Your character class has little difference on gameplay and teamwork
Dino Beatdown is plagued with bugs that make the game almost unplayable and it trips over its own feet with poor design choices. I would have been satisfied if they copied what Halo, Gears of War, even Killzone has done for survival based gameplay but take death and spawning as an example. When you die in a survival game, you are usually out for that round. You should be free to view your teammates until the next round starts in a couple minutes. When you die in Dino Beatdown, which will happen a lot, you’re stuck waiting for up to ten minutes for the current round to end until you can come back in the game. This all hinges on how well your allies are doing, and if they are lucky enough to repair the generators without the dinosaurs getting in the way. Keep in mind that there is no way to view the other players when you are dead, so have fun staring into oblivion while the round if being finished.
The shooting feels ok, but everything surrounding the gameplay is pretty broken as well. Cover does nothing, and don’t even think about hiding in a building since the dinos can clip through walls and tear you apart while you are fumbling to buy a new weapon. The maps are large and uninspiring, as you can select between ‘desert area’,‘jungle green area’ or a the three other generic environments. Apparently this runs on the Unreal 3 engine, but both the character models and the dinosaurs themselves look like a T-Rex was the lead art director. I know that graphics aren’t everything but it is tough to get into a game when it feels like this should have come out ten years ago. The last thing that I will harp on is the sound, or the lack of it. A survival game of this nature requires sound to build some tension and atmosphere, but there is literally no sound. You would expect the raptors to screech and the T-Rex to roar, but the dinosaurs just run around the level silent. Even the guns do not have a pop to them, and I think the vehicles were the only thing in the game that had a believable sound.
The game is as logical as this picture
The one possible saving grace of Orion: Dino Beatdown is the inclusion of co-op play. Finding a game was pretty challenging and I had to join servers that were across the ocean, as no one was really playing in the Americas. Apparently Dino Beatdown is big in Europe, who knew? I was subject to shocking frame rate issues and lag, and sometimes I could not join a game but simply listen to the melodramatic soundtrack and watch the action through a spectator camera. Horde mode has been done before, and is one of the best things to come to this generation of games. It is not that hard to do, but Dino Beatdown even manages to screw this up. The game does nothing to encourage you to work as a team, as the classes are not designed to complement each other and you mostly need other people to act as distractions so you can get some kills in and then run away and hide. The dinosaurs will focus on anyone who shoots at them, making the basic strategy for survival is to take turns shooting. Sounds fun, right? Helping each other means nothing, as only the person who gets the kill is rewarded with the cash which means that one person usually ended up with all the cool toys and everyone else was stuck with a pistol. Because the game is entirely comprised of a survival mode, it is really unfortunate that there is no incentive for working together as a co-op team.
I wanted to like Orion: Dino Beatdown but I probably went into it with the wrong expectations. I shouldn’t ask so much of a budget title, but when you tease me with the subject matter of dinosaurs and laser guns what am I supposed to do? Even the co-op play cannot save what this game attempts to be, and I would not wish it upon anyone to have to suffer through this with a friend. Bugs aside, there is little gameplay to be had and the whole experience is appalling. Do not waste your time or money with Orion: Dino Beatdown because you will be disappointed with the lack of creative use for such wonderful creatures.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Up to five players can work together to accomplish objectives and survive the devastating Dinosaur horde.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.