Game Review: Dinosaur Fossil Hunter

This game could easily have been titled Zen and the Art of Cleaning Dinosaur Bones. Dinosaur Fossil Hunter (“DFH”), by Pyramid Games, falls into a category of game which has become more popular recently, which I've come to call Prosaic Sims. These kinds of games are focused on completing repetitive, often mundane tasks, which have been simplified just enough to allow the player to lose themselves in the tasks and achieve a sort of meditation. I first encountered this kind of gameplay in Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior, though there may be earlier examples. These days, there are plenty of Prosaic Sim games to choose from, all with different themes, including other titles from Pyramid Games such as Soviet Space Engineers and Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator. Prosaic Sims aren't for everyone, but I find them calming and enjoyable. In order to stand out from the pack these days, each new game has to differentiate itself, and DFH has some tricks up its sleeve to do just that. 

The first thing you notice when playing DFH is that everything is slower than a “normal” game. The player is held to a deliberate pace, one that right away puts you into an intentionally down-tempo mindset. Gameplay itself is surprisingly detailed and varied, and the large volume of tasks that need attention from the player helps to sell the immersion. You aren't immediately transported to a dig site or museum, but instead given a utility vehicle to drive to your dig site. Terrain can vary, with tight spaces to navigate, muddy roads where you'll need to switch on 4 wheel drive, and obstacles like fallen trees or rocks that you'll need to clear to get to the site. You even need to watch your fuel gauge as it’s possible to run out of gas while driving if you're not careful. Once on location, the player must set up their dig perimeter, and only then can you start searching for fossils. 

Searching involves a number of tools for locating and then digging up the rocks containing fossils, securing them for transport, and then loading them into your vehicle to move them back to your main base. Once you return to base, fossils can be automatically transported to the museum where the actual cleaning and assembly into skeletons can begin. Finally, you're also given the chance to design your own exhibits with your newly assembled skeletons. 

What really lets this game shine is how much there is to do. Where other meditative games can get stale as the sameness becomes too boring, DFH throws enough variety at you to keep you playing. Right as one task is becoming boring, the game gives you something different to do. 

This is by no means a perfect game. The tutorial left a lot of questions that could have been answered about controls, and the interface can be hard to use for certain tasks. At one point, I was trying to assemble an arm and half of the wrist bones were outside of my visual range but I couldn't get the camera to point at the bones that were left. I also found myself often unsure why I was doing what I was doing, though it was clear what the next task was. It would have been nice to have the game give me information about the tasks I was performing. I'm sure someone who knows all about Paleontology would know right away why they were squirting fossil bones with a spray bottle, but as someone who knows very little about the process, it was just another task on the checklist for me when it would have been more immersive to know why I was doing what I was doing. 

That said, DFH is in pre-early access and the developers are still adding content and ironing out bugs. It's hard to say how the game will change by the time it's released into early access, or full release. If you enjoy meditative games, or just like the thought of playing out your paleontologist fantasies, keep an eye on this game and check it out once it hits early access.

Dinosaur Fossil Hunter on Steam

-The Clever Coyote