Terrible Lizards, looks to be a new mascot horror, with some focus on parkour. They game is developed by WDR Studios LLC, and what captured my attention was the dinosaur in the trailer. If you have read any of my articles, then you will know that I am a sucker for monster designs. If you want to check out Terrible Lizards for yourself, it’s out now on Steam. Also this isn’t the only parkour horror game we at Thumb Culture have reviewed. So why not check out Alex’s review for Finding Franky?
Can you dig it!
Gameplay
In Terrible Lizards, we play as Jordan, who was on route home before having some car troubles. Which ends up with him being stuck out in the middle of nowhere. However, he is lucky enough to have stopped just outside a gas station with a large dinosaur attraction just across the way. And just like how most of these games go, Jordan has the bright idea to go messing around while he waits for a tow truck to arrive.
Most of the gameplay has you around parkour around levels looking for switches. And the first area does well to show this to the players. Of course, it isn’t too long before Jordan realizes that something isn’t right with the place. Could it be the messy environment that is desperate need of repairs and renovation? Or maybe it was the giant monstrous dinosaurs that aim to kill him, who knows?
The deeper you go, the weirder it gets.
Through 4 levels players will often find themselves in the same loop which does become a little repetitive. You will run through long sections that have you just parkour from point A to point B. Then into smaller sections where you must run around hitting switches or finding dynamite while avoiding the levels current stalker. These sections aren’t that bad, but I would have like a puzzle or two.
You will find notes later on which provides more context as to what happened at the museum. But as time when on, most notes kinda felt meaningless and where kinda just repeats. Usually of how a worker wishes to tell their loved ones they won’t come home. Tragic of course, but we don’t six odd letters for it. As most of the story is told from videotapes which you will need to pick up before progressing anyway.
Graphics & Audio
Terrible Lizards doesn’t have the most polished style. While I wouldn’t say it looks terrible, some of the textures are a little low quality and overly shiny at times. I found that I had a quite a few stuttering and frame rate drops, even after adjusting both frame rate and texture quality. The museum itself also lacked detail and most of the environments However, the very first dinosaur’s design is incredible and unique, and is my favourite one out of the bunch.
The voices/acting are a mixed bag. Stella and Jordan sound good, more so with Jordan and how absolutely done he is with the shenanigans that ensue. However, the acting in the videotapes left something to be desired. The tapes involving Dalton were a little awkward to watch, he does way too much with his hands. On the flip side, the actor for the scientist on the tapes does incredibly well to put across emotion without seeming awkward about it.
Longevity
The game is pretty straight-forward and won’t take you too long to beat. I managed to beat Terrible Lizards in just a little over 6 hours. Although I don’t see much reason for an additional play through, players can go back to find any collectables they missed. For anyone who wants to get all the achievements, there are 15 to obtain. With most of them being unlocked via the story itself, while others will need you to do specific things. Like falling to your death for example.
Final Thoughts
Terrible Lizards leans a little too much into the parkour rather than the story itself. Sections seem to drag on for a bit too long and can get rather repetitive. Maybe adding a couple of puzzles to break up the constant chase segments would help . For the parkour itself, I enjoyed it. Jordan runs, slides,and swings off beams, which work wonderfully when chained together. However, some later segments become a tad awkward. Story-wise, there’s not much to complain about besides maybe the ending. It kind of felt like a little bit of a cop – out, due to the ending itself being rather abrupt. There should have been a final exchange between Jordan and Stella.
Overall, I am giving Terrible Lizards the Thumb Culture Silver Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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