We have all either been kids or known kids obsessed with dinosaurs. Over the past few years, it feels like dinosaurs have come close to reentering the zeitgeist. Last week during the PlayStation State of Play, Annapurna Interactive and Great Ape Games unveiled The Lost Wild which is a survival horror game where you must avoid carnivorous dinosaurs. At Summer Games Fest, we got to see the game in action, and, while still early, is setting up a dino filled horror experience.
The developer described The Lost Wild as a cinematic evasion horror game where combat is something that cannot be done. The game follows protagonist Saskia as she awakens on a mysterious island after a car crash with no recollection of how it happen nor how she arrived there. Thus, she must escape the island and all the hungry dinosaurs that inhabit it. The developers stressed that they wanted the dinosaurs in the game to feel like real animals instead of giant monsters that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in media portrayals. They even studied dinosaur behavior as well as modern predatory animals to accomplish this.
Since there is no combat in the game, gameplay focuses on avoiding and hiding from the dinosaurs and Saskia can pick up items such as bottles to distract a dinosaur or lure it away from where she needs to go. Players will also need to be very observant to the environment as it will give clues as to what happened on the island. There is also a strange and empty industrial compound on the island where Saskia meets an unfortunate man who gets eaten by an Allosaurus as well as meeting the other main character Daisuke over the radio. The demo left off with Saskia getting knocked out by a strange energy pulse before it faded to black, thus leaving plenty of intrigue for the story.
The Lost Wild is set to release in 2027 on PlayStation 5 and PC.