Prehistoric Kingdom is a new park simulator that allows players to build a prehistoric-themed zoo. While the game's selection of extinct animals consists mostly of dinosaurs, Prehistoric Kingdom stands out by including mammals like Woolly Mammoths in its line-up. The game is published by Crytivo, which has published several other simulator games like Hotel Magnate and Power to the People. Prehistoric Kingdom is the flagship title of indie development team Blue Meridian. Reminiscent of titles like Jurassic World Evolution 2 and Planet Zoo, Prehistoric Kingdom offers players a fresh take on the dinosaur-simulator genre.
Prehistoric Kingdom offers players the opportunity to design and build their own dinosaur park. Like Jurassic World Evolution 2, players can't breed dinosaurs. In Prehistoric Kingdom, the game's 20+ prehistoric animals can be unlocked by spending points at excavation sites around the world. Currently, the game features two modes: Challenge and Sandbox. While crafting their zoo, players can terraform the environment and place foliage from various biomes. The game also allows players to decorate their zoo with pre-built and custom features, like dinosaur statues, viewing platforms, and dinosaur-themed eateries. Like other simulator games, Prehistoric Kingdom's gameplay consists primarily of building and decorating one's zoo, as well as managing animal welfare, finances, and infrastructure.
Although many features one would expect from a simulator game are absent in Prehistoric Kingdom, most of the game's current mechanics are well-polished. Prehistoric Kingdom's character animation is astounding, comparable in quality to Jurassic World Evolution 2's impressive dinosaur graphics. The sound design is impressive, ranging from chirps and squeaks for the littlest creatures to great bellowing roars for the game's larger species. The soundtrack offers players a lively, cheerful backdrop, and the items currently in the game are well-designed. Impressively, Prehistoric Kingdom offers a landscaping feature that allows players to place numerous amounts of selected vegetation at once within a range of sizes and densities.
Like any title in Early Access, Prehistoric Kingdom has some bugs and sources of frustration for players. While the game offers plenty of well-designed decorative items, there are very few items that players can add to habitats for animals to interact with. Prehistoric Kingdom has no staffing mechanic, which means players have to manually refill feeders. Although present, the game's guests are also bare-bones, lacking opinions, or preferences. Ironically, by leaving this mechanic unfinished, Prehistoric Kingdom has managed to avoid one of Planet Zoo's biggest problems in pathing tools, but it's still something that needs fleshing out prior to a full release.
Despite these shortcomings, Prehistoric Kingdom is an enjoyable game for anyone who plays park simulator games like Planet Zoo and Jurassic World Evolution 2. With some growing weary of the Jurassic Park IP, Prehistoric Kingdom offers lovers of extinct species a welcome break from the franchise. Free of the movie tie-ins, fictional species, and character cameos present in Jurassic Park video games, Prehistoric Kingdom allows its animals to shine. Although it's no doubt unfinished in its current state, Prehistoric Kingdom is a charming game that, once complete, has the potential to be an incredible experience for fans of simulation park experiences.
Prehistoric Kingdom is available in Early Access on Steam. Screen Rant received a Steam code for the purposes of this review.
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