Ferocious is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing indie shooters in years—a pulp-style, dinosaur-filled FPS that blends survival mechanics with a surprisingly narrative-driven structure. Instead of following the typical open-world survival blueprint, Ferocious focuses on handcrafted environments, guided objectives, and set-piece encounters that still leave room for player agency. With a first-time indie developer and a release date just around the corner, you’ll want to know what you’re stepping into. Here are 15 things to know about Ferocious before purchasing and exploring the ambitious dino island for yourself.
Premise
Imagine this: a game where you’re shipwrecked on a mysterious island crawling with dinosaurs. Not exactly an untapped premise, but Ferocious twists it on its head in subtle ways. While a majority of games with this set-up take on a survival sandbox structure, Ferocious leans into storytelling and a linear progression. Your missing brother is just one of the narrative threads guiding the game’s intriguing setting. A dinosaur island with emotional stakes? Count me in.
Dinosaurs, Mercenary Gangs, and Mechas, Oh My
The variety of dinosaurs are one of the game’s principal attractions, but they’re not the only threat you’ll face on the island–far from it. You see, The island isn’t nearly as abandoned as you first believe. There are other people lurking about, mercenaries as well as military personnel with drones at their disposal. When you aren’t running for your life from towering prehistoric creatures, you’re taking cover in the middle of tense shootouts against para-military agents and even bi-pedal mechs (yes, this game has mechs).
Controlling Dinos To Attack Opponents
That said, it’s possible to use some threats to your advantage, particularly the island’s dinosaurs–at least, some of them. Using dino control device on certain dinosaurs will bait them into attacking human enemies hunting you down. Aside from dinos fighting by your side, they can sniff out items in the environment and bring them to you, adding a strategic layer to some battles. Oh, and that blocked passageway or locked door? No problem for a dinosaur under the dino control device’s influence.
A Variety of Species
Ferocious features a wide range of dinosaur species. Some graze the fields and tend to themselves while others are instantly hostile (ferocious, you might say). Not every dino can be controlled though, and plenty aren’t capable of being defeated (at least by conventional means). Ferocious takes a more creative direction when it comes to dinosaur designs. They’re said to resemble our real-life conception of dinosaurs, but not to an scientifically accurate degree. The dev team stresses the fun element of dinosaurs above accuracy, so expect some wild designs fit for an imaginative video game.
Not Open World
These dinosaurs and mech encounters aren’t strictly scripted, but they don’t roam around a huge open-world either. The island is segmented across a half-dozen districts—open-ended zones with clear boundaries. The game also has more linear main objectives than one would come to expect from the ‘stranded island’ premise. The structure is directly influenced by classics like early Far Cry and Crysis 1, blending freedom with more directed objectives.
Five Unique Biomes
There are five distinct districts across the dino-filled island that have been confirmed so far. You begin on the coastline, a tutorial area with some secret coves and boisterous weather. And then there’s the labyrinthian canyons, lowlands, grassy plains, and even a jungle. Each area has a unique level design ethos which changes up gameplay.
Obstacles and Terrain
One of the creative ways the studio seeks to change up gameplay is through obstacles. One example of this is using dinosaurs to open paths. There’s also some environments that must be destroyed in order to advance through, such as thick vines. I’d be surprised if there weren’t a good amount of environmental puzzles scattered throughout the island.
Semi-Destructible Environments
Destruction isn’t just limited to set-piece obstacles. Grass can catch fire and weak cover will get destroyed during firefights. The team has made it a priority to make the environment feel dynamic through its destructive qualities, though given the limited budget, not everything is fully destructible. Weather is a part of that dynamic equation as well. The island will see rainfall, heavy wind, as well as a day/night cycle, though weather doesn’t have any survival mechanics involved, as the studio has pointed out.
Environmental Storytelling
Environments also help tell the story. The studio made it a point to ensure the island feels like a lived-in place with prior history. Abandoned camps and mysterious ruins of lost civilizations are said to be featured. Expect to find cryptic journal entries dotting the nooks and crannies as well.
Weapons and Combat
The studio wants to feature 12 guns at launch. Unlike the liberal interpretation of the dinos, the guns here are rather historical and will be familiar to any FPS enthusiast. There’s your standard handguns like the 9mm and on the desert eagle on more powerful end. There’s SMGs like the MP5, AK assault rifles, Remington shotguns, sniper rifles, and a flamethrower to light windswept plains ablaze. In addition to guns, throwable objects like grenades, as well as melee knives are available to use on the island’s hostile denizens.
Upgrades
You’ll want to pay close attention to gun durability since weapons degrade over time and may even get jammed. Upgrades are also a major component to the gameplay of Ferocious. Though the studio has made it clear that silencers aren’t in the game due to the de-emphasis on stealth. But attachments such as laser sights, folding stocks, and scopes can be freely equipped across various guns.
Single-Player
There doesn’t have to be a lot of balancing involved in customization thanks to the total lack of multiplayer in Ferocious. This is a conscious decision, as the team is laser-focused on delivering a narrative-driven FPS campaign, albeit with some more open-ended survival elements sprinkled in.
Indie Studio
Speaking of the studio, they are an indie team composed of just a handful of devs. They’ve brought in a Far Cry veteran along with designers from the film and theme park industries, helping carve out a strong visual and thematic identity for the island.
Runs on Unity
To my surprise, the game runs on the Unity engine. It looks like a AAA production with the realistic weather and destructible environments, so it’s very impressive what they’ve done with such a small team and limited budget.
PC Requirements
And it shouldn’t take the most expensive PC in the world to run as a result, though you will need a fairly beefy rig to get the most out of Ferocious. The minimum specs are very reasonable, hovering around an aging but reliable Intel i5 (or AMD equivalent), 12 GB of RAM, and a GTX 1060 or RX 580—hardware many PC players probably already have lying around. But if you want Ferocious to truly shine, with its weather effects, dense foliage, and destructible cover pushed to the max, you’ll want to step up to something closer to an i7 or Ryzen 5 3600 paired with an RTX 2060 or RX 5600. Either way, the game remains modest in storage demands at around 25 GB, making it refreshingly lightweight for a title with such ambitious visuals.
There’s no word on a price for Ferocious, but we don’t expect the $69 tag due to the indie scale of the project. This dino island FPS adventure releases real soon, December 4th to be exact, and it’s available on PC with no console plans at the moment.
