Dino D Day Review

Dino D Day originally a Source Mod, has gone the way of "The Ball" and have turned Independent. Dinosaurs’ vs. humans seems a cool idea but can it really work? Well let’s see if it does!

First thing I must say that there are barely any servers and the times I played there were NO objective game mode! This means that this review will only go over Team Death match and King of the Hill. Sadly the objective mode is meant to be the main game, it's the one shown in the trailers with the Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. I don't know why this mode is not being played, I was playing for three hours and in all that time NO ONE was playing objective, I asked someone about this and they didn't even know that there was an objective game mode! Anyway with that out the way.

There are 3 types of Dinosaur; the "normal" fast running type like the Raptor and the Dilophosaurus.  A tank like dinosaur with a Rocket launcher on its back (Desmatosuchus) and a Teradactal which is a summon for the German sniper. The only problem with this is; there not balanced, two of the Dinosaurs are not fun to play as, and the allies don't get Dinosaurs. OK, OK let me explain why. The Raptor is probably the most unbalanced. The Raptor is the fastest character in the game, this would be OK but they make them tiny and have an ability to kill a person instantly. The developers tried to compensate by giving the sniper a rabbit that will distract the Raptor for 10 seconds, there's no way to avoid being killed by the Raptors by their special attack (even if someone kills them in their animation your already dead) same for when your distracted by a rabbit, there's no way out of it. This is a big annoyance on both sides.

As I said about two of the Dinosaurs we're not fun to play as this is the Dilophosaurus, which is a tall Raptor like Dinosaur which is played in the third person and is controlled in the third person, the bad thing about this is that it controls like a tank which is a problem with another one of the dinosaurs. (Desmatosuchus get to that later) I wouldn't mind if it moved like a tank, however the model is long and the doorways are thing meaning that you'll keep getting stuck in doors. Turning is annoying and is not fluid. The Dilophosaurus can pick up and throw goats that are scattered around the levels, when thrown at the other team and hit anywhere on the body ends up being an instant kill which is very easy to do meaning it's another annoyance for the Allies. Also if you run and attack the enemy he'll get thrown to the floor where you can pick up the enemy and throw them at a wall. This also instantly kills them.

Finally the Desmatosuchus. This is probably the most balanced dinosaur. It's a small, slow dinosaur with a AT gun on their back. There's not much really to say about it really. It's slow and balanced. The Teradactal is a special ability used by the German snipers; the Teradactal is more a suicide bomber than anything. The Bomb has a wide range however you can use it way to often and in a king of the kill game is an easy way to take over the flag and hold it.

The normal soldiers are bland and plane they have no personality to them only a few one liners every so often. One of the big problems is getting people to join the Allies as there so plain that no one wants to play them; they want to play as the Dinosaurs. Which raises the question why didn’t the Allies get Dinosaurs? I know it's part of the storyline (which is only apparent through the trailers) but there no storyline in the game apart for "THE GERMANS HAVE DINOSAURS!” So why don't the Allies get Dinosaurs so there's arguments over the teams?

There are tons and I mean tons of glitches in this game from animations not working, desktop crash, servers not working and hit boxes not responding. This game bores on being a Beta and someone I was playing with did think it was a paid beta. Presentation isn't at all good, basic lighting (which becomes apparent when you can't see where you’re going in a few levels), basic textures and basic models. It lacks polish too; models sometimes levitate off the ground! Also another thing not present is a level editor which is almost compulsory for a Source game. 

It's a shame that the gameplay is so bad, the jokes and art aesthetics (such as a poster, loading screens so on) are really good, and it’s just a shame about everything else. This game is more of a mod than anything else, and a not very good one at that. It's a shame if there was a little bit more polish and fixed the balance issues, a good game is in there... somewhere... I think. Sadly this game has little to no community so chances are that this game will disappear soon.

Liam Hackett