The concept of dinosaurs in games has been a bit touchy since creating a good dinosaur game can be a bit difficult. However, some production studios have given the dinosaur genre a great shot, producing wonderful experiences that you can easily come back to time and time again.
To help you get in touch with the best dinosaur games available, we have compiled this intuitive list. These games are very well-made, with their own storylines and satisfying gameplay, no matter their age.
If you want to learn more about various game genres and the best options for all of them, you might want to give some of our other articles a shot. If you’re a combat junkie who wants to engage enemies in brutal firefights, check out the best war games. If you’re on the chill side and want to embark on an adventure, then the best RPG games are calling your name!
The best dinosaur games
ARK: Survival Evolved
Starting strong we have ARK: Survival Evolved. This game places you on a large map with over 170 other types of creatures. Your goal is to use the environment to craft tools and structures to avoid becoming a dino’s next chew toy. The world is vast and teeming with life so you’re gonna have a lot of content to explore and dinosaurs to tame. The game also features a multiplayer option where you can meet other players and form tribes. Tribes stick together and you can move out into the world to find new dinosaurs to tame and new things to do. Every tamed dinosaur is shared among the tribe and everyone can employ it in hunting and other activities. Not only dinosaurs, but other mythological creatures such as griffins roam the wilds. There is much more complexity to this game than what meets the eye, and you’ll quickly see why it’s one of the best dinosaur games.
The Isle
The main description of this game can be surmised as a gritty survival horror experience. In The Isle, you play as a dinosaur, roaming the earth in search of prey to devour and increase your size. The gameplay is very intense, with danger around every corner and behind every tree waiting to eat you, something we look for in the best dinosaur games. Servers support over 100 players, and it is a constant struggle to stay alive as you meet other players who are just as hungry as you. If you’re the type of player who doesn’t want to look over their shoulder all the time, then you can also enjoy the sandbox mode where you play through the normal life cycle of a dinosaur, wandering the world just doing dinosaur things. Whichever way you look at it, The Isle provides a very unique experience that should not be missed.
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Horizon: Zero Dawn is not your typical dinosaur game in the sense that you don’t encounter actual dinosaurs, but mechanical versions of them. No matter the setting, it’s still one of the best dinosaur games. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where civilization has long since devolved into archaic ways, and mechanical beasts roam the world in complete control. You play as Aloy, an outcast in this world who learns to live off of the land and hunt using the resources she finds. Your goal is to prove yourself and become a member of the tribe. The reason this game is so popular in the gaming community is because of the amount of detail that is added to the world, as well as the immersive and intuitive gameplay, where speed is key and craftiness is a virtue. As you progress, you will find many different kinds of “dinosaurs” and explore the rich story in its entirety. There is also the sequel, Horizon: Forbidden West which is a direct sequel with even more content!
Jurassic World Evolution 2
This game is not what you think it is. It’s actually a business simulation game where your goal is to construct a complete and successful dinosaur theme park. See? The best dinosaur games don’t have to be about fighting for your life all the time. You have the freedom to pick and choose which dinosaurs inhabit your park. Also, every dinosaur needs to be fed and watered, so they can live to their fullest. There is also a territory system where two dinosaurs with the same territory type will fight each other to acquire food. Managing everything about your theme park is very important, as is researching different species of dinosaurs to add to your park and add more variety to your selection of dinosaurs. There is also a campaign where you go through the basics of the game and continue managing it as you see fit.
Monster Hunter: World
Monster Hunter: World is a massive game where you assume the role of a warrior researcher who has to go out into the “New World” to gain knowledge about the various beasts that inhabit the areas. You get quests from Astera, the hub of the research department. Players can choose their way of approaching combat by selecting their starting weapon, and from there they choose the various subgroups of specialization. As you progress through the game and earn experience, you’ll eventually be able to hunt a higher caliber of beasts, some of which are colossal and extremely difficult to kill. The presence of a wide variety of creatures is what makes this one of the best dinosaur games. To this end, you can ask for help from the community, where different players with different skill sets will assist each other, sorta similar to a WoW raid. Monster Hunter: World has a lot of content to enjoy, and many dinosaur-like creatures to capture.
Lego Jurassic World
Lego games are famous for their ability to pack a lot of substance into a simple, enjoyable format. This game, in particular, Lego Jurassic World, is focused on the Jurassic Park/World movies, and the levels are based on each one, respectively. There are 20 levels you can play, all of which require some puzzle-solving expertise to progress through them. You have a wide variety of dinosaurs to encounter in the game, as well as some interesting human characters. Human characters have their own special abilities that can help them get out of sticky situations, so they are quite useful. There aren’t any cons in Lego games seeing as they are almost always a home run when they get released. They are especially good when you’ve had enough of complex AAA titles and want to play one of the best dinosaur games instead.
Roblox
Roblox is an extremely popular game that has millions of players each month, and that is because the game offers you the creative freedom to any game you can think of for other players to enjoy and share across the entire community. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Roblox is not a dinosaur game, but you have many of the best dinosaur games to play on the platform itself. Roblox players tend to be quite creative when it comes to designing games, so there is a wide variety of dinosaur games to choose from. You just have to take your pick and have fun!
Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter Reborn
This is a hunting game where you take on some of the most dangerous species of dinosaurs in history. While it is a bit out of the way for a game, the gameplay is still nice and provides a nice mesh of shooting, stealth, and exploration. You have to carefully stalk your prey before you can go in for the kill since if you get discovered, you’re gonna have to fight tooth and nail to survive. The map is open and vast, so you feel like you’re hunting dinosaurs on a large scale, and that your actions have some weight to them since you also have the moral choice of either shooting the beasts dead or tranquilizing them. This game stands as a testament to the fact that you don’t need flashy mechanics and ideal graphics to make one of the best dinosaur games.
Second Extinction
Second Extinction has a fantastic premise where the world has been overrun by strange, mutated dinosaurs that are very aggressive and will attack at the first sign of movement. The gameplay and combat are very similar to other cooperative survival games such as Left 4 Dead 2, where working together is paramount for survival. The mutations that the dinosaurs have are quite interesting, with some species being able to utilize elemental attacks, and others being able to call for help. You have a lot of different goals to fulfill, such as destroying dinosaur nests and managing their population. The game has a lot of new content added all the time, so you can learn as you go and see why it’s one of the best dinosaur games.
Parkasaurus
This game, like Jurassic World Evolution 2, is a management and simulation tycoon game where you build exhibits for your dinosaurs to live, thrive in, and attract customers. As we said earlier, you do not need gritty survival mechanics to make the best dinosaur games. There is quite a lot of depth added to the design process of creating an exhibit, so you can play around and see what works for your ideas and goals. There is a wide variety of items and buildings you can construct, leading to a richer environment that is sure to attract more customers. You can’t just spawn dinosaurs in your park, but instead, you need to hatch them from eggs and nurture them until they are fully grown, at which point they will be a bit more independent. There is a lot to discover in Parkasaurus, and the developers really deserve the attention since they made the entire game on their own.
That would be all we have to say about the best dinosaur games on the market! If you’re still looking for games from other genres, then you should also take a look at some of our other articles such as best naval games and best IOS games.