Created by Spiral Game Studios and Published by Trek Industries, when the game was first released in 2013 it was considered, in the lead developers own words "one of the worst games of all time". However, over three years the game has received countless free updates and even renames, and is notable for being a surprisingly cheap game, currently sitting at less than $1 USD.
Orion Prelude contains examples of these tropes:
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The dinosaurs in game are not necessarily the most accurate.
- Bald raptors
- Averted by the Dilophosaurus, because while it can spit, it's sized realistically and lacks a frill.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- The Laser Rifle, despite doing a massive 4,000 damage, (almost 4 times higher than the next most powerful weapon, the Longshot Sniper Rifle), is highly impractical because it has an extremely slow rate of fire - the Longshot Sniper Rifle will do almost as much damage in the same amount of time due to its lower rate of fire, and has a larger clip. There are also no Dinosaurs, excluding the bosses, that can survive a hit from a Longshot anyway, but the Laser Rifle is less effective against the bosses than the Minigun or the Rocket Launcher. The only notable advantage the Laser Rifle has is that it will penetrate everything in its way.
- In Rampage Mode, it's impractical to choose the big, tough dinosaurs like the Spinosaur and the Tyrannosaurus - this tends to result in carriers hiding in the small buildings the bigger dinosaurs can't enter, where they can shoot them at their leisure. In the same vein, when playing as a Carrier, most players choose the Assault class, which is not particularly useful in Rampage as the jet pack does not work while carrying T-Rex eggs, and they don't have as much health as the Support Class.
- BFG: Most adrenaline weapons; specifically the Grenade Launcher, the Rocket Launcher, the Minigun, and the Laser Rifle.
- Gatling Good: The Minigun. In the span of one second, it can unleash 25 bullets and deal 2750 damage. And that's if it hasn't been upgraded yet.
- Glass Cannon:
- In Rampage Mode, where you can play as any of the ten dinos, the Compy and Rhamphorhynchus, both have bombs strapped to their backs, allowing them to incapacitate players in one hit, but can die very easily (not to mention the bomb will kill them too).
- If a games is played on "Prehistoric" difficulty, the dinosaurs can be given four times less health, but four times more damage.
- Grenade Launcher: The first adrenaline weapon for the Assault Class. The grenades are extremely powerful and will not go off immediately if they don't hit an enemy.
- Halloween Special: One map, titled "Hell", is clearly this, giving the players a shot at killing the pumpkin king if they can kill a ghost raptor first.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: It goes "Noob," "Easy", "Medium", "Hard", "Insane", "Redikulous", and "Prehistoric"note
- Infinite Supplies:
- The Utility Gun fills the ammo of all of the recipient's weapons.
- If a player reaches a high enough level, their ammo and credits will slowly regenerate.
- Quick Melee: Any gun can be used to hit your opponent. Strangely, Pistol-Whipping has an odd tendency to be more effective than shooting in many cases.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: The revolver deals the most damage out of any pistol in the game.
- Shameless Self-Promotion: Several weapons in the game are quite clearly named after the publisher Trek Industries.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The two shotguns are the highest ranked secondary weapons, after the Ion Blade.
- Tank Goodness: Certain maps have vehicle spawners that let you build tanks. They're powerful, but if you aren't careful, the tank can be surrounded quickly, and it will get shredded should that happen.
- Training Boss: "Ambient Bosses" are Boss dinosaurs who simply wander around the arena, not always interested in coming over and fighting.
