Far Cry Primal Review

Far Cry Primal is an action game based upon a first person shooter that takes place during the time of the caveman. It was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on February 23, 2016, and for Windows PC on March 1, 2016.



PLOT:

You play as Takkar, a member of the Wenja tribe. It's the year 10,000 BCE and it's up to you to rebuild the Wenja tribe as you fight off the two other tribes, the Udam and Izila. While you're saving your people you'll need to fend off wooly mammoth, saber-toothed tiger and bear attacks.

The leader of the Izila.

As you progress through the world you'll find other Wenja members that need your help. When you successfully aid them they will head to the village that you started. As more people show up you'll see new huts that they've build. You'll also have the opportunity to help out special people that will join your clan and will teach you how to build new weapons, different fighting techniques and so on.

My village.

I very much enjoyed the game's setting. I can't remember ever playing another game set during the days of the caveman and I think this helps set this game away from its first-person shooter heritage.

A mammoth hunt.

I like what Ubisoft is doing with the Far Cry series. After they release their big game, this time it was Far Cry 4, and they use the engine to build a new game. They did this with Far Cry 3 as well with Fry Cry 3 Blood Dragon. This is a good idea for a number of reasons, the biggest being that the makers don't have to start from scratch to design the game. The hard part has already be done, they just have to create the setting. It is also a smart idea because lots of the bugs have already be eliminated from the original game. It allows the makers to release a new game quicker and cheaper than starting fresh. You'd think more game companies would do this too.

GAMEPLAY:

Far Cry 4 is a first-person shooter so that's how this game plays. This game does have a few projectile weapons including a bow and arrow and a spear to use but most of your fighting will be melee and it works very well in this game. I was curious how this game that's based upon a first person shooter would transfer to a hand to hand combat system but I really enjoyed fighting in this game.

You will have missions for the main quest to do as well as missions to capture enemy bases or help Wenja that need help. This game is completely open and you can do any mission in any order that you want. When you highlight a mission on your map it will tell you the difficulty so you won't get in over your head. The main story missions do have to be completed in order but for the rest, you can complete them whenever you want.

I have made fire!

Along with weapons, you'll also get your hands on a grappler that can help you get to the top of mountains. Throughout the world, you'll see paintings on the sides of these mountains of a bird flying which lets you know that you can ascend there. It is a little far fetched for a game in this setting but it is nice to help you get to higher points.

As this game is set a very long time ago Takkar needs to be a great hunter or else he'd die so this game has "hunter vision" which is similar to many other games like Arkham Asylum. When you use "hunter vision" the world turns gray and supplies that you can collect will glow yellow making it easier to see them. Animals will also turn yellow making hunting much easier. If you wound an animal and it runs for  you'll be able to track them by following their blood trail.

"Hunter Vision"

You'll get missions to hunt some dangerous animals which were pretty fun. I like that some of the missions have you attacking an enemy base that had recently attacked your clan. Not only are you suppose to go in and kill everyone but then you're to burn the village to the ground. These guys are playing for keeps.

Burn Baby Burn.

You recruit a shaman for your tribe and he'll drug you and the next thing you know you're fighting the moon. I'm not a huge fan of these kinds of missions where it's all in a dream and nothing matters.

Your bow and arrow is as powerful as the Death Star.

Far Cry Primal has a very nice crafting system. Everything you use has to be crafted so you'll always be on the lookout for rare items like certain kinds of rocks or animals. When you learn how to construct a new weapon it will tell you the ingredients need to build it so you can't use it until you have everything needed for its construction. I'm usually not the biggest fan of having to find items to craft weapons but I liked it in this game. It reminded me a lot of Red Dead Redemption which is a nice compliment for this game.

Stonehenge?

PRESENTATION:

This is a very nice looking game. The backgrounds are beautiful and the animals almost look alive. The characters in this game speak a language that I found out was close to a real one that they would have used at that time. What is being said is subtitled and this was a nice move for the development team because all they'd have to change for non-English speakers are the subtitles.

Majestic Mountains

The game has a day/night cycle that matters. At the different places you've captured for your clan, you'll find reward bags that are refilled with new supplies each morning. The other way day/night is used is that certain animals can only be found at day or night which does make the world seem a little more realistic.

BEASTS:

Hands down my favorite part of the game are the beasts that can be tamed. After learning how to tame animals you'll get to unlock better animals including bears and saber-toothed tigers.

I named my bear Wojtek.

They are great to use in battle because they are tough and draw the enemy off you making it easier for you to kill them. A few times I was attacked by a tough animal, usually, bears, and I found it easier to tame them than to fight them, that's my tip of the day.

The beasts are even more fun when you learn how to ride them. You cannot tame wooly mammoths but you can ride them and it's a hell of a lot of fun. The mammoths will use their trunk to fling enemies to their death. You can also ride bigger animals like tigers and bears which are a very handy way to cross the world because they are faster than you, especially the tigers.

You'll also learn how to use owls to be your eyes in the sky. They can relay the location of enemies for you and can kill at your command. I found it a very useful before storming an enemy camp. It did remind me of Game Of Thrones.

Your owl scout.

PROBLEMS:

Overall I was very happy with this game. Everything worked as it was supposed to. I can never review a game without out finding something I didn't like and I did, sort of. After killing something I found it very hard at times to highlight the killed to loot or skin them. Even worse was when my beast would walk in front of the corpse. I would always unintentionally select the beast instead of the kill. Oh, and a man peed on me in the game and I don't like water sports.

SUMMARY:

Far Cry Primal is a great game with a setting that sets it apart from most games being currently released. The story was a bit dull but the game makes up for it with combat and beasts. At no point in the game did I get bored. I would rate FarCry Primal an 8 out of 10!