Far Cry Primal takes one of Ubisoft’s tent pole franchises and turns it on its head. Taking your typical run and gun first-person shooter back to 10,000 B.C. Far Cry Primal applies the open world exploration and crafting that defines the series to a new level, in a game most were expecting to be a short copy and paste from Far Cry 4.
I find that Ubisoft recently has recently had trouble with games’ narrative. Unfortunately, Far Cry Primal is not an exception. In short, Primal’s narrative is terrible. It starts off strong with the premise that your character, Takkar, will unite the Wenja people in the land of Oros, and to be fair, this goal is accomplished. The problem comes when you are asked to complete missions that have zero narrative importance or consequence. The game could have been half the length. I wish Ubisoft would have trimmed the fat so to speak, and released a shorter more concise game. The Wenjans have two main enemies, the Udam led by Ull and the Izila led by Batari. It sounds like there would be this dynamic clash between tribes. Wrong, all the responsibility falls on Takkar to build the tribe and singlehandedly take down both opposing leaders. Takkar does this by finding specialists, like hunters and builders, to help in his conquest, but despite being interesting characters they feel almost unimportant in the grand scheme of things and the mission chain ends. The game also feels disjointed by the fact that you can rush and finish off both opposing tribes and there are still missions to complete. I originally interpreted it as the game is meant to be nonlinear, to emphasize that there are multiple tiny threads all about building the tribe and surviving, and not just about these opposing tribes. In the end I concluded that the narrative just felt lazy. I got the feeling that most of the game was filler and was not important in the overall product. In conclusion, Far Cry Primal’s story just feels lazy, boring, and unimportant. Primal uses the traditional equation of Far Cry games in a unique way that perfectly fits the time. The game still focuses on capturing outposts, lighting bonfires (this games version of 3’s radio towers), hunting and crafting. Primal gets rid of currency so when you need more spears, clubs or arrows. The player needs to craft them from the abundant materials throughout the map. A similar system is used to create new and more powerful weapons as opposed to just outright buying them. There is a good variety of weapons to craft, but to an excess in a way. You do not have to create everything, and certain items are not even needed in the game (depending on your play style). Hunting animals and gathering plants returns in mostly the same capacity as previous instalments. The only difference is that along with collecting pelts from animals, you also collect meat which in Primal can be used as bait to lure animals or as a source of health in a tight spot. Primal also adds a shamanistic side to its gameplay. After Takkar meets and completes the first mission for Tensay, Takkar gains the ability to tame animals that will fight by his side and give him small perks. Some animals can mark enemies in the environment or alert you to resources in the vicinity. The animal AI is not the worst companion AI out there. The animals do have a tendency to go rogue and start fights with animals or other enemies. This is extremely frustrating when attempting a stealth infiltration of outposts. Combat is mostly focused on melee, with the exceptions of bows, but all melee weapons can also be thrown to kill or stun enemies. Enemy AI is like the animal AI, in the way that it is not the smartest. Enemies focus on charging in large numbers and it seems that there is no logical strategy while fighting, other than using overwhelming numbers. While infiltrating outposts, this becomes apparent. Once you are spotted and someone raises the alarm it becomes a pushing match that does not feel like anything more than just swing your club as many times as possible. For the first time in the Far Cry series night gameplay is different from day gameplay. It is not like the difference in Dying Light, where enemies become stronger and more aggressive, but you can find animals that can only be found at night. Ubisoft also added a nice touch by having the animals eyes glow at night, so you can see eyes staring at you before a bear or wolf pack attacks. In its own way it becomes frightening by playing on a base fear of human beings, the fear of the dark. The skill tree is a little more complicated than it has been in the past. More similar to Far Cry 3 with multiple skill trees, unlike 4 that only had two. You gain access to different trees by finding the different specialists for your village (the hunter, warrior, inventor, etc.). Each tree helps with certain parts of survival. The warrior tree focusses on takedowns, the hunter on skills focused on bows and hunting, and the gatherer tree focuses on finding plants and materials in the wild. There are eight total skill trees. Depending on playstyle, would pick skills to fit that style, but many skills just seem useless and there to fill space. Far Cry Primal is an interesting attempt to do something new with an existing franchise. Solid gameplay, that at times feels cluttered and messy, gets dragged down by a weak and lacking story. I want to score this game higher because it is entertaining and worth playing, but I cannot get past the problems with the narrative. I give Far Cry Primal a 6/10. Rating: 6/10
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AuthorI am A.J. Goelz. I'm a gamer first and a writer second. I hope you enjoy the content on this page and check out the rest of my content on YouTube. Archives
April 2019
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