PALEOPHAGE – The Next Dino Crisis?

While there isn’t much doubt about the fact that the games industry is moving forward at a rapid pace with new and different kinds of experiences releasing left, right, and center – there is always a soft spot for the times gone by, the games that hundreds of thousands of fans devoured for hours upon hours while growing up but are now noticeably absent from the market due to shifts in consumer trends or changing business priorities.

One of the most wanted series, Dino Crisis also belongs to this very category, with the last entry namely Dino Crisis 3 releasing way back in 2003. It’s been well over 20 years that fans have been aching for a new game for a long while, and while there is no solid confirmation on when a new game or a remake will be coming out – we do have another exciting game that might just quench that very thirst to look forward to in the near future.

We are, of course, talking about PALEOPHAGE which is an upcoming title from the folks over at LogDev. Ever since the game was first unveiled back in 2023, it has caught the eye of many fans across the globe. And to probably no one’s surprise, plenty of comparisons to Dino Crisis have been made over the months and suffice it to say – PALEOPHAGE does look like a very good representation of what a Dino Crisis game could possibly look and play like.

Starting things off with the story, PALEOPHAGE takes place in a dystopian future setting where megacorporations have managed their way into the very fabric of daily life and unethical experiments have been running left, right, and center. A massive breakout occurs when a certain biological experiment fails and violent screams start to emanate from a conference room. Terrified survivors are showing first signs of a mysterious illness, and a quick response team is deployed to find out what exactly went down.

Unsurprisingly, the story here is nothing to write home about – and that’s fine. On the surface level, it hits the same themes of conspiracies and power struggles as Dino Crisis or Resident Evil for that matter – but having a loose plot that does just enough to get you right into the action as quickly as possible is obviously a merit that should be appreciated on its own terms. Of course, we are not denying the possibility that developer LogDev might not be able to create a compelling narrative using these threads, but we do know that it probably won’t be the biggest draw when it comes to PALEOPHAGE.

The star of the show is obviously the gameplay where PALEOPHAGE potentially shines the brightest. On the surface, PALEOPHAGE is all about carefully tiptoeing across urban environments and fighting the many ferocious beasts that roam these lands as you try to get to the bottom of whatever caused this rampage in the first place. Thematically, the juxtaposition of these urban environments against these monsters is something that we haven’t quite seen since Dino Crisis flew off the radar more than 20 years ago.

PALEOPHAGE features an over-the-shoulder perspective that does a good job of really seating the player into the horror. The moment-to-moment gameplay will revolve around exploring these dark and desolate environments bit by bit and fighting off the many enemies that lie between you and your goals. Unlike Turok which majorly relies on heart-pounding action, PALEOPHAGE is more of a survival horror experience which means that players won’t just be flailing around large arenas with fast weapons – but instead methodically pace around smaller rooms and take on these threats slowly and smartly.

To support that vision, PALEOPHAGE has made some small yet significant design decisions that help with achieving that titular mesh of survival horror and action that made us fall in love with Dino Crisis all those years ago. Firstly, the movement speed is relatively slow and heavier than action games which force players to be very careful of their maneuvers during combat. On the flip side, enemies like dinosaurs are nimble creatures by comparison which add an element of chaos to the whole affair.

As such, players will have to be pretty vigilant while exploring the claustrophobic corridors and use pieces of cover efficiently to make space between them and the dinosaurs and quickly finish them off without inducing much harm to self. On that note, a minor point of criticism that we should bring to the table is that PALEOPHAGE seems to have cut some corners when it comes to the combat feedback loop.

As can be seen from the trailers, dinosaurs don’t really react to gunshots as harshly as they should – and the impact of weapon recoil also leaves a bit to be desired. Of course, it’s possible that this is something that the team might fix in the coming months – but it’s an important piece of the puzzle since many survival horror games already have a pretty basic combat loop with minimal progression which is why the best games of this ilk pay so much attention to the feedback mechanics.

Let’s also briefly take a moment to talk about the dinosaurs which are also what helps PALEOPHAGE stand out from contemporaries of the genre. LogDev promises over a dozen different kinds of dinosaurs that players will be facing during their adventures, which includes but is not limited to Utahraptor to Arthurplera to Prestosuchus, and much more. These different dinosaurs are not only visually different but also functionally apart from one another.

Some are small and nimble creatures that come in packs, forcing players to focus on crowd control while others are towering creatures that can deal massive damage in one blow which would require you to save your precious ammunition for those moments. LogDev seems to have done a great job when it comes to enemy variety, and the developer could make use of these different permutations and combinations to come up with interesting scenarios for combat.

Of course, there’s also more to PALEOPHAGE than just exploration and combat. There are also elements of puzzle-solving scattered here and there, which should serve well to break the flow of exploration and combat and induce another layer of variety to the mix. From what we have seen, PALEOPHAGE doesn’t seem to bother much when it comes to skill trees or abilities for player progression – so having whatever variety within the gameplay would greatly help to break any sense of monotony that might come from doing the same things over and over again.

PALEOPHAGE is also a visually striking game, and it would be a shame not to discuss this part of the presentation. The lighting is especially impressive, and from what we can see from the trailers – PALEOPHAGE’s engine does a great job of handling dynamic and indirect lighting which helps in producing compelling scenes. Textures on dinosaurs and characters are also pretty detailed, which rounds out an amazing-looking game.

LogDev isn’t a very huge development studio, and PALEOPHAGE is the first game that it will be putting out – which makes this production quality all the more impressive. As mentioned previously, there are a few rough edges that one can find here and there – but the scale of the experience, and the sheer variety in terms of dinosaurs and environments is something that deserves to be appreciated on its own terms. Certain levels take place in closed corridors, some outside, a

Finally, there’s the topic of release dates. PALEOPHAGE is set to release on PC and PS5 at an unconfirmed date, but judging from what we know about the game and its current state of development, we can certainly make a rough estimate of when it will come out. Given that the game is deep in development and it was first unveiled back in 2023, it seems like a fair guess to assume that it would be coming out sometime between 2025 and 2026 – but then again, it’s important to understand that this is pure speculation and things could definitely change in the near future.

But in conclusion, LogDev certainly has something pretty special on its hands – and PALEOPHAGE could very well fit the void left by the absence of Dino Crisis. Of course, we do know that the team behind Dino Crisis might be considering bringing back the series after so long and the recent announcements of new Okami and Onimusha games do offer a ray of hope that an official Dino Crisis game might come out in the near future – but PALEOPHAGE can still hit the same notes and make a name for itself. One can hope, right?

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.