Exoprimal, A Review

This small yet devoted community of fans is still eagerly awaiting Capcom to finally turn its attention to the legendary Dino Crisis franchise after the remakes of Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4. However, this was the first time anyone expected something like this to emerge from the hands of this developer, especially not something like Exoprimal. This is a spiritual sequel to the Dino Crisis universe, not by name but through its spirit, humour, and absolute craziness.

The Story of Exoprimal

Wild, “time-displaced” dinosaurs overrun the world, and only Exofighter pilots and their mechs can slow them down. During a routine patrol around Bikitoa Island, your team encounters disaster, crashing onto this isolated and seemingly deserted island. This is when the true essence of the story begins. An escaped AI sends you back in time to its war games against dinosaurs with a mysterious objective behind it. During your participation in these games, it’s up to you to find out who is responsible for the accident that brought dinosaurs and, of course, how to escape the island. Additionally, it’s worth noting that all characters have vibrant and entertaining personalities, just like the offbeat storyline reminiscent of action movies from the eighties.

The Gameplay

The gameplay is a mix of several games. Still, it’s easiest to describe it as based on heroic shooters similar to Overwatch or Paladins, with elements of the Gambit mode from Destiny 2 thrown in, among other things. Of course, all of this comes with a significant amount of dino-slaying. At the beginning of each match, you can choose whether to jump into PvP, PvE, or a random game. 

If you choose PvE in the second segment, you’ll continue to face even more challenging levels and quantities of dinosaurs until your team or the opposing team completely clear them. If you opt for PvP, you’ll either be pushing a box or something similar to an Overwatch mode, where you can fight against the opposing team. In both cases, teams can acquire the Dino Dominator and take control of a dangerous dinosaur to eliminate players on the opposite side, similar to Gambit in Destiny 2. Overall, most of the gameplay boils down to this PvEvP spirit. Even in missions where you don’t expect interaction with the opposing team, you still have to be faster than them.

You can switch between suits at any time during a match, with no restrictions on the number of identical suits per team. Suits are divided into the holy trinity of DPS, Tank, and Support, with each class offering different options, from melee or ranged tank to healer or debuff support. As you use a suit, it progresses in levels, unlocks mods and other options, and you can change its appearance if you get a new skin for it.

The Microtransaction side of Exoprimal

The game also features the unpleasant scent of microtransactions and loot box mechanics from 2017’s Overwatch. Some people would even classify loot box mechanics as gambling. You have boxes to open containing three items, and the animation is almost identical to Overwatch’s. Some items you’ll win, some you’ll buy with points earned in the game, but of course, you’ll have to pay real money for some skins, stickers, and emotes. This tarnishes the impression of a very well-designed and entertaining game. At least you won’t be pushed into the cash shop to buy more, as there isn’t one, and you can’t buy loot box crates.

The only thing that genuinely saves this title and places it higher than Overwatch 2, for example, is that the game has a story and PvE elements that make it worthwhile to grind through piles of repetitive matches. The game even includes boss encounters where both teams unite with some mini-raid mechanics.

The Look and Feel

Graphically, the game looks and runs excessively well. The optimization is spot on, and although human characters may sometimes look strange or oddly animated, everything still works as it should. They even managed to animate the wave of dinosaur meat as it rushes toward you.

The music is fantastic, but it’s hard to notice it amid all the sounds of dinosaurs or gunfire, which is partly a shame. There’s also the AI constantly telling you that you’re slow and a lousy team. Voice acting is fantastic, though some accents sometimes sound forced. We suggest you play this with your headphones, like our XP-Panther Lavender gaming headset, to immerse yourself fully in this game.

Net coding can glitch and make you experience lag during the game. Matchmaking is also on the brink of horror, often pitting a team of newcomers against players who have been playing since the game’s release. However, the biggest flaw is that if you stick to just one playing mode, PvP or PvE, the game can quickly become repetitive. The combination of both can be frustrating, depending on your team’s quality. But overall, the game, at least upon release, lacks variety in tasks and modes.

In Conclusion

It’s incredible how genuinely fun Exoprimal is. They’ve squeezed pure enjoyment from somewhere and spread it all over the game. If they focused less on skins and similar additions and more on new modes, Exoprimal could be the most enjoyable title of the year. Otherwise, the game will eventually lose all its players.

Exoprimal has an M17+ ESRB rating, and honestly, even if it didn’t, we couldn’t recommend this to our younger players as it is full of microtransactions, which we find incredibly predatory.