You’re going to have to make some dino friends for yourself.
..That is how the saying goes, right?
There are rumors of Paleo Pines where parasaurolophus roam the hillsides.
This place is a fixer-upper.
These resources will be necessary for completing additional quests and uncovering the mysteries dotted around Paleo Pines.
The flute is undeniably one of Paleo Pines' more interesting gameplay mechanics.
The flute can play four notes, represented by red, blue, yellow, and purple.
Each note can be held for up to 3 beats.
Matching the notes from the dinosaur with the flute enables you to interact with the dinosaur.
You don’t need to be musically inclined to master the flute, however.
Let me sing the song of my people.
The colored notes float across the screen during the friendship call sequence.
Holding a note for extra beats allows the bubble to grow in size.
These aren’t always negative scenarios, however.
How does your dino garden grow?
This can be useful even if you’re not interested in taking that particular dino home to your ranch.
At that point, the dinosaur will follow you until you return home.
This is where ranch management and farm simulation come into play.
It’s not that hard finding good help on the ranch.
Dinosaurs can provide different functions on the ranch, from smashing rocks to tracking precious resources and watering crops.
They also have their own needs, which the player must consider.
So can needs like food availability and whether they’re in the appropriate habitat bang out.
The residents of Paleo Pines are delightfully quirky.
The crops and other resources you harvest can then help improve the island of Paleo Pines for the residents.
The residents of Paleo Pines are diverse and intriguing, each with their own little stories to tell.
Individual quests for the characters help drive along the game’s plot and encourage exploration.
The colorful aesthetics are soaked into the environments.
However, at the center of town sits a notice board.
The player can visit the noticeboard for new side quests, often yielding generous payments.
There are only so many missing hats and trinkets to deliver.
I’m going to need a bigger saddle.
The game played exceptionally well on theXbox Series Xwithout any frame drops or hard crashes to the dashboard.
There are options for larger text boxes under the tweaks tab and a toggle for higher contrast.
Players like me who struggle with hand fatigue can benefit from the walk mode toggle.
What can I say, I’m a natural.
I found the absence of a fast travel option a struggle.
While I value the encouragement to explore leisurely, fast travel can be a vital quality-of-life and accessibility feature.
Additional elements to Paleo Pines improve accessibility outside just the menu toggles.
However, the notes are also coded with specific symbols to further help players choose the correct one.
This could make it difficult for color-blind players to detect which note they pressed incorrectly when playing the mini-game.
Paleo Pines: Should you buy it?
The game is visually striking, from its color palette to art direction.
That’s not to say I don’t have a few quality-of-life qualms.
There could certainly be some improvements, such as the ability to fast travel back home or between biomes.
The aforementioned limited supply of quests is also a shame.
Even beyond what the developers imagined for a playthrough, time in Paleo Pines was certainly time well spent.
Befriend different dinosaurs and train them to help you with tasks as you revitalize the island of Paleo Pines.
Also available from:Xbox|Steam|Best Buy
