Stepping into the Danish Pavillon on Thursday evening for a hands-on session with Dinolords, published by Ghost Ship Publishing, felt like stepping right back into the golden era of real-time strategy games. Developed by the Danish indie studio Northplay, Dinolordsdelivers a bold premise. A medieval strategy game where classic knights, archers and fortifications share the battlefield with fully weaponized dinosaurs.
Beyonds its goofy concept the biggest takeaway from our play session was that Dinolordsisn’t just a traditional head-to-head RTS. It features fully cooperative multiplayer, allowing players to team up against others in asymmetric multiplayer battles. During my play session I played a 2v1 match alongside Michael Flarup, the CEO of Northplay, Ulrik Damm, the CTO and Kasra Tahmasebi, one of the developers of the game. And during our session it became clear that that Dinolords captures the pure, chaotic joy of late 1990s and early 200s LAN party classics like Warcraft, Age of Empires and Stronghold, while introducing fresh mechanics that keep the genre feeling vibrant and just add to the fun!
Frontline Leadership: Direct Hero Control
At the center of Dinolords is a unique hybrid control scheme that bridges action RPG mechanics with classic RTS macro-management. Rather than acting as an omniscient, disembodied commander overhead, you embody an active on the ground equipped with a massive two-handed sword.
Your hero is far more than a decorative combat unit. In the early game, you push your town’s economy, walk up to resource nodes to chip timber or mine ore alongside your villagers, visibly accelerating gather rates. As the game progress, your hero gains experience, levels up, unlocks new active and passive abilities and explores the map to unlock special objectives.
What makes the levelling system particularly ingenious is its dynamic unit scaling. Your hero’s abilities scale directly with the composition of your army.
So the more archers you recruit into your ranks, the stronger your hero’s ranged-enhancing abilities become. Swarming the field with infantry amplifies your hero’s heavy melee skills, turning your commander into a devastating front-line trooper.
Prehistoric Mayhem: Dinosaurs in Economy and Combat
While simple infantry and archers form the foundation of your initial army, late-game strategy revolves around recruiting dinosaurs. Northplay has avoided treating these prehistoric beasts merely as oversized reskins of conventional units. Instead, dinosaurs feature unique abilities that integrate into the economic expansion and tactical combat.
The game’s visual humor and creativity shine brightest in these prehistoric mechanics.
Early woodcutting relies on simple human lumberjacks, hacking away at trunks. Once upgraded, you can deploy a massive Triceratops that gouges tree trunks directly out of the soil with its horns, drastically boosting logging efficiency-
During our demo match, we I fielded some venom-spitting dinosaurs capable of spewing thick pools of oily area of effects over enemy formations. While the oil severely slowed the enemies, its real magic lied in the synergy. Firing flaming arrows into the oil ignited the area, burning the enemy battalions alive.
High Stakes and Screen-Filling Showdowns
The highlight of our Gamescom session was during the dramatic climax of our asymmetric 2v1 match against one of the developers. The developers lead me to a special point of interest on the map, where a giant, screen filling, Tyrannosaurus Rex just waited to be freed.
Taking up a massive portion of the display, this T-Rex turned out to be a game-ending force of nature. With a single tail swipe and jaw snap, the apex predator flattened entire defensive structures and decimated the army of the developer with ease in an absolute chaotic victory.
The vibe and energy during the match was just infectious, with the developers actively laughing, cheering and showing of the unscripted fun that defines the game’s design philosophy.
Fluid Controls and Strategic Accessibility
Despite the dual focus of hero action and army management, Dinolords controls remarkably well. The camera transitions smoothly between close-up hero combat and zoomed-out strategic map view. To prevent direct hero control from distracting from army management too much, Northplay has already implemented a lot of smart shortcuts. Dedicated key binds allow you to issue quick recall commands, pulling specific squads back to your hero’s position without forcing you to re-select distant barracks. You can also dispatch fresh units directly to specific chokepoints or ongoing battle lines while staying actively engaged in melee combat.
Also, in asymmetric multiplayer you can split up who will focus on what. One player can focus on the base building and economics, while the other clears and explores points of interests in the map and actively engages in skirmishes early on.
Dino Mayhem Excellence
The short match at Gamescom was an absolute blast. Dinolords is shaping up to be one of the most delightfully charming RTS titles of the near future. By pairing nostalgic late 90s and early 200s strategy vibes with direct hero controls and progression, dinosaurs and fun multiplayer modes, Northplay and Ghost Ship Publishing have struck a fantastic balance between accessibility and tactical depth.
I honestly can’t wait for the next playtest and the Early Access in the near future!
