Pixel art point and click games are becoming rarer and rarer. They exist, there are some amazing ones still being developed all the time but they still are rare. Games like this are even more rare though. A wordless, use intuition from purely visual cues game with no hints or anything to guide you other than hotspots and abstract thinking is not something one sees or hell ever sees, but it is exactly what Theropods is and when it does it well, it does it better than most things.
The pixel art is really enchanting. It’s so amazing how pixel art like any art is so pass/fail, but it is, and the art in Theropods just hits. Although I must admit that if there wasn’t a hotspot button some of the puzzles would truly be luck instead of figuring out what to do. This isn’t truly in the art itself I think but a combination of coding and pixels, as there are sections later of gameplay where it is truly poorly done enough to be criticized.
For most of the game the gameplay is wonderful. I love it. No complaints. It works, it makes sense in the end, but the hidden dog achievement has no reason to exist cause you have no reason or clue to even look for it unless you spoil it and then consider what/how. Then there’s the battle with one of the dinos later. Spoiler free it is repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat solve that really is tedious and could’ve been done much better. Beyond those two complaints though I loved everything about this game and it’s gameplay.
The story is wonderful, enriching, surprising and while short, full and lush and nearly epic inside a small package. To speak of it at all spoils it even though launch trailers and the steam page does ruin the sci-fi twist, it still comes unexpectedly and in enchanting ways.
Theropods is out NOW on Steam.
(disclaimer: P-CS recieved the game for review, but as you can tell, it didn’t get a glowing review, as wonderful as the game is, it has flaws)