Crysis Dev's Free Dinosaur VR Game Launches Today

Crysis and Ryse: Son of Rome developer Crytek has released its dinosaur-themed virtual reality tech demo for free on Steam. Called Back to Dinosaur Island, the game was developed using Crytek's CryEngine and was first seen publicly at the 2015 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco earlier this year.

The game has been playable at a handful of industry events, but this is the first time it's being made available to everyone. It is compatible with Oculus Rift development kit 2 and newer devices.

In Back to Dinosaur Island, you play the role of a baby dinosaur in a nest. There isn't much gameplay per se, as the demo is instead meant to highlight how VR can make you feel "present" in a virtual environment. A hulking Tyrannosaurus Rex approaches you during one segment, which provides players a "sense of scale and awe in a way that can only be achieved with virtual reality," Crytek said.

"Back to Dinosaur Island shows how intense, involving and rich virtual reality can be," Crytek director of production, David Bowman, said. "Players will see a powerful dinosaur breathing inches from their face, getting an unprecedented sense of its immense scale. To watch this scene in 2D is impressive, but when you're in virtual reality, it becomes more intimate, and more exciting--giving you a feeling of presence and a belief that you're really right there in a way that no other medium can."

Head to Steam to download Back to Dinosaur Island today.

Back to Dinosaur Island isn't Crytek's only dinosaur-focused VR game. During Sony's Paris Games Week briefing in October, Crytek announced Robinson: The Journey. This game, in which you play as a young boy who has crash-landed on a mysterious planet, will debut first on Sony's PlayStation VR.