Read in our review why we had a great time with Exoprimal so far and why you should try out Capcom's new PvE team-shooter.
On the surface, Exoprimal is a supremely silly game. Due to time travel shenanigans, Dinosaurs are everywhere and it’s your task to get rid of them. This is objectively hilarious, but what kind of game is Exoprimal really?
It turns out that Exoprimal is an excellent team-shooter with unique mechanics and systems, surprisingly high production values and an exhilarating sense of over-the-top action.
| Release Date: | July 14, 2023 |
| Platform: | PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One & PC |
| Developer: | Capcom |
| Genre: | Third-person Shooter |
| Price: | $59.99 / €59.99 / £49.99 |
Exoprimal Review: Exhilarating Dino Carnage
Exoprimal is a third-person hero shooter where you fight against seemingly endless hordes of dinosaurs in all types and colors, before squaring it off against other players. Two teams of five players play against each other in a match of “Dino Survival”, which is the game’s main mode.
At first, it’s all PvE: just you, your crew and a whole lot of dinos. This part of the game is very reminiscent of something like EDF and is equally as fantastic.
The game features ten different Exosuits, which all have unique abilities and properties. Think of the different heroes in Overwatch or the different characters in Team Fortress 2, the grandparents of hero shooters. Every exosuit feels entirely unique: from the standard soldier type “Deadeye”, to the bulky, machine gun wielding “Krieger” or the nimble healer “Witchdoctor”, there is a lot of variety in Exoprimal’s roster. All the Exosuits we got to try out so far felt great to play.
The action is snappy and direct, the characters responsive and fast, abilities are fun to use and even allow for some exciting synergies and tactics. To be honest, I was kind of surprised about how polished and fine-tuned the gameplay feels and how good the game looks as well, considering that Exoprimal is a new and weird IP from Capcom.
A Weird Cocktail
This part of the game is really fun and I feel like I could play it for hours on end. However, that’s not all there is to “Dino Survival”. During some missions in this mode, the two player-controlled squad face off against each other in the end (sometimes they get to fight together against a particularly tough enemy too, but most matches we played ended with a PvP section). And this didn’t feel quite as good as mowing down hordes of dinosaurs.
It’s not bad at all, but the main issue here is mainly due to balancing. Depending on how well your squad is doing during the PvE part, you get advantages during the PvP part, which can massively tilt the final fight in one way or another. Also, class balancing seems a bit all-over-the-place.
While a defensive class like “Roadblock” is great against small velociraptors, we found it to be pretty useless in PvP. Thankfully, Exoprimal allows you to change suits on-the-fly. That’s a great feature, which does take some getting used to though.
And that’s pretty much what you do in Exoprimal. Between matches, you can customize your Exosuits, either cosmetically or with new equipment. There is obviously a battle pass here, as well as an in-game currency called BikCoin.
Outside of “Dino Survival”, there is actually a story to experience as well. However, there aren’t really any story missions. You get story cutscenes after finishing a certain amount of multiplayer matches, which tell the story of your character Ace, the suspicious AI Leviathan, the cocky Exosuit pilot Magnum and all those dinosaurs that are raining down on you.
While the mode of storytelling is kind of weird and feels a little shoehorned in, the cutscenes were surprisingly well-made and evoked the B-movie charm of Capcom’s classic Dino Crisis franchise.
As you can probably tell, Exoprimal is a weird and unique shooter. While most elements of it are familiar on their own, the way they come together in one weird, fun package is unlike anything else in the multiplayer shooter market. It might unfortunately be too weird to find an audience. The PvEvP mix is strange and kind of confusing, albeit fun and unique.
Considering that this is a new IP, and a really odd one at that, the decision to charge full price instead of going lower or even being a free-to-play game is not fully understandable to me. However, Exoprimal is a day one release on Game Pass, so hopefully that will help to grow its audience.
Because I actually really enjoyed my time with the game and while it takes some getting used to, it definitely deserves a shot.