Have you ever wondered what life was like ages ago when humans were still living in the Stone Age? Evading predators trying to kill you? Protecting yourself from the elements that are trying to kill you? Fighting against other tribes that are trying to kill you? And what’s that off in the distance? A glowing stone falling from the sky? Probably just another thing trying to kill you. Lost Token’s Theropods throws you back into prehistoric times full of threats, dinosaurs… and spaceships? Let’s see what happens when past and future meet.

Is this the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs?

In Theropods you play as a young female hunter back in ancient times. She has a healthy fear of dinosaurs after witnessing her mother get eaten by one when she was a small child, and has since taken up her mother’s prized spear to hunt them down. One day after successfully catching an elusive dinosaur she was preying upon, she witnesses a strange glowing stone falling from the sky and crash near her village. However, before she can investigate further, her tribe is attacked by barbarians and she flees for her life. Eventually, she discovers another surprise: a pilot of a fallen spaceship near the crash site. The two team up and form an unlikely friendship, seeking to save both the tribe and each other.

Theropods is a retro-inspired point-and-click adventure. Point-and-click adventures have been done countless times over the years, but Theropods stands out for a couple of reasons. First, it blends genres, taking place during prehistoric times, but soon introduces sci-fi futuristic elements. This blending works really well, and is something that pushes the story forward.

This is fine.

The other way it stands apart is with Lost Token’s decision to have Theropods be completely wordless. There’s no spoken dialogue, no signs or writing, or even anything other than recognizable symbols in the Save/Load Menu. The people of the tribe communicate through grunts and murmurs, making reading body language a key to understanding cues and hints. This commitment to purely visual storytelling is impressive, and serves the setting and theme of Theropods exceedingly well.

There’s no combat in Theropods, with our hunter having to use her wits and cunning in order to escape threats and take down enemies. Most of the puzzle solutions are fairly straightforward: observing your surroundings and enemy patterns is usually the key to figuring out what to do. Although, there were a few puzzles that had me scratching my head for a bit. There were two instances in particular where I got stuck for a while, exhausting the same limited options over and over.

That gray blob in-between the huntress and the barbarian is a piece of cloth that you can actually pick up. It took me entirely too long to realize that thanks to a missing interaction indicator.

Eventually, I was able to progress after furiously clicking on every single inch of the screen before something worked. This was due to the fact that a couple of section had missing interaction indicators. I didn’t know I could interact with those objects, because unlike everything else in the game, they had no point-of-interest target on them. Thankfully, there were only two instances of this that I came across, and I’m hoping a patch will fix it right after launch for new players.

That was really my only major issue with Theropods. A couple of missing interaction indicators doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of taking in the beauty of this game. Its pixel art style is absolutely teeming with detail, from the environments to the characters. The locations are varied as well, having us explore jungles, caves, villages, and even underwater. Close-ups of characters during cutscenes allow for convincing emotion to be conveyed, which further heightens the tension, tragedy, and joy throughout the story.

At times you can switch between characters so they can perform different actions to get past puzzles.

Theropods‘ sound design also does a lot of heavy lifting with selling the emotional narrative. Even though there’s no dialogue, the grunting and gibberish noises (alongside body movements) help to convey how the people and creatures are feeling or what their intentions are. Sound cues are important when solving puzzles and are utilized effectively. Although, one of the best aspects about Theropods, in my opinion, is the soundtrack. It blends tribal rhythms with sci-fi synths and drum and bass metal. The soundtrack rules!

Theropods captured my attention a while back due to its striking art design and blending of genres, but I wasn’t expecting for its story to have such heart. The bond of the two protagonists feels genuine as they fight to protect other and discover their inner strengths while battling dinosaurs, vicious barbarians. Aside from some frustrations due to unclear object interactions, the puzzles were mostly clever and logical. It’s a short experience, taking only about three hours to complete, but it’s packed with action, strategy, and an emotional narrative that feels satisfying. If you enjoy old school point-and-click adventures, dinosaurs, and sci-fi, then Theropods is worth checking out.

Theropods is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC with an i7-12700kf, RTX 5070, and 32gb DDR5 RAM.

A copy of Theropods was provided by the publisher.