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Forget Exoprimal’s dinosaurs and evil AI, the real villains are its surprisingly capable botsHold onto your butts
Hold onto your butts
Image credit:Capcom
Image credit:Capcom
After giving us an early glimpse of its unstoppable raptor hordes in a closed beta test last summer, Capcom recently let us loose with the opening hours of their upcoming dinosaur multiplayer shooter,Exoprimal. Its final release isn’t far away now - its July 14th launch fast becoming the sole highlight of an otherwise desolate month - and I was excited to finally play the game that RPS vid bud Liam literally hasn’t been able to stop talking about ever since he first clapped eyes (and his thumbs) on its somersaulting T-Rexes. (You should also read his excellentinterview with the devswhile you’re at it, too).
Exoprimal’s Unstoppable Raptor Hordes Have Slammed Straight Into My Heart | Hands OnWatch on YouTube
Exoprimal’s Unstoppable Raptor Hordes Have Slammed Straight Into My Heart | Hands On
I should say, I am glad that the bots exist. Exoprimal does its best to match you with other players whenever you start a mission, but it will also fill in the blanks with AI-controlled teammates in a relatively timely fashion if it can’t find anyone for you to play with - as I occasionally found during this preview period. There are no endless waiting rooms, no sudden dropouts back to menu screens because you happen to be playing on an empty server that day. It gets you into the action fast, whatever your final human player count is. A good first impression, then, and the presence of its bots also made me feel more confident about Exoprimal’s longevity post-launch, too.
They’re smart bots, too. They’ll generally ensure that your team has a good mix of different classes and exosuit types on the field, and they’re all dab hands at taking down the actually very stoppable raptor hordes that Leviathan beams in to munch on you. Sure, there’s definitely a sense that you’re still the clear MVP here, but they don’t make you feel like you’re doingallthe heavy-lifting. That’s important when missions typically run for 20-30 minutes at a time, and it would be a right old slog if they were always next to useless and you were effectively fending them off solo the entire time.
Image credit:Capcom
There is a ‘but’ to this, however. For as much as the bots are great to have on your own side, a full team of rival AI bots is a force to be reckoned with. They’re so strong, in fact, that I actually never won a single match against them, which naturally became quite disheartening after a couple of consecutive rounds. You still, thankfully, gain experience and all that jazz if you lose, but not as much as if you win, which can make progress and levelling up feel sluggish and a little demotivating.
Image credit:Capcom
As the sole human player in this situation, this often made me feel likeIwas the extra deadweight, even though in the moment I felt like I was doing everything I could to hold the team together and get things done faster. And it’s entirely possible that I was the deadweight here, too. In no way am I professing to be an Exoprimal master in any of this, but when you’re putting your all into trying to tip the scales in your favour and itstillisn’t enough, it does make Exoprimal a tough beast to really enjoy.
The game does try and give the losing team a bit of a leg up in places. If you’re really biffing it, you’ll be granted control of your very own T-Rex, which you haul from a purple portalBayonetta-style before Leviathan chucks you into the rival team’s parallel mission to wreak havoc. This is Exoprimal at its silliest best, and the rush of charging into those enemy bots and slamming away their health bars so they have to spend more time respawning than zonking dinos was both intensely fun and cathartic. And yet. They were still never quite enough to claw back a lead.
Image credit:Capcom
I really hit my tipping point when missions reached their conclusion, too. In the final phase of each mission, each team is pitted against each other directly, with each side doing their bestOverwatchEscort impression as they transport a fragile, dino catnip McGuffin to the centre of the arena before finally doing deadly battle with one other in the centre. And I’m not ashamed to say it, but I got absolutely rinsed whenever I came into contact with its AI bots, with the other side seeming to instantly decimate my team every single time.
