanger your paying guests. Every guest killed will cost you money, whether they are killed by dinosaurs, ‘terrorists’, or even an active volcano.
If you want to make even more money and keep your scientists from dying too much, you need to invest in skills and upgrades. These are divided into 2 categories: Park and Time Travel. You unlock Park upgrades with money, while you acquire Time Travel upgrades with skill points earned through XP gained on your missions. Park upgrades involve things like earning more money from guests, reducing costs and some security upgrades. Time Travel upgrades include things like improving the skills and health of the scientists or unlocking different categories of weapons.
Once you earn enough money, you can expand your park to a bigger island location. This unlocks additional upgrades and new periods of history to visit. When I first moved to a new island, I was shocked to see you burned the old one to the ground as you left. While you’re starting in a new place, at least you keep everything you’ve unlocked from your upgrades.
This isn’t a very long game; I think it took me about 5 hours to complete the 4 islands available, but I enjoyed my time with it. It’s a fun little chaotic adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.
**Special thanks to Armor Games Studios for the review code**
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