Dino Frontier
Release Date: August 1, 2017
Strategy, RTS, indie games, prehistory, PlayStation VR, VR, PlayStation exclusive, singleplayer
OpenCritic
A unique real time strategy game from Uber Entertainment studio, developed for virtual reality sets. Dino Frontier takes place in alternate Wild West settings, filled not only with cowboys, bandits, sheriffs and locals, but also titular dinosaurs. Players act as the so-called “Great Mayor” managing a village.
Dino Frontier is a unique real time strategy game developed with virtual reality sets in mind. It is a work of Uber Entertainment team, known from its well-received Planetary Annihilation for PC. This title debuted on PS4.
Plot
Dino Frontier presents alternative visions of the Wild West era, with that world inhabited not only by sheriffs, bandits and locals, all trying to survive in harsh environment, but also dinosaurs. Players act as a so-called Big Mayor, overlooking our own settlement.
Game mechanics
Dino Frontier gives players a task of managing a newly built village. Gameplay focuses on gathering resources and steady expansion of a town, the latter growing with more public buildings (saloons) and industrial ones (e.g. sawmills). One of the most important things is role management – a good administrator must pay attention so each denizen will do a proper job. Titular dinosaurs start as major threat, but later they can be tamed, giving players powerful, though dangerous, allies.
Technical aspects
Dino Frontier for PS4 offers good-looking, cartoonish visuals, with both people’s and dinosaurs’ models and surrounding objects delighting with details and rich colors.
The game requires virtual reality goggles, used to look around surroundings by moving player’s head, and dedicated controllers, which move virtual hands on screen that act like cursors. Not only they let players give commands to settlers, but also can move them from place to place, and performing certain gestures will result in zooming the screen in and out.
Last updated on February 13, 2017
Videos and Screens
[1:33] Dino Frontier gameplay trailer #1
[1:20] Dino Frontier PSX 2016 trailer
Metro GameCentral: 4 / 10
The VR immersion is great and the setting certainly has potential, but with no depth or challenge to the gameplay this trumped-up tech demo lacks teeth.
PlayStation LifeStyle: 7.5 / 10 by Chandler Wood
Dino Frontier is an impeccably charming adventure, one that feels like physically playing with a bunch of cowboy figures and plastic dinosaurs. There's the foundation for a really solid and unique simulation builder game, not to mention another great application of virtual reality, but Dino Frontier never plays to its strengths as a game. Building the town and training the dinosaurs ends up being a linear experience without the kind of freedom you would expect from a builder, though still has the charm of opening up a toy box and imagining a world where dinosaurs and cowboys roam the Wild West together.
Push Square: 6 / 10 by Sammy Barker
Dino Frontier's fun for the few hours you'll wring out of it, but it could have been so much more. The game is bursting with brilliant ideas, but it never really evolves any of them, leaving an experience that expires long before the cold clutches of extinction have had an opportunity to arise. It's a shame because with a bit more time in the saloon this could have been a classic – but you may want to wait until it's half-price before pulling the trigger on this release.
Dino Frontier Summary
Platforms:
PlayStation 4
Developer: Uber Entertainment
Publisher: Uber Entertainment
