Far Cry Primal Review

The world didn’t really know what to expect when Ubisoft made the surprise announcement of Far Cry Primal, a fully fledged prehistoric spinoff of the main Far Cry series. The game would be the first to veer off the path of the original titles, whilst also being the fastest in the series to follow its predecessor. Skeptics were quick to lash out at the game’s premise, labelling it as a lazy cash grab that was purely monopolising on an enticing setting. So what is Far Cry Primal exactly? Is it a simple reskin of a prior instalment, similar to previous expansion Blood Dragon? Or is it perhaps an entirely different beast of its own?

After watching the years swiftly rewind to 10,000 BC, you are thrust straight into the action, following your starving tribespeople in the hunt for a wooly mammoth. Here, you’re presented with the grim realities of aboriginal survival, as you are forced to plunge your spear into the underbelly of a wailing mammoth until it draws its last breath. Following the action, protagonist Takkar is split from the group and must gather the resources needed to survive through the night. This sequence serves essentially as the tutorial section of the game, demonstrating various fundamental mechanics such as hunting and crafting.

Upon patching yourself up and tracking down the surviving members of your tribe, the boundless open world is then yours to explore. As you set foot into the wilderness, you’ll encounter a number of optional objectives that are instantly available. These include bonfires, outposts, escort missions and hunting missions and believe it or not, this is just the tip of the iceberg! During the first few hours of my playthrough I found myself lost in the superbly beautiful world of Oros and was content with exploring in search of hidden locations, rare animals and valueable crafting resources. The abundance of activities available makes for limitless hours of fun, and it is made even sweeter by giving you the freedom to do as you please.

However, it is within Far Cry Primal’s vast open world that it bares its grisliest battle scars. Before unlocking the later achievable Mammoth Rider perk, Takkar’s only means of transportation is by foot, making for many mind-numbingly dull slogs from one waypoint to the next. Another trivial complaint is that the game's map is essentially just a recycled version of Far Cry 4’s. You can tell this by looking at the locations of the dividing rivers and reservoirs on both maps. Although this wasn’t something I ever noticed myself and Oros admittedly does have its own identity, it still detracted from the sensation that Primal was its own unique world.

Newly introduced is the ability to tame a variety of bloodthirsty predators, ranging from rabid badgers to terrifyingly vicious sabretooth tigers. All tamable beasts come with their own individual stats and can be used strategically during hunting and combat. For example, if you are looking to quietly ambush an enemy stronghold, you may opt for bringing a dhole with you, due to its large stealth points. Likewise, if you're tasked with defending villagers from an attacking enemy tribe, then a brown bear would be a better choice, due to its high attack.

Other alluring features include the game’s day/night cycle, that requires you to hunt at varying times of the day to discover different species. Oddly, it also reminded me of Dying Light, in the sense that the world becomes more dangerous at night and calls for a different style of play to survive. The ability to amass your own community is also a fresh deviation from the main series. As you progress through numerous side quests, you’ll be rewarded with the addition of new members for your community. Building up your villages population provides you with extra XP and daily rewards in return. The same applies for skilled hunters, track them down and bring them back to camp and you will be granted access to extra tools and all new skill trees.

The over-the-top explosions and gun-blazing action may quite obviously be missing from this installment, but overall I was pretty satisfied with the game’s combat. Clubs, bows, spears and traps are among Takkar’s arsenal of prehistoric weaponry, and while none of these felt particularly new or exciting, they did offer variety of choice and provided numerous solutions to combat. My personal favourite was of course the sting bomb, a throwable weapon that can be used to unleash a swarm of angry bees on unsuspecting enemies. Throughout the intense action, the game’s main score provides the perfect instrumental backbeat, fuelled by pounding percussive blasts and bellowing horns.

Suffering from the absence of a distinguished antagonist Far Cry Primal’s story lacked momentum and struggled to keep me engaged throughout. Ull and his tribe of Udam warriors never really instilled enough anger for me to want to beat the story and watch them meet their demise. That being said, it is impossible to deny that some of Primal’s supporting cast of characters aren’t um… interesting? Take Wogah for example, a one-armed survivor who forever refers to you as ‘pee man’ after leaving you for dead in a cave and urinating on your face. The hilariously erratic Tensey also proves to be a memorable companion, as each encounter regularly results in him pouring a ram skull of hallucinogenic blood down your throat.

Fortunately, Far Cry Primal is able to stand out from the pack, throwing in enough new and appealing additions along the way to warrant a full-game release. As somebody who was largely disappointed in how similar Far Cry 4 was to its predecessor, I found Primal to be a breath of fresh air, adding in it’s own new features while still keeping the core mechanics that we’ve grown to love from the series. It would be refreshing if Ubisoft could continue to do more with the series within upcoming installments, possible toying with more settings and time periods to prevent future entries from feeling monotonously familiar.