Far Cry: Primal

Zach Goodier

The latest addition to the Far Cry franchise has you playing a character set in the earliest days of civilization. Mammoths and sabertooth tigers are aplenty, with additional threats from rival tribes. Your people, the Wenja, have been scattered to the wilderness by rivals, and having just arrived from distant lands, you must begin a quest to rally your people, defeat your rivals, and survive extinction.

It's good to be Beast Master. You can tame all sorts of animals, and use them as mounts and allies in the world.

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Things in Primal are much like they were in previous titles, with the characters you meet often being crazy in one form or another. Here, things are certainly a little different, with the prehistoric setting making things like politics and motives being nonexistent for the most part. This is reflected in the story, for what little there is of a main story. That isn’t really a major knock against the game, but if you want compelling characters like you had in 3, and arguably 4, then you’ll be sorely disappointed here. There is only the struggle to survive against rivals, who do have leaders, but they don’t really captivate you like Pagan Min or Vaas did.

Some characters have moments, but they mostly fall somewhat flat compared to previous games.

The gameplay is what’s important here, and that is a solid experience. You can spend resources you collect upgrading your village to unlock side-quests, and upgrade your arsenal. This makes resource collecting somewhat essential to face the increasing difficulty of missions as you progress. Your weapons are limited to clubs, spears, and bows, which can all be upgraded  and/or have alternate versions which may be better suited for different situations.

Your rivals offer unique challenges with uses of things like poison and fire.

The graphics all look great, with various locations offering wildly different experiences, between the frozen north to the almost tropical south, there is a lot to experience, and getting around never feels like too much a drag.

Your village starts tiny, but finding lost Wenja will make it grow into a prehistoric metropolis.

This game is very enjoyable, with enough ways to upgrade your experience throughout, and a nice pace that keeps things exciting while letting you slow down from time to time to enjoy things, the gameplay is very enjoyable, and you will have plenty of quests to enjoy. The story does fall a little flat, and with a lack of interesting characters, you may feel there isn’t as much life to this world as you would prefer. This means that despite the fun gameplay, it doesn’t leave a lasting impression on the story side of things, which is a shame. Still, having a prehistoric playground like this is very satisfying.

Good:

-Awesome gameplay.

-Upgrades to both your character and the village are deep and enjoyable.

 -Beautiful world and graphics.

Bad:

-Not much story here.

-Lack of compelling characters.

Scully Rating: 8.0 out of 10