The Lost Wild returns with a tense dinosaur stealth demo

Dinosaur survival game The Lost Wild has felt - for want of a better word - lost ever since its reveal in 2021. It went so quiet, in fact, that we recently featured it in our magazine round-up of long-announced titles that had largely vanished from view after their debuts. We’d like to think that piece somehow manifested the game’s return during this week’s PlayStation’s State of Play, but whatever the reason, it was simply good to see it again - and I was even more keen to check out a 30-minute hands-off demo at Summer Game Fest Play Days.

Saskia’s crash and a dinosaur-filled island

The Lost Wild follows Saskia, a woman who comes to after a car crash and realises she’s stranded on an island crawling with dinosaurs. The live demo opens in a striking, moonlit forest, and notably does so without any fixed HUD elements on screen.

The Lost Wild’s stealth-first demo and the Allosaurus threat

From a first-person view, Saskia picks her way through thick undergrowth while the presenter underscores one of the game’s defining pillars: stealth. Move too quickly, make too much noise, switch on your torch, or light flares, and nearby animals can be drawn to you - including carnivores looking for a meal.

Saskia, it’s made clear, isn’t built for combat, and even if she were, it’s hard to imagine what she could do against the demo’s central danger: an Allosaurus. That apex predator announces itself when Saskia reaches a facility and comes across a man in a hazmat suit. The man, clearly panicking and presumably relieved to see someone who isn’t a prehistoric reptile, runs towards Saskia - only to be abruptly seized in the Allosaurus’ jaws as Saskia hurriedly crawls beneath a nearby car.

From under the vehicle, Saskia watches as the man is dropped to the ground, shockingly intact, before the Allosaurus scoops him up again and brutally bites him in half. His bloodied lower body, entrails exposed, collapses to the ground as the Allosaurus seems to catch the scent of the petrified Saskia. After a few inquisitive sniffs, it goes back to feeding on what’s left of its prey - a false alarm. The dinosaur and character models don’t look as polished as you’d hope in this in-development build, but the moment lands all the same: don’t get caught.

Dinosaurs as animals, not monsters

As frightening as they are, the dinosaurs in The Lost Wild aren’t meant to be mindless killers whose only function is to turn Saskia into lunch. Instead, developer Great Ape Games wants them to come across as believable animals that behave accordingly. While the demo doesn’t fully show how deep that nuance goes, the Allosaurus doesn’t come across as if it’s deliberately stalking Saskia. It’s patrolling the area - likely because it’s its territory - but once it does notice the player, you have to respond immediately.

Distractions are crucial. In a later segment, for example, Saskia enters a facility and throws a rock to smash an exterior light, pulling the Allosaurus’ attention elsewhere. When misdirection isn’t enough, the demo suggests you can slip into tall grass to skirt around danger, slide beneath cars like a frightened child hiding under a bed, or simply sprint and pray. That final approach did not go well on two occasions for the developer demonstrating the build to us.

I’m a big fan of the original Jurassic Park, and I’ve always had a soft spot for dinosaur stories that balance terror with wonder - so The Lost Wild’s set-up hits several appealing notes. The demo itself is deliberately slow and works well as an atmospheric slice, and I’m sold on the premise. I’m also keen to see the more realistic animal behaviours shine beyond the Allosaurus brutally killing someone, and I’m hoping the creatures and characters look sharper by the time the game arrives in 2027.

It’s also difficult to ignore the odd - and perhaps unfortunate - coincidence that The Lost Wild shares almost the same “run and hide from the dinosaurs” hook as another forthcoming title, Jurassic Park: Survival, only without Universal’s famous licence. Even though The Lost Wild was announced first, my long-standing love of the franchise makes it hard not to yearn more for Saber Interactive’s game. Still, I genuinely want The Lost Wild to win me over on its own terms, and I’m curious to see whether this long-awaited project can stick the landing.