Reviewed it on RPG.net
While this game it does have potential to be good, is far too tied up in attempting to be silly, to a degree that becomes ridiculous and almost trite at times. On the whole, this game tries far too hard to be Og Unearthed. It even takes the limited vocabulary from aforementioned game and goes a step farther by denying several species the faculty of speech all together.
While there are a number of races, most of them are rather dull, in all meanings of the word.
There are the Ahs who are archaic humans, and they're just as vanilla as you'd expect.
There are the Florez, who are Homo Floresiensis, for whom they take the nickname the "Hobbit" a bit too far. They're basically Halflings with the serial numbers filed off. Now, I'm not going to complain about this, I don't mind people slipping in re-branded fantasy races. Theoretically, Cavemaster did the same with the Tanui, or as I sometimes call them "Aquatic Cave Elves".
Then you have the Neanderthals who are portrayed as, and via the rules forced to be, idiots who's maximum intelligence is limited by the rules and who are unable to use the faculties of speech. This comes off as very limiting, removing much of the choice of how to portray the character.
Next are Dino Sapiens. I see them as being wasted potential. Not only do they have the same intellectual limitations, but while the book mentions that there are many types who are related to a number of dinosaur species, they never go into detail about differentiating them to allow them to be unique options. It just boils down to cosmetics and who doesn't want to eat you. It's wasted potential.
Finally, you have what are in my mind the most painful of the races. The Cave Nerds. Nothing more than Steve Urkel in a loin cloth, and limited to that stereotype by the rules, there characters are the only ones capable of being comically inventive, creating the types of devices one sees in the Flintstones. They, and their connected Prehistoric Science abilities, are also limited entirely who the Ahs, to whom they're a subrace. While this might be considered excusable, when combined large segment of the first half of the book is dedicated their wacky inventions, it becomes rather trite and obnoxious rather quickly.
The magic section is conventional, adding a couple new powers while attributing the rest to the worshipers of specific spirits.
The inventory section is somewhat lax. While there are some authentically themed stone age items, a large number of them seem to simply be cave standard fantasy adventuring gear item as seen through the eyes of the Flintstones. Large segment of this is also dedicated to the various ridiculous inventions of the Cave Nerds.
The bestiary is thin and contains several species which by all rights should have been added to the races list, such as Trogs (Orcs) and Apemen. They hit on the most obvious general types of dinosaur, but probably would have done more research to come up with a larger section of interesting creatures.
The biggest flaw in my mind though, is the complete lack of detailed hunting and gathering rules. Og Unearthed has them. Cavemaster has them. There's a very good reason for this In a hunter-gatherer society your main focus is hunting and gathering food. If you're out wandering about, its going to be in search of calories. If you kill something, you're going to want to eat it so you should know how much meat you get from it. To me this absence is downright inexcusable.
Beyond that, the formatting is awkward. The book is split in two sections, one for players and one for GMs, with the geography, magic, and inventory sections divided between them. If the text was printed, I'd complain about the over-abundance of pregenerated mini-adventures, though I'm still left wondering if that if the 50 or so pages dedicated to them couldn't have been better used for something else. The watermarking is very obvious and the cartoon styled art used throughout most of the book is pretty bad, though since I'm rating on content and not glamor, I'm not holding the art against them.
The world itself is, thankfully, rather interesting and amusing in a very "Hammer Films" sort of way, which is in all honestly probably the entire point. There's a lot of interesting material that could be useful to a good GM, which allows at least this segment to stand out as the shining point of the game, but sadly this is a singular point.
All in all, the races are a mixed bag, failing to live up to their potential in some areas while being almost painful in others (hi N.E.R.D.s!). The inventory is uninspired and the Bestiary is on the small side, and both probably could have done with more research. The Cave Science aspect seems to receive far too much focus, sometimes pushing beyond simple silliness and stretching the suspension of disbelief.
The world is interesting and shows real thought to it and had the level of silliness been made more adjustable, it could have very much filled the void between the prehistoric wackiness of Og Unearthed and the more serious paliofantasy of Cavemaster. Instead we're left with a disorganized mess that puts you in the role of a hunter gatherer without bothering to give you the rules to gather and hunt!
All in all, I find this book to be a waste of potential. If the took itself a bit more seriously, and made the more silly options actual options it would come off as something other than an attempt to fill a niche already filled, and much more successfully so, by Og Unearthed, in only 1/4 the pages without requiring a $30 USD investment in another book. In the hands of an experienced GM who's goods at picking and choosing what elements to use, it could be easily adapted as a light-hearted take on prehistoric fantasy, but it still suffers for the lack of hunting and gathering rules. Personally I wouldn't suggest it as a Prehistoric setting for Savage Worlds. Instead I'd use it as a world book for a more serious take on Og Unearthed, or as a lighter and more fantastical world book for Cavemaster. On its own though, as it is now, I have to say its a Evolutionary Dead End.
