As a child, I was given a massive dinosaur book that was bigger than I was. It was my favourite book, and something I was obsessed with. Then, later on, I fell in love with Jurassic Park (the first one only) and horror movies. As such, I’m pretty much the target audience for Terrible Lizards — the debut game from WDRC Studios, and publishers Digital Pajamas and Behaviour Interactive.
Terrible Lizards, which is set in 1992, begins as a college sophomore named Jordan experiences car trouble on the way back to school after visiting home. Beside him, in the passenger seat, is a letter from his mom who states that she’s proud of him for being on the track and field team, thinks he looks really healthy and loves him despite there being troubles at home. Unfortunately, given the year, there’s no such thing as cellphones.
It just so happens, though, that his car has died right outside of a gas station in the middle of almost nowhere. As such, he’s able to get out and use a pay phone to call the advertised towing company. Unfortunately for him, though, the operator says that they are slammed and will not be able to help until the morning. It’s advised that he finds a motel, but there’s nothing nearby. Well, except for a tourist trap called Dalton’s Dinos, which just so happens to be across the road. It’s awfully quiet outside of there, too.
As happens in horror movies, Jordan decides to take refuge in the dinosaur themed tourist trap, which is shockingly massive. Full of fossils and animatronics, it’s a beautiful and impressive place to learn about and experience dinosaurs —at least in the ways we can these days. However, it’s dark, silent and seemingly empty.
Not long after entering the building, Jordan must climb onto the exhibits and find two halves of a door code, so that he can get into the office and take a token to enter the building proper. It’s shortly afterwards that he discovers that something isn’t right: not only is the place dark, but there’s strange black goo on the floor, and a mascot costume seems to have disappeared. Then, he notices someone dressed as a dinosaur scurrying away. They don’t look too healthy.
This opening segment does a really good job of setting up what is, at times, a really awesome and cool game. It has great atmosphere, and couldn’t be more intriguing. Things truly felt like I’d walked into such a tourist trap, or dinosaur museum if you’d prefer, and the campy projected movie starring its two founders (a husband and his wife) added to this. However, all is not right at Dalton’s Dinos. The place has seen better days, the power is out in places and there’s evidence that a kid was hidden away in an alcove with a tent, sleeping bag, TV and classic video game console.
What you need to know most about Terrible Lizards is that it isn’t just a typical horror game, or a walking simulator. This is a parkour game with climbing and platforming mechanics, akin to Mirror’s Edge, but it has no combat. That was a game that I rented and beat when it came out, but found very tedious and kind of boring after a while. I’d hoped that wouldn’t be the case with this game, especially with how great it began. Unfortunately, issues started to appear, and repetition set in, meaning that I didn’t love this one as much as I’d hoped to. It was good, but not great, and a lot of that has to do with unfortunate bugs.
The general gameplay loop found within this game involves moving through linear sections, then entering a large, open, area and having to find a way to get out, and progress. This means completing objectives, like restoring power, finding keys, looking for numerical keypad codes and obtaining token(s). On multiple occasions, it also involves finding TNT, setting it up and then pushing the detonation plunger, or finding fuses and putting them into the proper fuse box in order to turn something on or open a door.
In order to complete the aforementioned objectives, and get through these locations, the player must run, jump, climb and slide their way around. Terrible Lizards uses a yellow paint motif to show which fake trees, boxes, platforms, boards, etc. can be climbed onto or across, and that’s a good thing because it prevents too much player frustration. It’s easy to excuse, given that these environments can be so massive, and the chase sequences are so fast.
Later on, the game also introduces additional mechanics, like swinging, wall running and bouncing. These combine with the more traditional first-person platforming and parkour mechanics. All of the above are good, and mostly well designed. Things don’t always work as intended, though, leading to some missed grabs, frustrating deaths and retries. For instance, there was one horizontal bar that Jordan wouldn’t grab until I tried jumping to it for the third time.
Early on, dying from a fall is almost unheard of. That changes later on, but the respawn mechanic is very fast and generous, meaning you’ll generally always restart right in front of the platforming challenge you died during, or near where you were killed. However, there were too many occasions where I had to reload my last save, which didn’t provide as generous of a checkpoint and set me back a bit much. This was because of glitches that prevented scripted things from happening and/or blocked progression.
In the first ‘level,’ or location, there’s a massive gift shop. The goal is to find fuses and activate lights while being chased by an amazing looking prehistoric creature. I did this, but nothing happened. When I reloaded my save and tried again, I discovered that the beast was supposed to destroy things and that would help me progress. Not long afterwards, I was supposed to use the destruction to get back to the basement door. Although I’d previously opened that door, its keypad wanted the code again, and wouldn’t accept it when I put it in. Sometimes, the keypad wouldn’t even work. After I reloaded my save, I discovered that the door was supposed to just be open, allowing me to run through it and escape.
These weren’t the only major glitches and bugs that I experienced. To be honest, there were a shocking and frustrating amount of them, including having to close the game and restart it because the pre-game brightness correction screen wouldn’t function. They made what could have been a much more enjoyable game kind of frustrating, although I still enjoyed it. Just not as much as I would have otherwise.
When I first took a break to go to the bathroom, I was only gone for five minutes and simply left the game running. However, when I went back to the room, the Xbox was on its dashboard because the game had crashed. It suddenly crashed again later on.
Add onto this a number of times where I got stuck and couldn’t move. The first occurred when I went upwards on a ladder instead of downwards. It was unfortunately not an uncommon thing.
Terrible Lizards isn’t just about exploring environments. There are also times where one will have to run away from deadly and massive dinosaurs, making sure to jump and clamber over obstacles when needed. This changes things up. These are the times where you’re chased by monsters, so it doesn’t happen from start to finish throughout this game’s six to eight hour-long runtime. You’ll always feel dread, and wonder what’s hiding in the shadows, but won’t always be running for your life.
There are also open areas where you must complete tasks (TNT finding, fuse locating, etc.) while being stalked. These aren’t difficult sections, but they aren’t that well designed either.
The campaign also isn’t just set inside of Dalton’s Dinos, as thought and expected. That amazing setting is only really used as the first level of four, which was disappointing to me. As the story progresses, Jordan learns more about what is a shockingly big business, which became larger after discoveries were made while excavating. You see, the Dalton’s Dinos business was built in this part of the American Midwest because its owners found fossils, and built around them. Things go much deeper than that, though, and there are massive tunnels and mining operations underneath. As such, a surprising amount of this game sees Jordan running, climbing, swinging, bouncing and jumping through caverns, many of which look very similar. It’s too bad that the developers designed a massive tourist trap full of animatronics and fossils, and limited lighting, then didn’t use it much. The whole game should have been set in Dalton’s Dinos proper, or at least three quarters of it, because it’s such a good and creepy setting.
The pacing also has some issues, and tedium does set in. Honestly, the two are likely related. While the idea behind this game is great, it doesn’t nail the execution, and it has the player doing the same things (like searching for fuses or TNT) too often. That said, I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t like it, or that it’s a bad game, but I definitely thought it would have been better based on the great start. This is a pretty good game. It’s just flawed, and not great.
Along the way, players who take their time and explore thoroughly (as I tried to) will find letters, notes and articles written by employees and others. They flesh out a story about a difficult working environment, troubles with a business decision made by the owner and startling discoveries. The story is somewhat interesting, but nothing special. Jordan also isn’t much of a memorable character, though he serves the purpose. His only stakes in the plot involve trying to survive and get back to civilization, even if his means of transportation are broken down. However, he does get caught up in what’s going on, and the desire to help.
Jordan isn’t alone, although he is in person. You see, he picks up a ringing phone and meets a woman named Stella, who is one of the higher ups at Dalton’s massive operation. Stella tells him to grab a headset, and then the two are able to call and speak to each other, despite it being the year 1992, and Jordan spending a lot of time far underground. Then again, this is a game that features living dinosaurs.
Honestly, I’m torn about how I feel about this game. I stand by what I said about it being pretty good, but I was also frustrated by its bugs and issues, and disappointed that it didn’t take full advantage of a phenomenal setting that possesses great atmosphere. What started off as being one of the coolest games I’d ever played was let down and marred by unfortunate technical difficulties, occasional mechanical issues and repetition/tedium. Still, it’s certainly worth playing, and I’d welcome another like it.
Earlier in this review, I noted that the Dalton’s Dinos environment looked great. I also mentioned that the first dinosaur that you encounter looks amazing. This is a common theme throughout this game, outside of the repetitive cavern environments and crashes. This is a nice looking experience, with lots of detail and individuality, but the opening level is best in every way.
The lighting is good, and the game generally runs well when it doesn’t crash or glitch. That is, apart from two almost unplayable sections near the end, where the framerate drops to almost zero while jumping from one crumbling platform to another. This caused me to die and have to repeat them a number of times. I’m hoping that patches will soon address those issues, though, and that they’ll be able to help make this title what it was intended to be.
Sound-wise, things are also pretty good. The voice acting is alright, and the atmosphere is good. Things get especially tense when you’re being chased by a massive dinosaur.
This is a campy experience though. The environments are filled with mascots (like an animated pterodactyl whose figures can be found as Easter eggs), stuffed animals, cardboard cutouts and motivational posters for employees. There are also full motion video ‘cutscenes’ that were filmed in actual caverns, and add to the authenticity. These are sometimes watched on old TVs via a VCR, but are mostly viewed through an old-fashioned camcorder that still seems to be too modern for 1992. It’s much smaller than the massive thing my parents owned.
At the end of the day, Terrible Lizards is a pretty good game that could have been better, had it not been so buggy and repetitive, and if it had remained in its best environment. It’s a fun and campy romp that provides a nice change of pace, but it has some issues.
This review is based on the XBOX Series X version of the game, which we were provided. It’s also available on GamePass.