Saurian Preview – Being a baby dinosaur is hard

Saurian is a survival game where players control a dinosaur as opposed to the standard human. As a result, this game is quite unique and while it’s very different to most standard survival games, there are still plenty of ways to die.

Being eaten by your parents. Getting stepped on by herbivores. Discovering that log in the water you’re swimming up to is actually a crocodile. Starvation. Dehydration. There’s lots of ways to fail miserably at being a baby dinosaur. It’s a trial and error process for the first few attempts but players will quickly get to grips with the unlimited amount of dangers surrounding them in this harsh world.

The game is set at the end of the Cretaceous Era and is based in the Hell Creek formation. Players start life as a young hatchling with the aim of growing into a full adult to create the next generation. Which is a lot harder than you might expect. While the game only contains one dinosaur species (Dakotaraptor) right now, the developers plan to include a variety of controllable dinosaurs into the game.

Attention to detail in this game is fantastic. The developers have opted to take the more scientific approach which means many of the dinosaurs are feathered and the habit is designed around a realistic ecosystem. It suits the time era perfectly and offers a much more realistic approach than some other games which opt for the more romanticized version of when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Players need to keep an eye on the different bars on the screen. They reveal the health, hunger, thirst and staminia for the little dinosaur you’re controlling. As the game goes on, these meters will change as you grow to provide a realistic experience.

The biggest issues right now seems to be the combat. It’s quite clunky and it’s difficult to line yourself up for an attack which actually hits the enemy. Most of the time you’ll miss. If you’re attacking another carnivore, they’ll probably instantly kill you if you miss enough. The combat sensitivity is something that will most likely be fixed as development progresses for Saurian.

It’s clear that Saurian is still in quite an early state and has some rough edges as result. However, the developers are dedicated to the game and we should see large updates coming over the next year.