The Stomping Land Early Access Review
By Marcus Estrada
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The Stomping Land honestly sounds like the kind of game I dreamed of having in my formative years. It’s a multiplayer-focused tale of survival in the age of dinosaurs that already has some great ideas despite currently sitting in Steam’s Early Access. Even if you aren’t absolutely in love with dinos, the game might still catch your attention thanks to a crafting system, promise of tribe system, and all that good stuff. Of course, as is the catch with Early Access, some of the best features are not currently implemented! Well, here’s a look at the game as it currently stands.
Developer SuperCrit have produced a functioning, aesthetically pleasing title where a small handful of dinosaur types roam the land. As this is an ancient period in time, there are no skyscrapers, cars, or anything all too modern. Players control native people of the dinosaur-infested lands and do their best to simply cohabitate with each other and the reptiles around them. Some reptiles will run if they see you but other, more dangerous types will ram you head on in an instant.
As of right now your only means of protection is being able to craft one of three weapon types (although only one weapon appears to actually damage some dinosaurs). Crafting itself is very simple right now as well. All you can collect are rocks or wood and fashion varying amounts of them into a firepit, teepee, bow and arrow, and such. In all there are about a dozen things to craft which leaves survival to a bare minimum. Simply build a shelter, weaponry, and fire and you’ll be good to go for a while until something unlucky occurs.
Players can run through the game alone but The Stomping Land is intended for multiplayer. There doesn’t seem to be much use to playing this way yet though, unless you’re poor at hunting dinosaurs alone. Without a tribe system in place you can have fun running around for a while but most players will likely tire of that after a while. Still, nothing quite beats riding a dinosaur around with your buddy online.
As with many Early Access titles, The Stomping Land has a tremendous amount of promise. It already looks quite good – heck, the dinosaur models are astounding! Unfortunately so many cool things that have been promised are still around the corner. Character customization, for one, would be a neat little thing to use. Of course, more methods of dinosaur hunting, weapons, and more dinosaurs as well would be a great addition. Additional objects to craft also would help further deepen the survival experience. Much of this is planned for, but unfortunately the development team isn’t hugely chatty about their progress.
At this point in time it seems best to hold off on a purchase unless you know this is a game you want to watch progress in the coming months and years. The basic gameplay right now is compelling, but only for so long. If small updates occurred more regularly I’d definitely enjoy jumping back in to check them out. If the developers can live up to all they’ve promised then The Stomping Land is poised to be an excellent dinosaur-based survival experience when it finally launches.
[divider](Editors note: Prior to making an Early Access purchasing decision for The Stomping Land it’s suggested that you take a look at this piece on Bitpulse regarding the state of the games development.
[facebook][tweet][Google][pinterest][follow id=”Cliqist” size=”large” count=”true” ] [author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/marcus.jpg” ]Marcus is a fellow with a love for video games, horror, and Japanese food. When he’s not writing about games for a multitude of sites, he’s usually still playing one. One day when he became fed up with the way sites would ignore niche titles he decided to start his own site by the name of Pixel Pacas. Writing about video games is something he hopes to continue doing for many years to come. Some of Marcus’s favorite games include Silent Hill 2, Killer7, and The Sims. [/author]
