Hands-On Preview: Wilderdark is a New Dino Crisis-Inspired Survival Horror

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Playing Wilderdark felt like a mix of Jurassic Park, Dino Crisis, and even a bit of Outer Wilds, but it’s truly its own experience. That’s the impression I kept having! This upcoming survival horror game is from Junkfish, the team behind the well-regarded and terrifying Monstrum.

We got a sneak peek at the game soon after its initial trailer, which sparked a lot of curiosity. Now, everyone can try out an early demo on Steam! After playing for over an hour, it’s clear this game isn’t just copying older titles. It’s built on those classic ideas, but creates something fresh and surprisingly engaging.

The title immediately evokes the feel of 1990s horror, successfully bringing dinosaurs back to their roots in the genre. It delivers the expected, visceral fear of being hunted by these ancient beasts.

What really surprised me about Wilderdark was how well it creates a creepy mood and tells its story in a mysterious way. It’s a prehistoric horror game that’s definitely worth watching – I think it has a lot of potential.

A Leap Into the Unknown

The game Wilderdark lives up to its name – you’ll truly feel lost and unsure of what’s happening from the beginning, both within the game’s world and in terms of understanding the story.

The demo, which appears to showcase the first chapter of the game, gets straight to the point without long cutscenes. You’re quickly given the setup: a scouting team has gone missing in an unexplored area, and you’re tasked with finding them and restoring communication with the research base. (Let’s hope the protagonist is getting paid well for this!)

The game doesn’t ease you in with a typical story introduction. Instead, you start right in the middle of things, facing an improvised camp. This camp serves as a classic ‘safe room’ – a place to read your journal, save your game, and prepare for what’s ahead.

It’s safe to say we definitely need to keep an eye on this prehistoric horror.

The game’s interface and how missions work are first introduced at the camp. You’ll always have a main objective, but lots of smaller tasks will pop up, like taking pictures and collecting plants and animals. This means you can explore and play as a biologist alongside the main story of finding the missing team – it’s a welcome bit of normalcy before things get really scary.

As soon as you leave the safety of the camp, you immediately feel a surge of tension. Wilderdark focuses on building atmosphere and telling its story through the environment, rather than relying on loud music. The quiet of the woods becomes your constant companion, making even the smallest sounds – a rustle of leaves or a twig snapping – incredibly nerve-wracking. Honestly, playing this game was a good test of how well my heart is working!

Putting humor aside, the game’s use of realistic nature sounds is a clever, yet unsettling, design element. You quickly begin to notice that some sounds aren’t quite right, and those faint, heavy footsteps in the distance hint at the presence of ancient predators lurking nearby.

Survival is a Game of Stealth

The game gets really tense when you realize you have to depend on your senses to stay alive – you’re basically trying not to become dinosaur food! The gameplay is simple and intentionally limited, which is typical for survival horror. By making it harder to move and fight, Wilderdark makes the dangers feel much more real and every encounter a true challenge.

The game keeps movement realistic, reflecting that the main character isn’t particularly athletic. You can walk, jump, climb small obstacles, run, and crouch. A helpful feature lets you lean left and right with dedicated buttons, letting you carefully peek around corners to check for danger without fully exposing yourself.

Surviving means carefully managing your limited resources – you can only carry six items – and avoiding direct confrontation with dinosaurs. Stealth is key, and you’ll need to be clever and resourceful! It’s more than just hiding in bushes, though. You can squeeze into tight spaces and climb to higher ground to stay hidden. The environment can also help you: special plants can restore health or even stun dinosaurs, giving you a chance to escape.

This isn’t an action-packed game; it’s the opposite. The sound of footsteps getting closer is already nerve-wracking, but when you hear a scream right behind you, that’s when the real fear sets in.

The demo doesn’t offer much guidance, immediately challenging you to overcome your fear and learn the environment. While exploring, I encountered groups of Velociraptors and another dangerous, smaller species as I searched for lost floppy disks. These disks belonged to the missing team and revealed unsettling discoveries, including bodies dissolved by corrosive chemicals.

This all comes down to how the creatures behave, which is what really makes the world feel alive. These predators don’t simply follow set paths; they have their own habits. I’ve seen smaller ones hiding in cracks in rocks, waiting to ambush and warn others when I approach, while the Raptors move around with a clear and frightening goal. I even noticed some relaxing in mud baths, which gave me a brief opportunity to sneak past unnoticed.

The tension is really cranked up by the fact that you don’t actually finish a task until you return to camp (or find a new one). So, if you die before reaching a campsite to record your discoveries, you might have to start all over. It seems collecting dinosaur bones is especially challenging.

Looking Good as a T-Rex

Visuals are a huge part of any game’s atmosphere, and Wilderdark delivers surprisingly well in that area. It uses realistic graphics to create a dense, oppressive jungle environment, but the real standout is the creature design. The predators have a uniquely unsettling, almost Lovecraftian feel – think Velociraptors covered in glowing pink blisters! You’ll encounter some truly bizarre creatures in this game.

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Based on what we’ve seen so far, the game will likely feature even more bizarre and dangerous prehistoric creatures. One particularly terrifying dinosaur appears to have tentacles growing from it, hinting at the strange challenges to come.

I love both survival horror and cosmic horror, so the mystery surrounding Wilderdark really appeals to me. Dinosaurs, while part of our past, still feel mysterious and evoke a primal curiosity – it’s a feeling that strongly connects to the kind of unsettling wonder found in Lovecraftian stories. It’s a surprisingly fitting combination – perhaps not a perfect match, but definitely a fascinating one set in a prehistoric, and rather frightening, world.

Despite a few small visual glitches, the game runs surprisingly well given how detailed it is. With realistic lighting and interesting ways to explore, Wilderdark is already performing impressively. It’s obvious the developers at Junkfish are focused on creating a strong atmosphere, and even now, the world feels immersive – and dangerous! The team is aware of these early issues and is already planning improvements to missions, the user interface, and overall polish before the final release.

A Roaring Survival Horror

Wilderdark is a really promising survival horror game that captures the feel of 90s dinosaur horror without just relying on old memories. It’s a unique mix of the intriguing mystery of Outer Wilds and the intense fear of Dino Crisis, and it stands out as something genuinely new and exciting – something this genre has needed for a long time.

Taking away your strength and making you depend on your instincts just highlights how much we sometimes need a thrilling, scary story to really feel alive!

I had a lot of fun playing the game during the testing phase, even though it was quite challenging! I’m really looking forward to the official launch and can’t wait to jump back in – maybe with a doctor on standby, just to be safe.

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2026-05-07 16:10