|| PREVIEW || Dinosaur Fossil Hunter (PC)

Developed By : Pyramid Games Published By : Pyramid Games / PlayWay
Genre : Action, Adventure, Simulation
Release Date : "Coming Soon 2020"

I can't remember how long ago it was when this game came on my radar. What I do remember is scrolling past it on Steam and knowing how much my son would love it with how much he loves dinosaurs. It was hard to tell too much from the limited shots of the game at the time, but it had already looked like a nice new approach on the wave of simulation games that have been sweeping the game world. And while this isn't the full release of the game yet, I was more than excited to jump into a demo of Dinosaur Fossil Hunter.

The game follows the premise of you running your own museum, putting on exhibit all of the fossils that you find on your excavation adventures. But before you can head out to go exploring, you are treated to your own backstory, sharing your love for dinosaurs and how you've been obsessed your entire life. Back to when you were four and would draw them all the time, finding your first fossil (and then losing it) and even assembling dinosaur model kits.

Then, you find yourself on a dig, the demo's only level. In your inventory, you'll see that you have the majority of pieces for a fossil collection, but you're missing a few sections. Luckily, you've come to the right place, but it's gonna take some work. First, you'll need to transport yourself to the excavation site, driving your vehicle around rocks, through mud, and needing to remove trees or large boulders that block your path so you can get to the site and erect your work space tent.

Next, you'll need to use your ground-penetrating radar all around the site to find exactly where the fossils could be located. Then it's time to dig down and find the rocks which contain fossils inside of them so you can coat them in plaster and transport them back to your main tent...but that's not all. Remember, you run a museum! So it's time to head back so you can clean and assemble the bones. Once back at the museum it's all about breaking the rocks open, finding the pieces of fossil inside so you can brush them, grind them, clean them and assemble them and eventually put them on display in your museum.

I was extremely pleased with the demo for Dinosaur Fossil Hunter. I honestly wasn't expecting it to cover so much. In my mind, I didn't the game would entail much more than just traveling to various places and using a bunch of equipment to locate and uncover fossils. Being in charge of my own museum was a really cool aspect to this, even at the very end. After you completely assemble the fossilized dinosaur, you get to fully create the exhibit yourself. Determine it's placement, as well as what sort of ground surface you want inside and any decorations to help bring the piece to life.

One thing's for sure, this game looks like it could be a lot of fun for just about anybody. I highly anticipate keeping this on the menu for when I get back into afternoon streams and have Leon with me. The full release of this title should be great and I can't wait.