At EPCOT, one of Disney World’s theme parks, there is a giant geodesic sphere that serves as both the park’s symbolic icon and the site of a ride called Spaceship Earth. Guests are transported along an epoch-spanning journey through momentous shifts in human development. At EPCOT, one of Disney World’s theme parks, there’s a giant geodesic sphere which serves as both the park’s symbolic icon and as the site of a ride called Spaceship Earth, in which guests are transported along an epoch-spanning voyage through momentous shifts in human development.
At the beginning of the ride, there’s a captivating diorama depicting ancient humans working together to take down a woolly mammoth. The wind howls. Audio-animatronics cavemen dance in slow motion, stabbing up with their flint arrows, while the mammoth swung its tusks threateningly. As the scene scrolled in artificial darkness, I remember being enthralled by it as a 10-year-old. It made me shudder to imagine how terrifying it would have been for a caveman to survive in the early days of mankind. After that, I bought a Mickey Mouse pretzel. For the next 30 years, I didn’t even think about cavemen. This interesting survival game is available now in Early Access for
but will soon be coming to
. It does a lot of good things, but it’s also obvious that this game is an Early Access title. Most of the game’s systems and mechanics are well-implemented and engaging, yet a significant number of glitches and bugs sully the overall experience.
Video captured by UploadVR on Meta Quest 3SQuestNeo-whatsit?SteamNeolithic Dawn drops players into the unforgiving
, a time spanning from around 10,000 BCE to 2,000 BCE. It was during this time that humans began to move away from the hunter-gatherer way of life and towards a more structured lifestyle. The game challenges the player to learn how to survive in a hostile and dangerous environment. The game will respawn us as the descendant of whoever died and came before. The buildings and settlements that we have built, as well as the progress we made, remain, but our world changes with every generation. If we fail to keep these stats up, our health will be affected. We die if this stat drops below a certain level. It’s an old-school gameplay loop, familiar to those who have played survival games. But it’s also a two-edged blade… or is that a bone axe, erm? Many people do not enjoy the tedious collecting and resource management that is part of survival games. And within just a few hours, it’s quite likely that for many players, Neolithic Dawn will fall into the same trap that ruins so many survival games; the game becomes a list of chores.
The immersive nature of VR does help it in this regard, though once again, this comes as both asset and liability.
Video captured by UploadVR on Meta Quest 3Sneolithic eraIt’s so easy a caveman ca- wait…
Mechanically, Neolithic Dawn gives players a great wide range of tools and experiences. The game allows you to climb up cliffs (there is a stamina bar), manage your supplies with a backpack, create a wide variety of weapons and tools, and even interact realistically with the animals. It’s possible to not only hunt, butcher, and skin the rabbits and wolves we see in the game, but also to train them and make them your pet. It’s possible to pet the dog. This is a fun game. It’s fun. However, at other times the same actions may feel unwieldy and tedious when the game breaks. It’s not fun to hunt, butcher, or skin animals. Spears disappear at random. The elk I was aiming at fell over dead like a mannequin when I struck the tip of its antler. Skinning involves more flailing and punching than skinning. The butchering is gross, but that’s to be expected.
Objects get stuck in strange places, collisions don’t always register cleanly, and combat can feel janky and dumb. The mystical compass, which is a key item in the main quest, simply vanished from my hands during one of my early playthroughs. This compass, a key item necessary to the main quest, was simply gone forever.
These graphical and physics hiccups are the result of a simple truth; Neolithic Dawn is still in development. Early Access titles are prone to glitches and bugs. At the moment, more work is needed.
Be warned, this video shows skinning and butchering of wild animals. Presently, further work is needed.
Be warned, the following video shows skinning and butchering of wild animals.
What is most important is that the core gameplay mechanics, immersive survival loop, intriguing story, and novel respawn mechanic, are solid and engaging. The world of Meta Quest 3S is a wonderful place to explore. The world is a vast place with many different environments. It is a mixture of wonder and terror. I will never forget the moment I saw a dozen eyes flickering by torchlight in the dark of a cave. All of these factors combine to produce an experience as close to neolithic as you’re likely to get. It’s ambitious, but not polished. If you’re a fan of survival games, enjoy the physicality of physics-based VR, and can forgive a few janky moments, Neolithic Dawn offers a fascinating, frightening, and sometimes beautiful escape into a forgotten era.
Neolithic Dawn is out now in early access on the
for $19.99.