Game Pulse Me

Ferocious Mixes Dino-Taming Chaos With Survival Shooter Tension — And It’s Out Now On Steam

Life on Ferocious’ mysterious island has only one rule: everything with teeth wants to eat you.

The debut game from a tiny indie team, Ferocious is a first-person survival shooter that throws you onto a storm-battered dinosaur island, hands you a rusty gun and a handful of tools, and politely suggests you try not to die. It’s part Far Cry, part Ark-style dino control fantasy, with a dash of Tarkov-like weapon tinkering and a surprisingly strong narrative thread about a missing brother.

Shipwrecked On A Dino Deathworld

You start as a survivor of a shipwreck, washed up on the shores of an island that should be uninhabited and clearly isn’t. Dinosaurs roam the jungles and beaches, but they’re only half the problem. Mercenary squads, military contractors with drones, and even bi-pedal mechs are all operating here for reasons you’ll uncover as you progress.

Unlike many “stranded on an island” games, Ferocious doesn’t go full open-world sandbox. Instead, the island is divided into several large, open-ended districts connected by a more linear, story-driven campaign structure. Think early Far Cry and Crysis rather than a modern checklist map: directed objectives, handcrafted levels, but still plenty of room to approach encounters your own way.

At the center of it all is a personal story: you’re searching for your missing brother while unravelling what’s really happening on this prehistoric hellscape.

Dinosaurs: Pets, Predators, and Living Weapons

Dinosaurs are the stars of Ferocious, and the game treats them as more than just moving targets.

You’ll encounter a variety of species: some grazing peacefully, some instantly hostile, and some so powerful that fighting them head-on simply isn’t an option. The designs aim for “cinematic cool” rather than strict scientific accuracy, so expect creatures that feel familiar but with extra flair and menace.

A key mechanic is the dino control device. Certain species can be influenced or baited into attacking your enemies. Lure a carnivore into a mercenary camp and let it tear through the soldiers for you, or use your scaly ally to smash open blocked paths and doors you’d never breach alone. Some dinos can even sniff out items and bring them back, creating a light tactical layer as you decide when to risk calling them in.

Not every creature can be controlled, and some can’t realistically be killed, which keeps them dangerous even deep into the game.

Semi-Open Island, Five Distinct Biomes

Ferocious’ island is split into several large regions, each with its own vibe and gameplay focus:

• Stormy coastline – Tutorial area with raging seas, secret coves, and violent weather.
• Canyons and lowlands – Tight passages and vertical sightlines perfect for ambushes.
• Grassy plains – More open combat spaces where large dinos roam.
• Dense jungle – Claustrophobic foliage where visibility drops and tension spikes.
• …plus additional districts that remix terrain, hazards, and enemy types.

The environments aren’t just window dressing. Grass can catch fire, flimsy cover can be shredded by gunfire, and some obstacles (like thick vines or barricades) can be destroyed or bypassed with the help of dinosaurs and tools. There’s a full day–night cycle and dynamic weather system with rain and high winds, keeping the island feeling alive without turning weather into another survival stat to babysit.

Environmental storytelling also plays a big role: abandoned camps, ruins of older civilizations, and scattered journal entries hint at what happened on the island long before you washed ashore.

Guns, Upgrades, and Maintenance

For all its prehistoric creatures, Ferocious is still very much a shooter.

At launch, the team is aiming for around a dozen firearms, built around recognizable real-world archetypes: 9mm pistols, heavy handguns, SMGs like the MP5, classic assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and even a flamethrower for when subtlety flies out the window. Grenades and knives round out your arsenal.

Weapons come with two big twists:

• Durability and jamming – Guns degrade over time and can fail you at the worst moment, adding tension and incentivizing maintenance and upgrades.
• Attachments over stealth – You won’t find silencers here; the game isn’t built as a stealth sim. Instead, you lean into combat customization with stocks, scopes, laser sights, and more to tune guns to your style.

The customization system lets you inspect your weapon and swap parts like you would in a more hardcore extraction shooter, but without needing to worry about PvP balance — because Ferocious is strictly single-player.

Survival, But Focused

Ferocious includes survival elements, but it doesn’t fully lean into open-ended crafting grind.

You’ll scavenge for limited resources and components, gradually upgrading your gear and gadgets to go from barely scraping by to actively dominating certain encounters. However, all of this is framed around handcrafted missions and story beats rather than endless sandbox loops.

There are no multiplayer modes or co-op plans right now; the developers have intentionally focused on delivering a tight, narrative-driven campaign with room for player expression inside its semi-open zones.

Small Team, Big Ambition

Ferocious is developed by a tiny indie studio working in Unity, and the game is already turning heads for its visuals: dense foliage, aggressive weather, mechs stomping through destructible cover, and towering dinosaurs sharing the same spaces as infantry firefights.

Despite its lush presentation, the PC requirements are relatively modest for a modern FPS. On the low end, an older mid-range CPU paired with something like a GTX 1060 / RX 580 and 12 GB of RAM should get you onto the island, while more recent i7/Ryzen 5-class chips and GPUs in the RTX 2060 / RX 5600 range are recommended if you want to crank up the effects and foliage. Storage demands are also refreshingly low at around 25 GB.

Should You Check Out Ferocious?

If you like the idea of:

• Far Cry-style firefights in handcrafted zones
• Ark-like dinosaur interaction without the endless grind
• Survival and scavenging systems that support a strong narrative instead of replacing it
• And the simple joy of pointing a mind-control device at a T-Rex and watching it obliterate a mercenary camp

…then Ferocious might be one of the most interesting indie shooters on your radar this year.

It’s available on Steam right now, ready to prove that life not only finds a way — it finds a way to hunt you, help you, and occasionally carry you on its back into battle.