Jurassic Park Gets Its Own Alien Isolation With Lost Wild

The horror genre has been having a strong surge in the world of gaming. Plenty of great titles have explored the different styles of terror, ranging from the non-stop monsters of Dying Light: The Beast, to the more psychological horror of Silent Hill f or the intense dread felt in Grace’s sections of Resident Evil: Requiem. One of the best syntheses of the genre in recent memory has been Alien: Isolation, which managed to fit some desperate action, tense chases, and horrifying visuals all into one tight package.

Now, one of the lead creatives from that game is ready to give players a whole new set of nightmares with The Lost Wild. Playing like a fusion of Isolation with the frequently scary dinosaurs of the Jurassic film franchise, The Lost Wild is a new IP that drops the players into a dinosaur-infested setting and trusts them to figure it out. ComicBook was among the members of the media who got to check the game out at Summer Game Fest and can attest to just how effective this take on the genre already looks.

The Lost Wild Took Some Big Cues From Alien: Isolation

The Lost Wild has been in development for years, starting out as a passion project that has gradually become a very impressive-looking horror game. From the video demo shown to members of the press, the game takes a lot of clear influence from Alien: Isolation — which shouldn’t be surprising, given that the game’s director Gary Napper previously worked on that game as lead designer. The emphasis on slow-burning tension giving way to bursts of frantic terror played well in Alien: Isolation and continues to do so in The Lost Wild. The demo, which was shown off to members of the media, focuses on Saskia, an investigative reporter who wakes up on a mysterious island.

While there are signs of people and various facilities around the island, Saskia is largely surrounded by the local wildlife — which includes ferocious dinosaurs. Similar to the tight CPU AI built into the Xenomorphs for Alien: Isolation, The Lost Wild leans heavily into the effective wits and predatory habits of the creatures. During the presentation, the team highlighted how the dinosaurs on the island were designed to interact with their environment like actual wild animals. They are attracted to sound, attracted to light sources, and relentless in the pursuit of their next meal. During the demo, a member of the Great Ape Games team who was playing showcased how easy it can be to fall out of position and be exposed, leaving Saskia open to be ambushed and killed.

This is even suggested to be key to the experience, with the team noting that the limited number of saves at any given time encourages players to try risky plays and learn from their mistakes for other runs. The dinosaur in The Lost Wild is a good stand-in for the Xenomorph from Alien: Isolation, putting emphasis on the player having to avoid being spotted. Even the creature’s introduction is similar to Isolation, with the player character forced to hide and watch in horror as another person becomes a victim of the creature. Even the level progression will feel familiar to Alien: Isolation fans, with a focus on exploring the environment and solving minor challenges to advance the story.

Why Horror Fans Shouldn’t Sleep On The Lost Wild

The Lost Wild isn’t just a dinosaur reskin of Alien: Isolation, however. Even from the short demo presented to members of the media at SGF, the tone of the game feels different. Alien: Isolation was claustrophobic, reflective of the source material that put emphasis on the terror of being trapped in a small spaceship with a monster moving through the shadows. By contrast, The Lost Wild uses the wide-open space of nature to fill the player with a sense of dread.

Moving through the forest is a risk that you can’t avoid taking, with an eye hanging at the top of the screen if the player can be seen by passing creatures. This raises the question of which animals are watching you, how many of them are there, and where they are. It’s a clever gameplay tweak on the survival-horror premise, using the wide-open forest as a means of ratcheting up the tension. The dinosaurs could be behind any tree, waiting for the moment to strike. They could be far away and only just noticing the player in the distance, unseen by the player until it is far too late.

In a genre that’s gotten some truly top-notch titles over the years, The Lost Wild looks like an engaging expansion of the formula. It’s not a reinvention but rather a refinement, an attempt to take the standard survival-horror gameplay approach and play it differently. It positions the dinosaurs as animals — fearsome ones, but ones that can be studied and adapted to. It plays like all the scariest scenes of the Jurassic franchise, with the underlying design aesthetic of some of the best modern examples of the genre. Especially for horror fans, The Lost Wild looks like it might end up being a must-play game.

The Lost Wild is currently scheduled to be released in 2027 on PlayStation 5 and Windows.