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26 May, 2015

The Game We’ve Waited Over 200 Million Years For Was Made In 14 Days - Theropods Review

With Jurassic World around the corner and Primal Carnage on its way, we’re reigniting our love for terrible lizards starting with Theropods

Made during the 14 day Adventure Jam, Theropods is Seething Swarm’s shout out to games long buried under nostalgic sediment, like The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of The Tentacle, and also a love letter to the Triassic age.

A classic point-and-click adventure, Theropods begins with the player character, a resourceful red-head, and her witch doctor buddy relaxing by the campfire. The chill-fest is promptly ruined by a gang of velociraptors that chase the witch doctor off into the woods and our nimble heroine up a tree. You must use every item at your disposal and interact with the environment to rescue your skull-faced pal without being gored, trampled or chewed.

The game is short, no doubt, but what matters is how much Seething Swarm manage to cram into the short-lived experience. It has enough polish to feel like a demo for a larger game. Other than a few small issues with direction (once or twice I resorted to desperately clicking the entire screen), the puzzles are actually kind of awesome. To save holding your hand by throwing some text on the screen, visual and audio cues are sometimes given to let you know you’re on the right or wrong track.

For example, one early situation has you stuck in a tree with a velociraptor nipping at your heels. The way out clearly has something to do with a weathered branch hanging over a campfire, but my character kicks the branch to no avail. Amid the thunderous thwack the kick makes, I hear a slight crack– encouraging me to try again. After a few solid boots the branch finally come free and bursts into flames below. Other audio cues, like grunts, do a good job of letting you know when you’ve hit a dead end.

Theropods ends on a bitter sweet note, both in story and in the sense that I was happy to have experienced it but left wanting much more. Seething Swarm have given no word on whether they’ll dig deeper into the Theropods universe, but whatever their next project is, I’ll have my ears to the ground and fingers crossed in the hope that it’s a dinosaur themed point-and-click adventure.

It's a flash game, so you can play it right now here.

For more on Primal Carnage, check out world exclusive making of interview and preview in Episode 8 of Grab It.

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