Dinosaurs rule. The prehistoric creatures have long dominated media even before the colossal Jurassic Park. In video games, we’ve seen our fair share of dinos in recent years, but The Lost Wild looks to offer a fresh experience that leans heavily into survival horror. After quite a few years of silence following its reveal in July 2022, we have finally seen a new look at The Lost Wild.
This year at Summer Game Fest: Play Days, I had the chance to attend a hands-off preview session for the game. If I had to describe The Lost Wild, I’d take Jurassic Park, Alien Isolation, a giant mystery, and throw them all together. Dinosaur fans are seemingly in for a treat, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of this game, hopefully sometime soon.
In my 30-minute hands-off demo, the main protagonist, Saskia, wakes up in a strange place after a car crash, quickly finding out that she is among dinosaurs. The environments are dense and jungle-filled, with all kinds of shrubs and trees to navigate around. As the presenter walked forward, we quickly encountered a dinosaur that did not hesitate to eat a human and start sniffing for another. The Lost Wild is heavily focused on exploration, as the game uses this to tell its narrative. You can expect to encounter different items as you traverse the environment that help paint a picture of what exactly is going on here.
Gameplay is largely focused on exploring the island and navigating & avoiding dinosaurs. Developer Great Ape Games shared in our preview session that the goal of The Lost Wild is to put you into the shoes of the prey. What would it be like if you were all alone and the prey of countless dinosaur species? At least based on the gameplay I saw, the game does a really good job at building that tension and putting you into situations where you almost don’t want to step out of the bush you’re hiding in.
I was only able to see one species of dinosaur, the Allosaurus, but the team shared that there are many in the full game—and each of them behaves differently. There has been attention to detail on not just making these dinos hunt you, but also to behave as they would in real life. The Allosaurus, for example, isn’t there just to hunt Saskia in the demo. It only becomes aware of her if she is out in the open for too long, which then grabs its attention and makes it start chasing.
From there, it’s up to you on how to distract it. The player for the demo used a few bottles to throw in the distance, then book it and pray the Allosaurus wouldn’t catch on. There were a few accidental deaths mixed in, and each time, the Allosaurus did move and react slightly differently, so, in theory, you can’t game the system or anything like that. The Lost Wild aims to really make you understand these dinosaurs and the way they live and interact with the environment. I find that to be a nice twist to the survival horror.
Overall, I like what I’ve seen so far of The Lost Wild. I am curious to see how different each dinosaur interaction is going to be, in addition to what kind of puzzles will be thrown your way. The almost cat-and-mouse gameplay loop has a lot of potential if done right. The overall premise is interesting, too, as I’ve been wondering why exactly Saskia found herself on this island and why much of the language there seems to be Japanese. It’s always good to see a new survival horror game, and based on what I’ve seen so far, The Lost Wild is one to keep your eye on next year.
The Lost Wild is scheduled to release in 2027 across PlayStation 5 and PC.
