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Published Nov 2, 2026, 3:00 PM EST
Ford James is a UK-based freelance games writer at Polygon. He also has bylines at industry-leading outlets including GamesRadar, Eurogamer, PC Gamer, and more. He mostly writes about FPS games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Arc Raiders, but is also partial to a decent RPG, roguelike, or sports game. He's a huge Pokémon fan, thinks The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the best game of all time, and has a degree in Games Journalism & Public Relations.
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For some reason, there haven't been that many truly great dinosaur video games throughout history. Ark: Survival Evolved had plenty of success despite the fact it was quite janky, and The Isle has spawned myriad viral videos thanks to its proximity chat. Jurassic World Evolution 3 is by far the best licensed dinosaur game, but it focuses on managing the theme park, as opposed to fighting and surviving.
Enter Wilderdark. Launching on Steam on Tuesday, Nov. 10 from indie dev Team Junkfish, this is a survival horror take on the stuck-on-an-island-with-dinosaurs concept. The inhabitants of the island aren't your standard dinos, though: they're infected with a "mysterious ectoparasitic organism," according to the game's Steam page. This manifests as glowing, grotesque growths on each creature's skin, and it's spread to plenty of the flora inhabiting the island too.
Where Jurassic Park has a "theme park gone wrong" setting, Wilderdark instead focuses on the protagonist, someone sent to the "unnatural island in search of immortality." Plenty of people have tried to uncover the island's secrets before, including your own parents, but they've all vanished.
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Since this is a survival game, you can also expect some crafting. You'll set up camp, gather resources, and collect samples from the various creatures and plant life that make up the island. You'll also need to use a camera to take photos and scan every living organism you come across, so stealth is of the utmost importance.
If you want to try before you buy, there's a free Wilderdark demo available right now, from the latest Steam Next Fest. Reviews are currently mixed for the demo, but that's mostly down to technical issues that stemmed from an older demo build. Otherwise, jump in on Nov. 10 for one of the most terrifying, but promising,
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