„Dark Souls meets Jurassic Park” This epic sword-wielding dinosaur action RPG has a free demo on Steam right now

This week, the first public demo for a game called Dinoblade was released on Steam. If you haven’t heard of it, it all started with a viral animation of a Spinosaurus swinging a buster sword. Turns out that the animator decided to take that concept and turn it into a prehistoric, dinosaur-filled action RPG, and so now we have Dinoblade. The game was revealed earlier this year at the end of the Six One Indie showcase in May, and now players can finally try it.

Play as dinosaurs with swords in the new demo for this epic action RPG, Dinoblade

The animator behind Dinoblade has an impressive resume. The studio formed to work on this game is called Team Spino LLC, but the animator, Jean Nguyen, is also a Senior Gameplay Animator at Sucker Punch Studios, the team behind games like Ghost of Yotei, Ghost of Tsushima, the inFamous series, and more. Nguyen spoke about the game during the initial reveal, saying that the initial viral clip “…was created just to make my portfolio better, but it went viral, and people kept asking for a game, so here we are.”

In Dinoblade, the dinosaurs are accurate to how they might have looked in the real world. The fantastical elements are in the weapons, the bombastic movements, and the epic sword fights. I’m not quite sure how accurate it is to have a Spinosaurus do a dodge roll, but somehow, smooth animations make it all look so natural. I’ll be the first to say it: There aren’t enough great dinosaur video games out there. So thank you, Team Spino, for working on this game.

Earlier today, I played the demo for about half an hour, and it was a blast. The controls are relatively simple, and while there are certainly still some kinks to work out, given that this is the first public demo, Dinoblade looks like a very promising action RPG. The action was fun, but even with relatively gray and muted tones, I couldn’t help but find myself stopping to admire the scenery every now and then. It has also left me wanting more, and thankfully, it seems like there was more to play after I had to stop. The Steam page teases a cataclysmic event that changed the world forever, and I’m very curious to learn more.

• indie games
• dinosaurs
• action RPG