Dinosaurs Dominion

Roguelites are renowned for being very replayable, with every run being unique. Dinosaurs Dominion unfortunately doesn't provide that, at least not at the moment. Pros: - Unique Theme - Okay Combat - Good Models, Sound Design and Environment - How many of these are store-bought assets I don't know - Good healing mechanic Cons: - 4 Upgrades available in the entire game (as of now) - That's 8 unique runs, if you want to try every combination on every character. - Very predictable attack patterns - 3 Stages, the same map every time, with little to no enemy variation - Some of the animations are more comedic than realistic, which is completely fine, so long as it's the desired effect. It's quite jarring to see a 2 tonne animal leap through the sky in a realistically styled game. So, what does this Early Access game NEED in order to succeed? - More mutations. Only having 2 character options is fine, so long as there are enough ingame upgrades to make every run feel unique. - More enemies. Just quantities of enemies that you face at one time. At the moment, every fight is a 1v1, and most feel favoured towards the player. If some fights were 1v2 or 1v3, the combat would be a little more challenging, and far more rewarding. - Unique abilities per character. As I said earlier, just having 2 characters to choose from is fine, but they should feel unique, and this means more than stat variations. Perhaps the Lythronax could have the bleed skill by default, and the Centrosaurus could have a block ability. - A more linear map, or a different mechanic for obtaining mutations. Each zone has 2 pathways, one will give you a new mutation, and the other will progress you to the next stage. This makes it relatively easy to accidentally skip the mutations, and go into the boss fight with no roguelite abilities whatsoever. Mutations could be dropped by enemies, found in corpses, or based on the number of enemies killed (under 100%). - No save points! Roguelites are known for being single-run, permadeath games, but in this game if you die, you respawn at your last save point, but without your mutations. There should either be no saves at all, or it should lean into them, and make it a more RPG style game. Things the game could do with adding, but does not NEED: - A procedurally generated map. The map is fine as it is, however if it were unique each run, it would add to the replayability. - Achievements! Adding bonuses for playing, such as achievements, would also help boost replayability. - More Characters. I imagine more dinosaurs are already planned, but more characters, especially ones with unique abilities, would make the game feel more unique and rewarding. Better yet, have some of these characters locked behind achievements or wins, to incentivise the player to play again. - New enemies. The enemy roster is already good enough, if very predictable, but more enemy types, especially those with unique attack patterns, would do a lot for making the game more fun and challenging. All in all, this game does have a lot of potential, though I'm not particularly hopeful, looking at the team's previous releases. As it is, it might keep younger people entertained, and it's fun for about half an hour, but unless you want to support the creator, I don't believe it's worth picking up. Incompleteness is to be expected with an early-access game, but this feels more like a concept than anything playable.

First time playing duration: 41 minutes Notes: 1. Graphics are decent. 2. There is sound for footsteps when running only. No sound for walking 3. Movement mechanics are very good 4. When walking or running through water - no sound effect 5. When walking or running past bushes - no sound effect 6. Opponent hit box seems larger than the players. When in close combat and turning, opponent may still land hits but player cannot. 7. Game has potential, cautiously optimistic.

Obviously this is in early access and just released but here are my thoughts. Pros: Easy controls, no glitches so far, simple survival objective, satisfying battles, worth current price, and a desire to want more. Cons: More content is needed such as regions, dinosaurs to control, a level up/experience bar, more enemies, etc., but will hopefully be released in time. My only real issue is the camera. Just touching the camera button moves the camera too fast making you lose focus of your surroundings and figuring out what's around you. (I may have to play with the settings if the camera moving too fast is a sensitivity issues.)

This game is absolute dog snot. Who designed the movement of these dinosaurs? It's completely unplayable in my opinion. Could have been good, but a swing and a miss.

There's not a whole lot of content here at the moment; I cleared both playables in 42 minutes, and as far as I can see there's nowhere else to go and no definitive end. Everything was pretty easy to fight too as the enemies all telegraphed their movements a mile away. Target locking is helpful, but it REALLY needs to drop the lock after the enemy is killed and not require a manual unlock at that point. There are only two main map areas with some subsections, a few types of creatures to fight, and then the apex fight. Once done with the fight there's...really nothing else to do. There's no direction to return to the last map, but if you do, you get a new story message that seems to indicate there is more to find and do but...it's just all the previous creatures you fought before. Which I guess can be nice if you just want to fight for a bit, but beyond that there's no real, dramatic feeling that you're done besides knowing you killed the apex. Now, the game itself runs solidly even on Linux via Proton Experimental. No crashes or problems. The creature models are nice, with some really beautiful skins (LOVE that blue one). Movement isn't terrible, though it includes some hilarious dodge agility a la Dark Souls. The mutations are all nice, though almost unneeded due to how easy the game is at present. Overall it needs more content and polishing, and I look forward to seeing what else comes next.

This game is impossible. You are limited on healing until you kill the nest dino, which makes 0 sense at all. Once you get to the boss, it is virtually impossible to beat with only 2 heals, especially since the game has very buggy and clunky fight mechanics. What is really annoying is when you die, you start from the beginning. And if you die from the boss, you loose all mutations. This game is a waste of time tbh, do not get it unless you like dying and running around. At the very least it has nice graphics, but that isn't enough to save it.

As of July 23rd 2025, this review is IRRELEVANT due to new updates. The boss can be cheesed, but is still absurdly hard to beat. The movement and graphics are fine (though i wish there were more options), and the mechanics are ok. The healing is very bad, as the TWO (four if you get the healing upgrade thingy) heals you get are not enough, or barely enough, to defeat the boss. Also, the triceratops-looking thing is more powerful than the carnivore, even though they should have around equal stats.

A Roaring Success - Dinosaurs Dominion Delivers Prehistoric Thrills!

Oof. Great idea, poor implementation. I would love to see this idea flourish. A combat based, dinosaur exploration roguelite game could be amazing. This is not it. Bad UI, not super responsive controls, really bad AI, and uninteresting choices for leveling up causes this game to fall flat. If anything for this company, take this idea and continue to work on it. This is the right direction, but the destination is not here.

Has great potential, I will come back and make a playthrough when it feels more complete tho