Recent reviews by Leg Horse

The cowbear level is the only bad time you'll have playing this game.

Note: Some opinions may change with further gameplay.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: 6/10

I've followed Paleo Pines development for many years on social media. I'm not a 'cozy game' person or a farming sim fan to begin with, I came here for the dinosaurs. My problem with cozy gaming is a lack of substance, which I have to say is the case here too. Then my problem with farming sims is a lack of instruction, which is VERY MUCH an issue here too. However, if you're just here to wind down or are already a fan of farming sims with a good understanding of their similarities, I can't imagine you'd have any issues here.

Pros:
- The dinosaurs are cute, varied, and fun. Their skills are very helpful and a fun mechanic. Finding dinosaurs with really rare colors is very exciting and enough to get me out in the field day after day.
- The environment is very pretty. It is a really nice looking game! I did get lost a ton in the valley at first, but I got the hang of it after the first week.
- The act of befriending dinosaurs is pretty well thought out! The flute mechanics are fun and the meter provides a real challenge at times.

Cons:
- The controls are pretty clunky. When you're building fences your own character gets in the way. The press vs press and hold system gets annoying. Foraging is harder than it should be because you have to stand at just the right angle. Yikes!
- The human characters are... boring. Maybe you'll start to unlock their tragic backstory after awhile and they'll have some interest but truthfully I can't find a reason to like them much. I wish there were more dialogue options.
- The absolute lack of instruction, or suddenly receiving instruction after figure it out yourself after too much trial and error. I should not be having to google how to do the most basic things on my farm. Some things I figured out slowly from reading the journals but others completely lack an explanation of control schemes. This has made questing much more slow-going than I'd like.

Honestly there's a lot of mechanics I would have liked to see more of in this game. The fact that you can't craft is really a shame. It's like they needed a reason to make players actually want to go to the market so they decided 'special orders' were the way to go instead of letting your character craft on their own.

A breeding mechanic for even rarer or breeding-only colors would have really knocked this game out of the park for me also.

Despite my complaints, I really do like this game, I just wish it had a bit more going on. It's just niche enough to get me into a genre I don't play though.

If only it was a little less vanilla, I need ball gags so I can never hear Sarah or Lilian talk again

10/10 regardless