It feels a million years since I wrote about Instinction, the New Zealand spiritual successor to Dino Crisis from a design firm-turned-game developer. As it turns out, that was only earlier this year — and in the time since then, Instinction has come along real nicely.
Kiwi studio Hashbane, which cut their teeth using Unreal Engine for architectural projects, has been fleshing out their prehistoric first-person shooter some more. The latest trailer didn’t come with a release date. Q3 2022 was the tentative target last time I spoke to the developers, but I’m guessing that date might have shifted given the release: it mentions the game is hitting last-gen, next-gen consoles and now Google Stadia, which is a hell of a lot for a first-time game developer.
Still, there’s no part of the video below that doesn’t make you go “Fuck, yes.” It’s built in a version of Unreal Engine 4 without ray-tracing, although the final game will run on Unreal Engine 5 with optional ray-tracing capabilities.
And unlike the initial Instinction footage, this one is vastly more detailed, gives us a look at what is likely to be the game’s protagonist, has a pretty consistent frame rate, and features some of the nicest forest foliage I’ve seen all year. Seriously, I’d spend hours in any game with ferns that looked that good.
There’s also more of a look at the game’s first person view, although I wouldn’t classify this as a full gameplay trailer. But this is a first-time game developer venturing into a hugely ambitious project, so as far as I’m concerned, they can take all the time they need.
The full description of the game has been fleshed out. The key takeaway is that there’s a clear focus on environment exploration, not just shooting dinosaurs:
Experience a cinematic story based action adventure with combat, exploration and puzzles, where the environments can be as treacherous and beautiful as the creatures you encounter. Instinction will be available to wishlist on Steam from this November and will also be available on last and next gen consoles, Stadia is likely to be a subsequent release. Environmental puzzles will have you completing quests and searching for ancient artefacts left by an unknown civilisation long since gone, or so you thought, while navigating stunning locations with ever changing weather conditions and embark on an unforgettable journey.
More content will be revealed around the Steam page’s launch next month. Until then, here’s the full list of dinosaurs that Hashbane say will be included:
Acrocanthosaurus, Apatosaurus, Argentinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Carnotaurus, Ceoplophysis, Coelacanth/Mawsonia, Diabloceratops, Deinotherium, Deinonychus, Dinornithiformes, Homo Floresiensis, Kronosaurus, Mapusaurus, Quetzalcoatlus, Sarchosucus, Smilodon, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus, Styxosaurus, Suchomimus, Tarbosaurus, Temnodontosaurus, Thalassodromeus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus.
Props if you got 10 or more of the above right.
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