Far Cry Primal Reviews
It’s amazing how neatly the Far Cry formula fits into such a wildly different setting.
Ubisoft's Far Cry Primal takes players back to the Stone Age, but the gameplay and narrative feel far from prehistoric in this primitive, open-world game.
Far Cry Primal succeeds in transporting the Far Cry formula back in time and comes to the table with a quiver of neat ideas and a dangerous and fascinating open world. The visceral and varied combat is fun, the beast-based gameplay is a winner, and the lure of camp-claiming, gear-crafting, beast hunting, and resource gathering remains irresistible.
A leaner, hungrier Far Cry from a bygone age that falls slightly short of achieving its potential.
Primal takes the great structure of the Far Cry series, but little of its character. No clear goal and a limited arsenal end up making this feel a little prehistoric itself.
Players who associate Far Cry with explosions and massive gunfights might find the setting disappointing, but it's one of my favorite entries in the series yet
Far Cry Primal's lack of distractions keeps it exciting
Far Cry's new world and renewed focus on survival create a tense experience true to its setting.
Far Cry: Primal feels like one long, optional side mission.
Primal is worth playing, but only once you're hungry for more and only if you're prepared to plumb its depths.
Despite being built on the skeleton of previous Far Cry games — its map is literally an overlay of Far Cry 4's! — Primal manages to stand apart from other open-world sandbox action games through the sheer novelty of its primitive setting. Although the emphasis on bow hunting and woolly mammoths can give a bit of a Skyrim vibe, that quickly fades as you gain full mastery over the protagonist's ability to summon a variety of deadly beasts into combat. The writing fails to make its primitive heroes anything more than one-note lunks, but the primordial nature of the game world complements the action and ultimately makes up for the underwhelming story.
Far Cry Primal is video game aspirin—numbing and nondescript but basically pleasant. Try it.
Taking away guns, cars and explosions sounds like a huge risk on paper, especially for a franchise that has built itself on those properties.
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.
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.
Far Cry Primal retains the framework of previous entries, but introduces enough to breath life into the series.
Far Cry Primal is a great spin-off for the Far Cry franchise, but it doesn't do anything drastically new.
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.
If you like Far Cry, there's a pretty good chance you'll like this as well. But if you're becoming exhausted by ~20 hours of leveling, skinning, leaf-collecting, trinket-finding and map-clearing after the last few installments, Primal is definitely more of the same. The setting change is effective, but this isn't going outside of the series' comfort zone as much as Ubisoft might have you believe.