Even with the glut of incredible looking strategy games announced for the PC this year, it’s still tough to find something truly original. Then we saw Paraworld. Unlike the high-tech wars of Supreme Commander and Command & Conquer 3, Paraworld is set in a parallel universe where dinosaurs still roam the earth. Ancient tribes of men control these beasts and form armies made of 100% pure childhood imagination - seriously, who didn’t love dinosaurs when they were a kid?
Three factions represent different races and distinct geographical locations. The Euros get the Scandinavian Norsemen, Dustriders come from the savannah plains of Africa and the Dragon Clan represents the people from the steppes of Asia. But happily, the stars of the show are the dinos that live in those lands, not the dudes who are enthroned high upon the shoulders of these monsters. In fact, most of the units in the game are actual dinosaurs. From small to gargantuan, these not-so-extinct specimens are incredibly drawn, full of color and... heavily armed.
Paraworld’s designers could have just let us duke it out with a few triceratops and a couple of nasty T-rexes, but you can also juice the lizardsup with war paint, armor cladding and eventually giant siege weapons. By spending “skulls” - the in-game currency looted from fallen enemies - your dinos will deal even more damage through upgrades. Mount a catapult on top of your towering brachiosaurus that shoots eggs filled with velociraptors, or hook up your woolly mammoths with infantry-skewering ballistae.
