In the gaming world, dinosaurs have had a pretty raw deal.
We are either running away from them or shooting them with big guns, seemingly forgetting that these magnificent creatures ruled this world for millions of years before the big extinction. A lot of dinosaurs died of course but finding their remains in terms of fossils is a very rare thing and needs a set of aligned circumstances. Most fossils are found near river beds where the remains were covered in silt and preserved.
In Dinosaur Fossil Hunter you get to be a palaeontologist, hunting for dinosaurs for the local museum.
Dinosaur Fossil Hunter requires you to have patience, setting your mind for a relaxing thoughtful experience. There isn’t anything trying to kill you here, nor is there an enemy to vanquish, except perhaps your lack of desire to keep going.Â
When you start the game you appear in a museum. The bones of dinosaurs are on display and there are little plaques with information about them. We then get introduced, via voice-over, to a 20-something palaeontologist. He talks about finding his first fossil as a child, drawing dot-to-dot dinosaurs and building wood models. This is the narrative and holding frame for the gameplay; it’s simple but an effective tool.
The gameplay runs a mix of basic but original mechanics. For example, in the beginning, you have to take in a dot-to-dot picture of a dinosaur, holding down RT and moving the cursor along lines. The model building sees you picking up bits of the dinosaur model and fitting them together in the right place. This is good practice for later on in the game.Â
Then you have driving, yes, driving. This sees you heading to the excavation site to start looking for fossils; rocks and logs in your way, making the path treacherous. It’s here where you’ll need to get out from behind the wheel, moving into the first person and selecting one of your tools; a chainsaw (for logs) and a sledgehammer (for rocks), splitting it up and heading on your way. You need to keep an eye out on your fuel gauge and mud, occasionally switching to four-wheel drive.
When you get to the excavation site, you set up camp. Now you need to get out a scanner to probe into the earth, hunting around in hope of discovering any interesting dinosaur bones under the rubble. If there is a spot you can start digging. You might be lucky then in all the spots you flagged in finding some bones, packaging your find up and sending it back for more work.
The next step in Dinosaur Fossil Hunter takes place in the museum. Carefully unpacking your find, you’ll get to clean and cut. This is hard work, so it’s good that you can hand this over to the museum staff. I guess you may as well make the most of them. From there, it’s all about putting the bones together to make a dinosaur, designing your display as you go.
Dinosaur Fossil Hunter looks fine and there is some lovely attention to detail in the dot-to-dot drawings, as well as the machinery and gadgets on show. I think the museum looks good too, but it’s a shame that it is so empty. It’s certainly the quietest museum I’ve ever been in.
You’ll find that there are many different elements to Dinosaur Fossil Hunter and in the first runthrough I was gobsmacked at the sheer number of mechanics that were introduced. But this is intricate work at times and your enjoyment of that detail will dictate how well you get on with Dinosaur Fossil Hunter. A struggle with the controls and accuracy sees some frustration, but I do applaud and congratulate the development team for making an original sim game, one that will show you the inner workings of a palaeontologist at work, the behind-the-scenes stuff that we happily walk past in the museum.
Fun and educational is Dinosaur Fossil Hunter. And that may mean it is one you should check out.
