Theropods Review

Lost Token’s Theropods is the kind of video game whose history is arguably more interesting than the title itself. What began as something resembling a game-jam project eventually evolved into a small indie production, and then into a decade-long journey from a simple idea to a fully realised point-and-click adventure. It is the culmination of years of pixel-by-pixel artwork, animation, experimentation, and an almost obsessive commitment to visual storytelling. Too bad the end result leaves a lot to be desired.

The intro opens with a tiny, cute, red-haired prehistoric girl wandering through a peaceful forest. A minute later, everything changes: a gigantic dinosaur attacks, devouring her mother as her father grabs her and runs. She wakes from the frightening memory years later, now a young huntress. Soon, she heads out on a hunt, tracking down a Parasaurolophus-like creature in this strange fictional prehistory where humans and dinos coexist. Then a mysterious object, seemingly a comet, falls from the sky. Its arrival attracts a group of hostile humans who enslave her people. And, as if things weren’t strange enough already, a mysterious spaceman crash-lands nearby.

The woman wants to save her village, the alien wants its crystal, and thus begins an unlikely alliance between a prehistoric hunter and someone from a technologically advanced realm or time. On paper, that sounds like the setup for a wonderfully bizarre adventure. Sadly, very little of it is exciting. The opening tragedy? Forgettable. The hunt of a freaking dinosaur? Unremarkable. The alien? Just another character.

Theropods essentially consists of two halves: its point-and-click puzzle solving and its storytelling. Unfortunately, the gameplay is so simple – practically designed for complete genre newbies – that the narrative is charged with doing the heavy lifting…and fails at it. Everything feels strangely distant. People are suffering; dangerous creatures with sharp teeth wander around; intriguing science-fiction concepts in a Stone Age setting…and somehow, it is difficult to care about any of it or find it to be intriguing. Generally, Theropods looks so much better than it feels. The characters are visually expressive, but they often come across less like people you can become attached to and more like beautifully animated figures moving through a predetermined story.

The pixel art is undoubtedly the star of the show. Every environment is packed with tiny details, the prehistoric landscapes have a pleasant sense of atmosphere, and the animation is often remarkably fluid for a pixel-art adventure. That said, this isn’t exactly the most impressive pixel art you’ll ever see. Its ultra low-resolution aesthetic can sometimes work against it, making certain scenes look overly simplistic rather than charmingly retro. Still, after so many years of development, it is obvious where a huge portion of that time went. There is an extraordinary amount of care in the presentation, even if the visual style itself won’t appeal to everyone.

A beautiful game still needs to be fun to play, and this is where Theropods becomes even harder to defend. The puzzles generally lack that satisfying “Aha!” moment. The challenge isn’t so much figuring out what the solution is as it is understanding which sequence of actions one is expected to perform. Most puzzles fall into one of two categories: “use X and Y on Z” or “do X, but at exactly the right time.” Finding the solution can therefore feel less like deduction and more like trial and error.

When you finally succeed, the reaction is often less “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” and more “Oh, so that’s what was needed.” You spend a lot of time examining the environment, collecting objects, and experimenting with what can be combined with what, but rarely feel like you’ve genuinely outsmarted the game – and that’s a problem. The best titles in the genre make players feel like they’ve solved a riddle. Theropods too often makes you feel like you’re testing combinations until something works.

Theropods has all the ingredients for something wonderfully strange and striking, yet it never quite manages to bring those ingredients together. Instead of a riveting adventure, you get a series of pretty scenes connected by puzzles. That leaves Theropods in an awkward position. It is very easy to appreciate the hard work the developer has done, while being much harder to appreciate the end result. The craftsmanship is obvious. The ambition is obvious. The affection for classic adventure games is obvious. What is less obvious is the reason to keep playing once the novelty of the art and the premise begins to wear off.

There is a fascinating game buried somewhere inside this, one where all its otherwise cool elements could blend in the way they should. Unfortunately, this isn’t it. It’s a visually charming but emotionally distant and mechanically underwhelming experience. At roughly three hours long (and no longer), too, there simply isn’t much time for Theropods to overcome those shortcomings. When the credits roll, the strongest feeling is likely to be “Meh. What’s next?”