Far Cry: Primal Review

When I originally played Far Cry 4, I ignored Primal due to the lukewarm reception it got at the time of release. Playing FC4 again made me convinced that I would drop Primal in a few hours and then move on to something else. Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the latter game much more than I ever thought I was going to. Sure, it doesn't reinvent the wheel and it's still an FC game with the foundation laid by the 3rd game. What makes Far Cry Primal different and at the very least has me putting it above 4 is due to the changes in combat and not having nearly the same inconviences as the latter game did.

The story was just okay, I don't normally like reading subtitles in games especially but the whole story felt like a bunch of loose favors which felt episodic plots that didn't have much to with each other. I often just zoned out during cutscens until the story missions started. I also didn't really notice Takkar going on a big journey of any kind, he just felt like an errand boy for much of the game. I didn't even roll credits on the game either but according to the various internet walkthroughs I used, it seems I techically finished the main campaign when I completed the Batari Temple mission. I wasn't engaged enough by the story to do the 100% complete ending.

When you boot up the game, the visuals have a high amount of fidelity to them and it looks good now almost 10 years later. The premise is unique in that it takes place in the prehistoric age where characters seemingly speak a made up language. It does have much of FC3 and 4's mechanics like the stealth, the weapon limit, throwable weapons, the mantling which is mainly effective at fixed points and crafting. This is all pretty done before.

What does set this game apart is the fact that the weapons are not based around 20 different interchangeable hitscan guns where all you do is point, shoot and enemies die. The weapons in FC Primal are projectile and you need to be careful and line up your shots a lot more by comparison it's predecessors. You don't even get a slo mo ability to help you line up shots like the Horizon games either. There might be some aim assist particularly bullet magnatism used but it's never too noticeable in the moment.

On top of this, you only get 4 weapons to use with only the club getting a different variation. Each one serves a specific purpose. The bow and arrow is the weakest in terms of raw damage but one who is good with headshots can be very effective at actively getting kills. The spear does a lot of damage but you can only hold up to 4 and they are not as plentiful as arrows. Clubs are good for close range combat, however it's more of a last resort and is better used on two enemies or some animals. They can be thrown at enemies which is a good last resort tactic.

What also helps makes combat dynamic that even with upgrades, you won't always have enough crafting materials on hand. During a harder wave and challenge, you might run out of ammo to create and starting running around the map to pick up spears and arrows to kill enemies with. The continue system does respawn you with all the materials you had before you died instead of at the checkpoint which would annoy me but what helps is that due to the amount of spears, arrows, crafting materials and clubs scattered all over the camps, these sections can feel doable.

Other improvements over FC4 are that the skill tree doesn't make you do side quests to unlock them, you meet a quest giving npc, they unlock a specific skill tree and you can invest points. Search animations can be disabled and healing leafs and items are much more plentiful.

The negatives are that the missions can feel dull and samey. The combat is well made but the main missions is just consists of errands, fetch quests and following trails. There are some more interesting ones like setting a camp on fire, storming a camp with an elephant(it's not optional like in FC4), and destroying a moon but they tend to be the exception.

Animals are an annoyance here than adding to the world like in FC3. You want to run to an objective, wack some animals chasing you with a club and hope they either buzz off or you kill them. You can solve this problem the exact same way every time. Making them more of a small obstacle that gets in the way than a challenge.

Bosses are terrible. They are damage sponges who rely on doing lots of damage to you and enemies backing them up than being an actual challenge on their own. There is a few of them but UII was such a damage sponge that I wonder if that fight was playtested. When I beat them it felt like I got lucky than because of skill.

The game also crashes from time to time when fast travelling to your home base on PS5 which of course is annoying.

Overall, while FC Primal isn't a game I consider mindblowing, I'm surprised I played more of it than I ever thought I was going to. The combat is one of the more interesting in the series and carries the game.