Welcome to Oros, a land right on the cusp of recorded history in which mother nature and the emergence of human kind are in a tussle for supremacy. You are Takkar, a follower of the disparate Wenja clan, whose livelihood is rapidly approaching extinction. During a deadly hunt, Takkar’s destiny takes a swift turn, as he saves a fellow Wenja named Sayla from a tiger attack. Upon this newly formed alliance, a simple cave overlooking a waterfall becomes the makeshift home for the group’s revival! But rival tribes like the Udam anchored by their bellicose patriarch Ull and the ever powerful madam Batari’s Izila threaten their novel growth. In this primitive, lush, vibrant land, many perils face Takkar in his campaign to coalesce Wenja members scattered about Oros and create a prosperous society.
Primal is built on the Dunia Engine. Loosely formed on CryEngine 1, this is the third consecutive Far Cry game to be based on the tech. FC3 and FC4 players will feel right at home with familiar mechanics in gameplay and controls. Dunia doesn’t necessarily push any visual boundaries, but it does proctor a very proficient, seamless experience across a huge swath of surface area that isn’t bogged down by load times or narrow sections that serve as impromptu load markers. Oros is a living, breathing organism in and of itself. Staying still and taking notice of all the little environmental systems really rings home the notion of true sandbox construction. Grass and tall brush whoosh about with variable wind gusts. The passage of time from day to night is illustrated beautifully by delicate adjustments in color saturation. Animal inhabitants intermingle and engage depending on their rank in the adaptable food chain. All of these things happen irrespective of your own intervention and would continue indefinitely. Those are marks of a truly strong set of program tools and deft implementation of such. That isn’t to infer that Oros isn’t welcoming to player intervention. Once you begin rampaging against your rivals, foraging for resources, and stalking against dangerous species, the full scope of the game’s player options comes to light. Despite the nomadic motif, the action doesn’t lack for breadth, such as the collective of fellow Wenja who offer ample missions and objectives.
The first two are aforementioned Sayla and a shaman man named Tensay. This tandem sets up two major components. Dubbed “The Gatherer,” Sayla’s effect is the collection of many resources located in Oros that are needed for supplies and item upgrades. Dozens of different vegetation and varied animal byproducts like meat, fats, and pelts are needed to create stuff. This improves by completing her specific missions, your own scavenging, as well as through a persistent system that will stock and store resources in Reward Stash locations scattered about the playable area. Upgrading Sayla’s hut (done by spending several collected items) increases these automated daily hauls. The same goes for The Beast Master Tensay. Each of his missions has you locating and hunting a deadly animal found in a specific location. Once you’ve accomplished Tensay’s challenge, you can “tame” a member of that particular animal to your Beast collection. Here you will find an assortment of carnivorous compatriots from wolves, to big cats, and even bears. Each animal has various characteristics like strength, stealth, and so on. From this, assignment strategies can be formulated. If you’re out on hunts for Meat (the resource associated with replenishing HP), it would be best to enlist the services of one that hides well in the brush like a wolf. When you decide to bust the heads of Udam and Izila, it might be best to whistle in a tank-y lion. There are a few special Beast Master hunts to gain the ability to domesticate the most fearsome wildlife Oros has to offer. Gaining access to these top level journeys is contingent upon you upgrading Tensay’s hut. Completing missions and other various objectives awards obligatory skill points. These points are spent along six different areas, each corresponding to a different character. Takkar’s set are designated Survival, which afford health and movement buffs. Predictably, Sayla and Tensay are Gathering and Beast Master Skills while the remaining three correspond to the next group of mission giving NPCs: Jayma the Hunter, Wogah the Crafter, and Karoosh the Warrior are made available after completing a challenge each of them (in Wogah’s case literally) throws Takkar into. Their events help to add depth to your abilities, which is necessary to complete the majority of Primal‘s missions.
The main story, or “Journey,” tasks are generally geared towards combat and stealth. Many of them have Takkar going toe-to-toe with members of the Udam to thwart impending attacks on fellow Wenjas. With basic attacks and pugnacious tenacity, Udam encapsulate the believed Neanderthal proclivities of the Mesolithic period. Their strength is in numbers, but most of their imbroglios don’t require a ton of strategy or planning. The same cannot be said about the Izila. While also vociferous in fights, their skills and equipment rather exceed that of the Udam. They also have a pseudo class system persisting among their ranks in a big enough group. Some are designated as scouts that are able to call in reinforcements if alerted. There are also hulking guys that aren’t the fleetest of foot, but can dish out and take a ton of damage. Going against the Izila requires careful high level target identification and stealth. To help in this effort, you can call in your trusty owl, which acts as a controllable UAV capable to patrolling the immediate area from an aerial view and map out enemy movement patterns. Sometimes using a Beast in this scenario can be useful, particularly when directing its aggression to individual targets and attacking in harmony. Be warned, though, if you send them on an agro suicide mission, chances are they will become incapacitated, forcing you to either revive them in an in-advantageous predicament or conceding their expiration. Other Journey selections have you upgrading huts for the aforementioned character collective and the occasional retrieval of coveted, powerful treasure.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t detail your collection of weapons used during these skirmishes. There are six slots in total within the wheel (accessed by holding left bumper). The Bow is the primary long range option. Collect wood and slate to make arrows and take out foes from distance, but be sure to land headshots if remaining incognito is necessary. For in close fighting, your Club is a great ally. Recklessly swing away as you wreck any and all in its destructive path. My personal favorite is the Spear. Accurate, agile, and versatile, it can be thrown as a projectile or used as a jabbing melee option. Shots to the body don’t deal a ton of damage, but one good thrust to the dome instantly takes down Udam and Izila alike. Any of these three can be set on fire to increase their power, but this will gradually destroy it, forcing you to fabricate another. The other three are speciality types. Sting Bombs are nature grenades constructed from bee comb clusters located on low hanging branches of trees. When faced with a huge pack of baddies, this is a great way to begin your offensive maneuver. Stone Shards are the throwing stars of a much simpler era that work well to bring a target down in a pinch. The last of the group is Bait. While not really a weapon per se, the lobbed chunk of meat will garner the attention of a nearby predator, which gives Takkar the opportunity to tame it or make life a lot more complicated for an unsuspecting group of passer-bys. Weapons can be upgraded from the Crafting menu. Each increase requires collected items labelled “ingredients” from mundane things that can be found anywhere in Oros to obscure resources located in specific regions of the map.
Much more plentiful than the mains are Primal‘s side missions. Like most open world games, these have you repeatedly completing simple tasks in order to gain XP, skill points, and other goodies. Crack skulls in Tribal Clashes to free captured Wenja and raise the number of new followers. Cave expositions have you spelunking uncharted subterranean dwellings to extract valuables and doing battle with whatever is taking up residence. Hunt a specific member of the ecosystem in Beast Kills and help Wenjas get to a designated destination in Escorts. The last two are vital to making Oros more accessible and increasing your likelihood of survival during explorations. Bonfires and Outposts are “safe house” style locations that are under the control of Izila or Udam forces. Hunt down, clear out, and kill any any all that oppose you by any means necessary to take over the coveted real estate. Gaining these spots has a few great benefits. First, it’s one less area in which you have to worry about stumbling across enemies when you’re preoccupied with another objective. There’s little worse than tracking down trophy game and having some Udam fools disrupt your groove. Also, it unlocks another Reward Stash, which is a great way to stock up on much needed supplies when isolated from main base camp. The biggest benefit is having another point in which to fast travel. The more you progress through the game, the bigger the playable region of Oros becomes. After just a few hours, the place gets big. Hiking all of that from the default spawn can get tedious. Being able to push the View button, tab over to Map, and teleport to the closest Bonfire or Outposts adjacent the next mission becomes a huge time saver and does much to conserve your pack.
Detailing every single thing this game has to offer is a tough task, and that’s a good thing. There are many little “pop-up” objectives that occur, other “special” weapons you unlock in later progression, and more deadly areas of the landscape that take a concentrated effort to tackle. But what about just in terms of sheer playability? These multi-tiered facets are nice and all, however without strong principles and good quality, that’s all for naught. Primal plays about as well as you could reasonably expect. At this point, any open world/sandbox title is not going to be as refined and polished as something that’s based on systematic loading sequences. To its credit, this gets close to the articulation of a more linear action adventurer in many respects and situations. During times of just meandering around the wilderness and taking things in gradually, it’s easy to poke holes in the finer points of resolution or physics or collision detection, and what not. When the action ramps up and all your focus shifts to the task at hand, those small inconsistencies and short comings melt away. Once you get really comfortable with the mechanics and learn the little things that predicate effective and efficient engagement, the enjoyableness really turns a corner and becomes one of the game’s best aspects. Prowling around at night takes things up a notch. As you are initially warned, some heavy nocturnal predators come out after the sun goes down, and the dimness does make it tough to see. This can spell disaster if you retain the same pace of daytime play. Slow your roll and stay crouched more often that not; this will improve the efficacy of after dark activities. Going back to the Bonfire and Outpost missions, midnight strikes are a great way to surprise attack the occupants while they’re sleeping and set up a strat closer to the point of interest. After I played long enough to generating a nice armament, had supplies a plenty, and gleaned a decent knowledge of wildlife tendencies, I started having a blast!
The presentation department is solid overall. First, the graphics. These visuals aren’t going to win any awards, but they’re not an eye sore by any stretch. Again, because of the hardware demands for keeping the openness readily accessible and flowing, finer details probably had to be sacrificed for the game not to be laden with screen tears, clipping, and lethargic rendering. The theme of what we collectively perceive to be the look of that era is well constructed. What isn’t inconsistent at all is the sound. In a word: wow. I haven’t been this impressed with background ambiance in quite some time. I cranked up my Dolby enabled a40s, stood still, closed my eyes and just took in everything happening around Takkar. Various coos, howls, and growls overlap with water features, crackling leaves, and trampled brush in lush, vibrant, acute complexion. Main action noises are effective as well, particularly when you’re in a tussle with a verbose bear or attacking a grunting group of Udam/Izila. And the powerful, apropos musical score is the perfect garnish to the listening experience.
