Paleo Pines

Paleo Pines was provided by Modus Games for review. Thank you!

There are a lot of games that take on the slice-of-life farming simulator but put a unique spin on it. Moonstone Island adds in monster collecting and battling similar to Slay the Spire, Fae Farm brings in some magical elements and streamlines a lot of the process for maintaining, so what does Paleo Pines bring into this genre? Dinosaurs. Adorable, helpful dinosaurs.

Like other games in the genre, you will get a plot of land to plow, plant, and water different crops to make money or use for yourself. There is a world to explore with different biomes, which contain different dinosaurs, and a central town with townspeople where you can sell your crops and buy materials. You can also take on different quests to help you learn the game's mechanics and get new dinosaurs to befriend. You can also customize your plot of land, making pens and setting down decorations whichever way you want.

Then, we have the dinos. These guys are all over the place, and you will use a flute to befriend and bring them into your crew. Each dino has its special abilities to help farm, like the Triceratops, who can plow multiple tiles in a row. I love how the dinosaurs can help and make the process significantly easier, as well as using the flute to direct the dinos on where to go. The designs are also adorable and I love seeing each one run around, eat some food, and play around.

I really like the aesthetic of Paleo Pines overall, but I did find the design for the human characters to feel slightly off-putting. I also didn't find myself connecting with any of the townspeople either, and they weren't as memorable as I have seen in other similar games. I also have a love-hate relationship with the Stamina system. Part of me hates running out of stamina, which stops me from running around, but it encourages riding dinosaurs, which makes traversal go by much quicker.

Experiencing farming with dinos can also be wonderful on the Steam Deck.

Paleo Pines - Steam Deck Performance

Paleo Pines doesn't have many graphical options, opting only for a resolution scale and a general quality selector, but it can run quite well in most areas. It gets a little hard in the more open areas where specific angles can tank performance. After much testing, I decided to optimize for these areas since they are the most demanding, and I found some nice ways to enjoy the game.

Recommended Build

Usually, I enjoy more battery-saving builds, but with the drop in the open area, I preferred the higher quality. This does require a 30 FPS cap, but it looks incredible. There is no reduction in resolution scale, so everything is very sharp and on the high quality preset. Most closed-off areas will also see around 12W - 15W battery drain, while the open area could get up to 21W. But, because the closed-off areas aren't as hard on the device, the battery doesn't die so quickly.

Battery Build

Next, I wanted to find a build that focuses on extending the battery life as much as possible. With low quality and the resolution scale 4 notches from the right, I figured I could get a TDP limit of 6. This kept the battery drain below 12W for at least 3.5 hours. It does make some far-away models look a bit blurry, but I didn't mind as much since the closed-off areas weren't as affected.

Balanced Build

Finally, I have my original recommended build. I decided against it being the recommended due to the compromises necessary to get a stable 40 FPS with a capped battery drain, which is higher than I liked. But it does work and adds some extra smoothness from the higher framerate. The smaller areas can hit around 50 and even 60 FPS, but the larger areas will fall under the 45 area, so using 40 is perfect.

Accessibility

As for accessibility, there are more options than graphical ones. To start, there are ways to invert the camera controls, turn off vibration, and increase sensitivity. You can also change multiple different sound sliders, make text larger, and toggle walking. You can also turn off blur for distant objects, which I highly recommend doing for the battery build. It makes the game look slightly weirder, but overall, it provides more clarity, which is needed.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, so there are no black bars here, and there is support for cloud saves and gamepads.

Conclusion

Paleo Pines is a unique entry into the farming simulator/slice-of-life genre, incorporating dinosaurs into everyday life. The designs and functions of the dinos are unique and wonderful, and the way you can design your plot of land feels close to endless. The human designs can be a little jarring, and I wish the townspeople were more memorable, but overall, the game is fun to play. And, with some tweaking, there are multiple ways to enjoy Paleo Pines on the go, so taking your crew around with you will be easy!

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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