Terrible Lizards Review Summary

Fluid, satisfying parkour, superb monster and dinosaur designs, and an enjoyable story are undermined by widespread bugs, frequent crashes, janky parkour moments, and poor optimization.

Fluid and satisfying parkour: Reviewers consistently praise the parkour system as smooth, fluid, and highly satisfying, often calling it the best part of the game. The movement flow and responsiveness are highlighted as a major strength.

Good overall game quality: Many reviewers give a general positive assessment, calling the game good, well-made, and surprisingly enjoyable. These comments reflect a broad satisfaction with the overall experience.

Superb monster and dinosaur designs: Creature designs, especially dinosaurs, are praised for being unique, terrifying, and well-crafted, enhancing both horror and visual appeal. The designs contribute significantly to the game's atmosphere.

Enjoyable and interesting story: The story is considered good, interesting, and enjoyable, with some noting it goes in unexpected directions. It adds to the overall experience without being the primary focus.

Stunning visuals and environments: The environments are described as stunning, beautiful, and atmospheric, with graphics that fit the setting well. Visual quality is a notable positive aspect.

Widespread bugs and crashes: Players frequently report bugs ranging from minor glitches to fatal crashes, with many noting that the game is sometimes so broken they must restart from a checkpoint.

Frustrating janky parkour: Parkour is commonly described as janky and inconsistent, especially when grabbing ledges or beams, with momentum causing overshot jumps and undershot landings that feel unfair.

Poor optimization and performance: The game is poorly optimized with lag, chugging, and frame drops, forcing players to lower graphics settings after almost every chapter.

Game overstays its welcome: The game is criticized for being too long, with the final act dragging painfully and the experience becoming a boring drag toward the middle and end.

Underwhelming anticlimactic ending: Multiple reviewers found the ending lackluster and anticlimactic, with little actual conclusion, leaving the story feeling unsatisfying.

Parkour is core mechanic: The vast majority of feedback centers on parkour as the primary gameplay system, including wall running, climbing, ledge grabbing, sliding, and swinging. Players describe movement and momentum as the main attraction.

Dinosaur chase sequences: Many reviews highlight scripted chase sequences where players outrun dinosaurs such as the Allosaurus and a brontosaurus boss. These chases are often tied into story missions and alternate with other mechanics.

Chapter-based story structure: The game is structured into chapters with story progression, characters, and voice acting. Some players note mandatory story sections and a chapter-based flow with chase segments.

Platforming and puzzle elements: Platforming is a major gameplay element, often combined with puzzles instead of standard puzzle types. Several reviews mention parkour puzzles and platforming sections as part of the adventure structure.

Horror and dinosaur theme: Feedback consistently describes a horror premise combined with a dinosaur theme, including zombie dinosaurs and monster encounters. The game is frequently labeled a dinosaur-themed horror title.

Framerate drops in later chapters: Multiple players report that performance degrades significantly from the midpoint onward, with some seeing 15-30 FPS on high-end hardware. The issue often forces settings to be lowered repeatedly as the game progresses.

Severe random FPS drops: Players with powerful PCs report sudden drops to 10-20 FPS that persist until the game is restarted. This occurs even on RTX 5080 and 5060 systems with high-end CPUs.

Chase sequence framerate drops: Frame rates fall sharply during chase sequences, dropping from around 60 FPS to 15 or lower. This affects both the brontosaurus chase and other major chase screens.

DirectX 12 fatal crashes: Several players encounter UE fatal errors when launching or running the game in DirectX 12 mode, in some cases nearly losing save data. Switching to DX11 is the common workaround.

Stuttering at loading zones: Noticeable stuttering and frame chugging occur when entering loading zones or major new areas. Prolonged play sessions also cause performance to degrade over time.

Strong Overall Recommendation: A large group of reviewers highly recommends the game, using phrases like 100% recommend, absolutely purchase, and must-play. This positivity spans casual and genre-fan audiences.

Bugs and Performance Issues: Multiple reviewers report crashes, bugs, and performance problems, suggesting the game is not worth buying until patched. Some recommend waiting for updates or fixes before playing.

Mascot Horror and Parkour Fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of mascot horror, body horror, and parkour mechanics, drawing comparisons to Poppy Playtime and Finding Frankie.

Wait for Sale or Discount: Many recommend waiting for a sale or buying only at a low price, as the game is not considered worth full price. Some suggest picking it up cheaply or watching a let's play instead.

Worth the Price: Several reviewers feel the game is worth the money, especially at its price point or for indie production. Some highlight Italian language support as a plus.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $20.00.

Game completion: 6.5h.

Story completion: 6.0h.

Players broadly report immediate enjoyment from the opening atmosphere and early acts, followed by a marked drop into repetitive cave, puzzle, and chase loops.

Reported time to anchor: 1m.

Friction: Slow start; Performance issues and glitches, especially in Chapter 2; Locked camera on items or scenes with little freedom; Repetitive puzzle sections; Repetitive dialogue.

Parkour Chase Thrill-Seeker: Runs and platformers through linear chase routes, hides from stalking dinosaurs, and seeks high-pressure monster encounters. Motivation: Fast, tense evasion sequences and active parkour movement. Stance: buy.

Mascot Horror Lore Fan: Explores themed horror levels, follows story and environmental lore, and seeks animatronic or monster worldbuilding. Motivation: Mascot and dinosaur horror atmosphere, story mysteries, and expanding lore. Stance: buy.

Short-Session Value Hunter: Plays in one or a few short sessions, tolerates simple puzzle-and-run loops, and waits for discounts before buying. Motivation: Short, low-cost horror fun with minimal time commitment. Stance: sale.

Across the Windows VRAM cohorts, performance is inconsistent: lower-VRAM systems report frequent stutter, frame drops, and crashes, while higher-VRAM cohorts mostly run well aside from isolated severe reports.

Windows <8GB VRAM: mixed. Recommended reviews often still mention low FPS and stutter, while non-recommended reviews report crashes, long lags, and major frame drops, so both positive and negative evidence is substantial.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Most included reviewers report smooth or solid performance, though a few cite severe lag, frame drops, or crashes.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. Reports are dominated by crashes, progress resets, poor frame rates, and severe optimization problems, with only one snippet noting mostly fine performance.

Steam Deck: The feedback shows a broadly playable Steam Deck experience with positive controls and confirmed compatibility, but it is not frictionless. Users report shader-cache-related framerate drops, frequent stutters, and the need to switch to the Steam Deck preset for decent performance. Proton video playback issues on Linux are also mentioned. There are no reports of launch failures, anti-cheat blocks, unreadable UI, or frequent crashes, so the main barrier is moderate performance tuning rather than a broken build.

Linux and Proton: Linux/Proton compatibility appears mostly functional. The only explicit Linux/Proton concern is a Linux Mint user noting that Proton can misbehave during video playback. Other reviews mention shader-cache hitches and stutter, but these are not clearly framed as Linux-specific problems. There is no evidence of launch blockers, anti-cheat friction, DRM failures, or workaround-heavy setup.

Short game length: Multiple reviewers note the game is short, with playtimes around 6-8 hours depending on exploration and collectible hunting.

Positive review scores: Reviewers rate the game around 7.5 to 8.5 out of 10, describing it as a solid experience.

Favorable comparison to Poppy Playtime: Several reviewers compare the game to Poppy Playtime, with some saying it is much better and what Poppy Playtime should have been, though others find it less ridiculous or unfavorably compared.

Sequel or expansion desired: Reviewers hope the developers make a sequel, expansion, or co-op experience to build on the game's foundation.

Developer's first game: The game is the studio's first release, noted by multiple reviewers.