Crytek's Back to Dinosaur Island VR demo is gorgeous, terrifying

Crytek, makers of Crysis and the Crytek Engine, brought a special tech demo with them to GDC a month or so ago. This was a virtual reality build of a “game” they’re calling Back to Dinosaur Island.

We throw game in quotes because this isn’t much more than a tech demo at this point. It has a title, there’s a bit of a narrative here and you can interact with it, but that’s about as far as the “game”-ness of it goes.

We also call it a game because, well, we want them to turn this into a real thing, complete with Oculus Rift, Steam VR and Project Morpheus support. Yep, it’s that awesome. See for yourself in the direct feed video at the head of this post.

Crytek Producer Fatih Özbayram tweeted about the demo all the way back in March. Here’s what he had to say then, before we had direct feed footage.

I totally get that this is nothing more than a tech demo. However, I also think I’m not alone in hoping that this eventually becomes a project for the Crytek team. It looks amazing, and I’d be ready to positively lose it if and when I get a chance to strap on a set of VR goggles and explore the prehistoric world.

I’ll also be terrified. Imagine this thing with raptors? Oh boy.