Well, it’s not a Dino Crisis Remake like I wanted but Exoprimal from Capcom is a game that seemingly still delivers the goods in terms of dinosaur themed action. We had a beta a while back which was quite well received and Capcom have finally released the full game now in July 2023.
Does it live up to the hype surrounding it? Let’s dive right into what Exoprimal is and why you should definitely give this game a try.
Exoprimal
The name “Exoprimal” stems from the fact that players will be piloting “exosuits” in-game. The story of Exoprimal is told to you by means of cutscenes that play out throughout the course of the game. As a hybrid Player versus Player and Player versus Enemy title with matchmaking, Exoprimal is a risky new IP take on an established formula.
Set in the far future, Exoprimal follows the story of a group of mercenaries that hunt dinosaurs for a corporation known as Aibius. After crash landing on a strange and mysterious island known as Bikitoa, things get interesting and a sinister artificial intelligence known as Leviathan gets drawn into the mix. Leviathan pits our exofighter heroes against dinosaur hordes in increasingly difficult “Wargames” which it’s using to develop the ultimate exosuit.
The plot of Exoprimal is knee-deep in sci-fi wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff with parallel universes and timelines but for the most part, it’s actually pretty enjoyable. Especially with the way the game drip feeds you the story via cutscenes and tidbits of lore as you play the multiplayer components.
Exosuit madness!
Moving on to the gameplay, Exoprimal is a team-based 5 versus 5 online competitive action game which features different classes of exosuits to pick from. Anyone can play whichever class they want and can change their exosuit in battles on the fly with minimal downtime between changing classes. This is useful for matches where say for example you’re lacking healing capabilities, you can just swap over to one and play that role for your team.
While slaying hordes of dinosaurs is something we haven’t really seen in ages in the gaming world, Exoprimal has clearly taken inspiration from other games in its action multiplayer genre. If you’ve played Overwatch before, this will feel very familiar to you. Extremely familiar in fact given the fact that there’s game objectives in here that are pretty much exactly the same as with Overwatch (Defend and push the payload anyone?).
Oddly enough Exoprimal also reminded me a lot of Destiny 2. The teamwork involved is important for surviving and for defeating your opposing team. Gambit in Destiny 2 came to mind a couple of times while playing Exoprimal.
Later on in the game, players will unlock a lot more locales to fight dinosaurs in as well unlock the 10 player dinosaur “raid” battles where you’ll face off against a super powerful Neosaur. These boss battles are intense and can be extremely fun and rewarding to play through because of the mechanics involved.
Exoprimal’s different exosuits all play out differently too. For example, the tank exosuit will be able to deploy a wall to protect the rest of the team from dinosaur hordes while the witch doctor exosuit can deploy healing abilities to keep everyone healthy. Players can also customize their exosuits with “Rigs” which are additional pieces of equipment and modules for upgrades. This adds a layer of customization that makes a world of difference to some exosuits and their playstyles.
Players will gain experience points as they play through the game and their exosuits will each level up based on how often you play them. This can be a bit frustrating at first if you purely play only one type of exosuit class but put in enough time and all of your suits will become formidable enough to take on the tougher foes. Levelling up different exosuits feels rewarding as you unlock better upgrades, buffs and perks which can lower your attack cooldowns or increase your damage output or healing.
Moving around and shooting at Dinosaurs is fluid and the game really starts to feel a lot better after you’ve sunk some time into upgrading your suits since cooldowns would be reduced and you’ll have way more firepower at your disposal.
Dinosaurs!
Graphically, Exoprimal is a beautiful game. The environments look fantastic and dip into the super realistic side a bit on highest graphics settings. The RE Engine from Capcom is clearly being put to great use here as everything in this game looks amazing. The exosuits themselves look extremely detailed and there’s a lot of customization that’s on offer here too which can really make some of them pop.
Disappointingly, there is a premium season pass that will put a sour taste in the mouths of gamers who already paid full price for this title. If you’re playing Exoprimal on Microsoft Xbox Gamepass though, this isn’t so much of an issue and the season pass would be worth buying if you plan to stick with the game for a long time. The season pass unlocks numerous skins, cosmetics and other things such as decals and emotes. The season pass is purely cosmetic which is great to see. It’s more of a “Buy this if you want to” kind of thing and doesn’t influence gameplay. Thus Exoprimal is not pay to win at all.
The dinosaurs in Exoprimal are the real stars of the show though. Capcom have really gone out of their way to make them look amazingly detailed. Each and every single dinosaur species in this game looks visually spectacular and the ones which aren’t based on their real-life counterparts are interesting too. The neosaurs, especially the bosses look like they’d be right at home in Monster Hunter. In fact, there is a Monster Hunter collaboration planned for Exoprimal and I can’t wait to see that!
The soundtrack of Exoprimal is filled with some standard music to keep you slaying dinosaurs. There wasn’t anything particularly stand out in it for me but that doesn’t mean it’s bad or anything like that. It gets the job done and that’s fine. The voice acting on the other hand stood out with varied accents in the game. This isn’t something you typically see and Capcom did a good job here.
Final Verdict
Overall Exoprimal is a multiplayer team-based action game which combines gameplay mechanics from multiple genres into one satisfying package. It starts off strong, stagnates for a bit and then picks itself up again towards the higher levels. It’s therefore a title that is going to end up having a mixed reception amongst players. You’re either going to really love this game or get bored of it quite quickly depending on your tastes. I personally am glad that I stuck with it and am still having a great time playing it.
Slaying hordes of dinosaurs is incredibly satisfying and taking on tough boss enemies is great fun. If you can buddy up with some friends and take on the dinosaur masses, you’ll have a blast playing Exoprimal. The varied gameplay between exosuits sweeten the deal and given the fact that Capcom have a hefty content plan lined up for the game, I’m hoping that it only gets better and better with time. Give it a try with Gamepass if you’re on the fence and see if this title is something you’d enjoy.
Exoprimal Video Review
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