"Rather than the typical wildlife you might expect, the entire place is filled with animals from prehistory, from dinosaurs to large insects and gigantic crustaceans."

Ferocious kicks things off with a simple premise that we’ve seen plenty of times before, especially in something like the Far Cry series. You, along with your brother, find yourselves shipwrecked on a strange island, and the two of you are the only survivors. While this island looks like it could be any one of the thousands of uninhabited islands in the world, it is in fact one that time has seemingly forgotten.

Rather than the typical wildlife you might expect, the entire place is filled with animals from prehistory, from dinosaurs to large insects and gigantic crustaceans. And to make matters worse, in the chaos of your shipwreck, you got separated from your brother and he has been captured by another group of humans that seems to have their own agenda with the island. Armed with little more than sticks, scraps of cloth and bones you find near the shore, it is now up to you to find and rescue your brother and figure out a way off this island.

That’s about the extent of how complex the story of Ferocious really gets. There isn’t really much to it here aside from “go there and kill some people who might know where your brother is”. Things do open a fair bit after a few hours, and we do get more characters, but we never really end up getting answers to some burning questions, like why this island still has dinosaurs on it, what’s up with the ancient seemingly-human ruins all over the place, and why is a well-equipped private military company setting up bases all over the place.

"Ferocious calls itself a “survival shooter”, but don’t let that label fool you."

While the core story might not be much, it offers enough motivation to get you going and discovering what makes Ferocious truly special – a combination of its core systems and general jank that ultimately leads to some surprisingly satisfying gameplay. Ferocious calls itself a “survival shooter”, but don’t let that label fool you. You aren’t going to be building your own shelter or foraging for food. Rather, the “survival” aspect largely comes down to its crafting system. Throughout your time on the mysterious island, you’ll find plenty of flora to forage and fauna to kill and skin. Using these, you get to craft most of the things you will need in your quest to save your brother, from healing bandages to throwing spears, pouches to carry extra ammo, and even an entire holster that lets you carry multiple weapons.

This crafting system also serves as the core progression system in Ferocious. There aren’t any skill trees to climb; rather, just about every major boost in power comes from your crafting abilities, like giving you more effective health by allowing you to craft and equip more and more armour made out of monster chitin, or simply giving you more destructive capabilities by letting you carry more bullets, grenades and spears. Just about every one of these aspects tie into the core action-packed gameplay.

And the action definitely feels like it was where most of the attention during the game’s development went. As you start taking on the human foes, you’ll start getting your hands on a variety of weapons, all drawing from the real world, from pistols to shotguns and rifles. While levels are laid out in a way as to let you figure out your own approach, however, OMYOG has made it clear through gameplay decisions that stealth isn’t really the main style of gameplay here; rather, you are encouraged to maybe take out one or two enemies in a camp out through melee before then going in guns-blazing..

"OMYOG has made it clear through gameplay decisions that stealth isn’t really the main style of gameplay here"

Taking a break from the action, there are also the rare moments where you get to explore the world and solve some puzzles. These never really get more complex than “find the right button to open the gate”, and even if the possibilities for more complicated puzzles open up when you get a device that lets you control some of the smaller dinosaurs. However, even then, the puzzles end up being getting the dinosaur into the right hole in the wall to get to the right door-opening switch. As an aside, the same dino controlling device also lets you sic the tiny dinosaurs on enemies, but it often tends to feel less satisfying than just picking up your favourite gun instead.

When it comes to the action, only the humans feel like interesting enemies to take on. Sure, the dinosaurs and other creatures are great, especially in how they look, but they don’t really have much going on in terms of their AI. All non-human enemies will do little more than just charge straight at you at full speed, giving you plenty of chances to just side-step and shoot them in the back. And this is also how many of the fights are designed in general; an early example involves taking on a monstrously-large crab, and your tactical options basically boil down to kiting it in a circle around the arena while you chuck grenades at it.

Human enemies, on the other hand, tend to try and employ some tactics once they feel like they’re under attack. They’ll take cover, they’ll try to use flanking maneuvers, and they’ll even start lobbing a grenade or two at you to try and get you out of cover. This, along with the fact that they tend to be much better equipped to deal with your general strategy thanks to their weapons, means that they are often a lot more interesting to fight. This is doubly true for the mechas you sometimes have to take on, which serve as rare mini-bosses for the larger human bases in the game. Fights in general can feel quite dynamic, thanks to the fact that guns have the tendency to shred through weak wooden cover, so you are constantly encouraged to be on the move.

"Fights in general can feel quite dynamic, thanks to the fact that guns have the tendency to shred through weak wooden cover, so you are constantly encouraged to be on the move."

Even the human enemies aren’t without their own problems, however. They often suffer from short-term memory loss and forget your position quite quickly if they haven’t seen you in 20 seconds, and they can also find themselves getting stuck on some level geometry, leaving them to be essentially sitting ducks. In the rare instances where you get to take on humans and dinosaurs at the same time, the AI for both of them tends to break apart thanks to them being confused about how to prioritise, even if you haven’t directly started engaging with them. This also means that we can sometimes see dinosaurs and humans in the same zone chilling and minding their own business until you get spotted.

A similar juxtaposition of quality and jank can also be seen in the visuals of Ferocious. It is a downright gorgeous game, and it’s well aware of this fact. It will gladly provide you with gorgeous vistas so that you have something pretty to look at while you’re running around. However, elements of the visuals also have the tendency of suffering from pop-in. And make no mistake, the PC used to review the game is well over the recommended specs – an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, 32 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, and a Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU. Despite this, there were also occasional dips in the frame rate, especially when you loaded into a new zone. These dips didn’t last for too long, but they did contribute quite a bit in making the gameplay feel choppier than it should have.

Generally speaking, Ferocious is an ambitious title for a smaller studio; it looks downright gorgeous, and the gameplay tends to be fun most of the time. However, the few bits of jank in visuals sometimes popping in, the occasional frame drops, and enemies essentially losing their AI definitely indicate that the title could have used some more time to get polished. Despite this, however, it is difficult to deny just how much fun Ferocious can often be. When it’s firing on all cylinders, the game feels like an absolute power fantasy depending on how well you’ve equipped yourself, and the scale of the enemy forces. Thankfully, since all it really needs is a bit of polish, future updates will definitely end up making Ferocious a much better game than it is now.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Premise

Imagine this: a game where you’re shipwrecked on a mysterious island crawling with dinosaurs. Not exactly an untapped premise, but Ferocious twists it on its head in subtle ways. While a majority of games with this set-up take on a survival sandbox structure, Ferocious leans into storytelling and a linear progression. Your missing brother is just one of the narrative threads guiding the game’s intriguing setting. A dinosaur island with emotional stakes? Count me in.

Dinosaurs, Mercenary Gangs, and Mechas, Oh My

The variety of dinosaurs are one of the game’s principal attractions, but they’re not the only threat you’ll face on the island–far from it. You see, The island isn’t nearly as abandoned as you first believe. There are other people lurking about, mercenaries as well as military personnel with drones at their disposal. When you aren’t running for your life from towering prehistoric creatures, you’re taking cover in the middle of tense shootouts against para-military agents and even bi-pedal mechs (yes, this game has mechs).

Controlling Dinos To Attack Opponents

That said, it’s possible to use some threats to your advantage, particularly the island’s dinosaurs–at least, some of them. Using dino control device on certain dinosaurs will bait them into attacking human enemies hunting you down. Aside from dinos fighting by your side, they can sniff out items in the environment and bring them to you, adding a strategic layer to some battles. Oh, and that blocked passageway or locked door? No problem for a dinosaur under the dino control device’s influence.

A Variety of Species

Ferocious features a wide range of dinosaur species. Some graze the fields and tend to themselves while others are instantly hostile (ferocious, you might say). Not every dino can be controlled though, and plenty aren’t capable of being defeated (at least by conventional means). Ferocious takes a more creative direction when it comes to dinosaur designs. They’re said to resemble our real-life conception of dinosaurs, but not to an scientifically accurate degree. The dev team stresses the fun element of dinosaurs above accuracy, so expect some wild designs fit for an imaginative video game.

Not Open World

These dinosaurs and mech encounters aren’t strictly scripted, but they don’t roam around a huge open-world either. The island is segmented across a half-dozen districts—open-ended zones with clear boundaries. The game also has more linear main objectives than one would come to expect from the ‘stranded island’ premise. The structure is directly influenced by classics like early Far Cry and Crysis 1, blending freedom with more directed objectives.

Five Unique Biomes

There are five distinct districts across the dino-filled island that have been confirmed so far. You begin on the coastline, a tutorial area with some secret coves and boisterous weather. And then there’s the labyrinthian canyons, lowlands, grassy plains, and even a jungle. Each area has a unique level design ethos which changes up gameplay.

Obstacles and Terrain

One of the creative ways the studio seeks to change up gameplay is through obstacles. One example of this is using dinosaurs to open paths. There’s also some environments that must be destroyed in order to advance through, such as thick vines. I’d be surprised if there weren’t a good amount of environmental puzzles scattered throughout the island.

Semi-Destructible Environments

Destruction isn’t just limited to set-piece obstacles. Grass can catch fire and weak cover will get destroyed during firefights. The team has made it a priority to make the environment feel dynamic through its destructive qualities, though given the limited budget, not everything is fully destructible. Weather is a part of that dynamic equation as well. The island will see rainfall, heavy wind, as well as a day/night cycle, though weather doesn’t have any survival mechanics involved, as the studio has pointed out.

Environmental Storytelling

Environments also help tell the story. The studio made it a point to ensure the island feels like a lived-in place with prior history. Abandoned camps and mysterious ruins of lost civilizations are said to be featured. Expect to find cryptic journal entries dotting the nooks and crannies as well.

Weapons and Combat

The studio wants to feature 12 guns at launch. Unlike the liberal interpretation of the dinos, the guns here are rather historical and will be familiar to any FPS enthusiast. There’s your standard handguns like the 9mm and on the desert eagle on more powerful end. There’s SMGs like the MP5, AK assault rifles, Remington shotguns, sniper rifles, and a flamethrower to light windswept plains ablaze. In addition to guns, throwable objects like grenades, as well as melee knives are available to use on the island’s hostile denizens.

Upgrades

You’ll want to pay close attention to gun durability since weapons degrade over time and may even get jammed. Upgrades are also a major component to the gameplay of Ferocious. Though the studio has made it clear that silencers aren’t in the game due to the de-emphasis on stealth. But attachments such as laser sights, folding stocks, and scopes can be freely equipped across various guns.

Single-Player

There doesn’t have to be a lot of balancing involved in customization thanks to the total lack of multiplayer in Ferocious. This is a conscious decision, as the team is laser-focused on delivering a narrative-driven FPS campaign, albeit with some more open-ended survival elements sprinkled in.

Indie Studio

Speaking of the studio, they are an indie team composed of just a handful of devs. They’ve brought in a Far Cry veteran along with designers from the film and theme park industries, helping carve out a strong visual and thematic identity for the island.

Runs on Unity

To my surprise, the game runs on the Unity engine. It looks like a AAA production with the realistic weather and destructible environments, so it’s very impressive what they’ve done with such a small team and limited budget.

PC Requirements

And it shouldn’t take the most expensive PC in the world to run as a result, though you will need a fairly beefy rig to get the most out of Ferocious. The minimum specs are very reasonable, hovering around an aging but reliable Intel i5 (or AMD equivalent), 12 GB of RAM, and a GTX 1060 or RX 580—hardware many PC players probably already have lying around. But if you want Ferocious to truly shine, with its weather effects, dense foliage, and destructible cover pushed to the max, you’ll want to step up to something closer to an i7 or Ryzen 5 3600 paired with an RTX 2060 or RX 5600. Either way, the game remains modest in storage demands at around 25 GB, making it refreshingly lightweight for a title with such ambitious visuals.

There’s no word on a price for Ferocious, but we don’t expect the $69 tag due to the indie scale of the project. This dino island FPS adventure releases real soon, December 4th to be exact, and it’s available on PC with no console plans at the moment.

Announced in 2023, the story revolves around overcoming an island teeming with dinosaurs (and the odd mercenary or two). While navigating the terrain and managing your resources is essential, there’s also a “dino control device,” which can be used to manipulate the dinosaurs to fight for you.

Interestingly, they can also acquire items from a distance or even bypass different obstacles. It even takes into account how some species will more readily yield to your manipulation. Does that mean you should approach that massive Tyrannosaurus Rex and turn them into your personal mount? Well, no. It’s worth a try, though.

Check out some more gameplay for Ferocious here. Publisher tinyBuild has yet to announce the price, so stay tuned for more details.

The core crux of the story in Ferocious revolves around the player getting shipwrecked on a remote island that was seemingly left behind by the passage of time. The island is teeming with prehistoric creatures that were long thought to have gone extinct, including not only dinosaurs, but also other creatures like giant crabs that can kill a human in a single swipe of their claws.

Throughout their time on the island, the player will be in contact with an unnamed woman who is seemingly trying to help them. This character notes that the animals that the player faces aren’t the biggest threat on the island. Rather, more dangerous is the presence of Manifesto—a shady corporation that is seemingly armed to the teeth with high tech weaponry, and has several bases all over the island. While their goals are currently unknown, the protagonist isn’t interested in fighting them; he just wants to find his brother and escape.

Along with the main story setup, the trailer for Ferocious also gives us a look at some bits of gameplay, including the fact that the player will seemingly be able to befriend some of the smaller dinosaurs that they encounter. Players will have access to a wide arsenal of weapons as they take on the forces of Manifesto, as well as some of the more hostile wildlife that they encounter.

During the course of a fight, players can also make use of the ecosystem around to, for example, lure in a giant triceratops to wreak havoc on a Manifesto base while the players themselves sneak around, enemy soldiers being completely oblivious to their presence.

Along with revealing all of this data, the trailer has also confirmed that players can try the game out for themselves thanks to a beta that is available on Steam. The demo has been available since last month’s Steam Next Fest, and has already been quite popular, with the studio noting that some players even played it for more than ten hours.

When Ferocious was originally announced, the studio had noted that its biggest influences for the title were classic monster movies like King Kong and Jurassic Park. The game, as noticed by the trailer, also takes quite a bit of inspiration from the earlier Far Cry titles in how it gives players quite a bit of freedom to take on challenges.

The studio has also previously noted that there is a lot of focus on realism in Ferocious, especially when it comes to gameplay aspects like survival mechanics. Players will likely have to make sure that their wounds don’t get too bad as they also take on challenges with limited resources and plenty of stealth.