Have you ever wanted to experience Jurassic Park without all the death and fear? With the growing number of life-sims and farming sims out there, it was only a matter of time before a Dino-raising one popped up. Paleo Pines is a calm, yet complex farming sim that is familiar but unique in a lot of ways.

In Paleo Pines, the world has evolved so that dinosaurs and humans live in harmony. You play a custom character who moves to the charming island known as Paleo Pines. Your goal is to build your own dino sanctuary, while also searching for where your dinosaur companion named Lucky (known as a Parasaurolophus) came from.

The gameplay should be familiar to life-simulation/farming-sim fans. You farm crops to feed various Dinosaurs that you can tame, as well as interact with NPCs. You’ll also be building and decorating your farm/enclosure, and exploring the island. You tame dinosaurs by using a flute to match their call, which allows you to guide them back to your home. Then, you build them a pen with the amenities they require.

This is a relatively involved process. You make sure that there are enough beds, food, and other resources that the dinos require. Of course, you also want to make sure herbivores and carnivores aren’t together, and that everyone gets attention from you every day. You can also ride your dinos around or have them do various tasks on your farm.

Outside of your farm/sanctuary, you can tame dinos, explore, and interact with a variety of NPC’s. Each NPC has a home and will be in a different place each day. Like in Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon there is a day and night cycle, as well as a stamina meter for your character. Your dinosaurs also have Stamina, which increases as they level by doing tasks.

There are a few issues with the gameplay though. Placing decorative items and other items like feed troughs or fences gets to be a little unwieldy at times. Additionally, while there is a day and night cycle, there is no clock on the screen by default. You can open a menu to see what time of day it is, but it doesn’t give you a quick way to glance up and look at the time as you play.

In terms of other issues, NPCs aren’t all that interesting or developed. There are a few quests with each one, but after a while, it just isn’t engaging to interact with them. The tutorials leave a little to be desired as well. While some of the simpler ideas have a full tutorial, some of the complex things aren’t explained well such as how to upgrade/build up the sleeping arrangements for your dinos.

Overall, I like Paleo Pines quite a bit. There is a wealth of dinosaurs to tame, and as far as content goes the game is dense. If you can overlook the lack of certain quality-of-life options and the issues I mentioned above, then I think you’ll be fine. I would look into getting this for any farming sim fan or dino enthusiast in your life.

A PC Review Copy of Paleo Pines was provided by Modus Games for this review.

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Paleo Pines

$29.99 USD

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Colorful, Vibrant Environments
• Involved Dino-Raising gameplay
• Lots of Dinos and Farming Elements
• Lots of Quests and content

Cons

• Building/Decorating is Clunky
• NPCs are a little bland