Far Cry Primal Reviews
Taking away guns, cars and explosions sounds like a huge risk on paper, especially for a franchise that has built itself on those properties.
Far Cry Primal retains the framework of previous entries, but introduces enough to breath life into the series.
While the time period itself may be a far cry from the rest of the series, the game still manages to feel like a natural progression with some core gameplay elements intact, while also adding plenty of content that makes Far Cry Primal feel likes it own distinct experience.
Far Cry Primal is a great spin-off for the Far Cry franchise, but it doesn't do anything drastically new.
Far Cry Primal shows us that gaming still has plenty of interesting worlds to take us to. Its Stone Age setting really is its best quality. Sadly, the series' formula is beginning to feel familiar and, frankly, a little dull. The first-person combat is tedious, and I think I've cleared out enough enemy camps for one lifetime.
If you're looking for a fun game set in prehistoric times, check out Far Cry Primal. Just don't expect much of a story.
I've had an enormous amount of fun playing this, obsessively clearing the map of icons, occasionally relenting and accepting I need to do one of the main quest threads to progress, riding around on the backs of mammoths, diving off cliffs into pools hundreds of feet below, wrestling crocodiles, being dazzled by sunsets, escaping labyrinthine caves, and using my "hunters vision" to track enormous beasts. It's undeniably great fun, and unquestionably a huge achievement. Just a very, very recognisable one, for all the best and worst reasons.
While other venerable franchises like Call of Duty are afraid to challenge themselves and make only halfhearted gestures toward invention, Primal plots a course through uncharted waters with a battle-tested vessel and actually commits to making its new ideas more than vapid window dressing.
While playing leaves players at the mercy of its time period due to the lack of firearms and weapons we've come to know in recent installments, instead players are treated to a leaner, and thrilling take on the series that works perfectly in its Stone Age setting. In any case, Far Cry Primal proves that looking back to the past can reveal an experience that's crazy and brutally fun.
Ubisoft's bold choice to take one of its most successful franchises in a completely new direction pays off with an adventure both immersive and unique
"Far Cry: Primal" won't re-wire your expectations of what a game can be but it has just enough energy to pleasurably distract one over the length of its journey.
Taming bears is a blast, but sometimes playing beast master is still a day job.
In terms of gameplay though? Far Cry Primal is a shining example of how a game series should advance, with meaningful and broad changes to the status quo while retaining the characteristics of the core game. A better backstory for Takkar, the Wenja, or even a stronger interwoven narrative may have helped, but it's still a lot of fun to ride a saber tooth tiger and launch spears at cannibalistic primitives for no other reason than we can.
The newest installment in the Far Cry franchise runs into a few hiccups, most namely its tiring combat system. The new taming/companion system is well executed and Ubisoft has crafted a respectable amount of detail with their sculpture of 10,000 BCE. While it sometimes feels like just more Far Cry, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
As you may have gathered, it is all thoroughly enjoyable.
Whether by accident, design or an emotive response to criticism of Far Cry 4, Ubisoft, via Primal, has given the franchise a huge new shot of vitality and freshness.
Far Cry Primal takes the franchise back thousands of years to the Stone Age and a tale of a tribe decimated by their enemies. While this tale had promise, the lack of a central villain means that the story also lacks focus and is relegated to the sidelines while the side missions take pride of place. Away from the story, Primal offers hours of other activities that usually involve the game's satisfying melee combat and a beast from the game's rather fun taming mechanic. Players are never left with nothing to do, but it's for how long players will persist before the game starts to feel a bit too repetitive. This doesn't mean that it is a bad game by any means, especially when offering 40-50 hours of gameplay before reaching 100% completion. It just means that Far Cry veterans will have seen this all before but under a different skin.
Far Cry Primal takes players to an era rarely visited in modern gaming and does so convincingly.
A decent game, but nothing more. Far Cry Primal tries to differentiate itself from past Far Cry games with mixed success, managing some clever new tricks, but losing a lot of what made Far Cry feel special in the process.