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Exoprimal review-in-progress: somehow makes team dino-slaying a snoozefestI’d rather walk with the dinosaurs
I’d rather walk with the dinosaurs
Image credit:Capcom
Image credit:Capcom
I’m now several hours intoExoprimal, a multiplayer PVEVP game where two teams race to obliterate hordes of rabid dinosaurs as quickly as possible. And I’m sad to report I’m having a miserable time. It seems like yet another cursed game I’ve had to review this year, and I don’t know what I’ve done in a past life to deserve this. The chickens - which as far as I’m aware, are dinosaurs or distant relatives to the large lizards - have come home to roost.
On paper, Exoprimal sounds like a hoot. The year is 2040 and the world’s under attack from swarms of dinosaurs, which certainly isn’t ideal for all involved. A corporation has developed an AI called Leviathan that can predict when these dino-outbreaks will happen, alongside the technology needed to kit humans out in dino-beating exosuits. As one of the enlisted, you fight waves of dinosaurs in competitive races to the finish line. Depending on whether you choose PVE, PVP, or Random, you might have to fight against your fellow humans towards the end of a match because… combat training? Who knows.
Exoprimal - Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
Exoprimal - Launch Trailer
I’m a few hours in and so far, I’m only allowed to play one mode: Dino Survival. Like I’ve mentioned above, you’re led through an overgrown city in teams of five and shuttled through regular intervals of “kill the swarm of raptors” or “we’ve summoned a slightly larger dinosaur with a complex Latin name”. Between intervals the red apparitions of the other team flash up, alerting you to how they’re getting on, alongside an onscreen message that says whether you’re clearing the hordes faster or slower than them. Eventually, you reach a final stage where the objective seems to switch. I’ve heard there’s others, but so far I’ve only experienced Escort, where you push a payload to an end point a bit likeOverwatch’s equivalent.
Normally, I don’t mind playing the same game mode over and over if the core of what I’m doing is a rip roaring laugh or dangles enticing rewards just out of reach. The trouble with Exoprimal is that it hasn’t ticked either of these boxes. If anything, it strikes me as overconfident and underbaked, both in the hero shooter thing it’s got going on and the typical live service traits it’s adopted.
Image credit:Capcom
Then there’s the whole completing a match, which nets you… guff. Suit levels, battle pass levels, BikCoin, all the most tedious of incremental stat boosts or skins. I keep moseying about the menus, looking for something to work towards,anythingto latch onto! There isn’t anything! It seems confident in its setup to have me play the same scenario, seemingly forever? I guess I’ll play the same game mode over and over and over again for a green hat and a skull emblem hahahakillmehahaha.
