Exoprimal: We tried out Capcom’s adrenaline-pumping shooter

Capcom It has become a beacon of hope in the gaming environment. The Japanese house was reborn a few years ago, returning to levels not seen since its golden age, stealing success after another and becoming a guarantee of quality. However, there is one exception to the rule when it comes to this series: Multiplayer games only. In fact, if on the one hand the software house has one of the most popular series when it comes to cooperative gaming (we’re talking about Monster Hunter, of course), on the other hand it never really made it. hitting the target when trying to spread the products. totally online oriented.

At first glance, this might just be a professional issue: It’s understandable that such a talented team isn’t well-versed in creating live services and the like when it comes to creating high-end single-player games. But if you take a look at the company’s latest “initiatives”, you’ll realize that many of them are little more than experiments, likely backed by limited resources and teams, and often forcefully glued to other more popular products to get an initial impulse.

It therefore makes sense to pay special attention to Exoprimal, as it is clearly Capcom’s first attempt to shape the necessary support (and more comfortable development timelines given it has been working on it for a while) behind an online game.

we therefore Tried Exoprimal During a crazy night session open to the European press, and we’re here today to tell you if it’s okay to wait for the traditional care of this team and it’s applied to an atypical multiplayer build as well.

it’s raining velociraptor

The answer is “yes,” it turned out to be a more fun and refined title than Exoprimal’s chaotic presentation trailer suggested, complete with a “narrative ball” to unravel baseline. There HistoryHowever, and even predictably, that’s not what the developers are most focused on, as it seems like a jumble of sci-fi clichés designed solely to justify wars against hordes of mutant dinosaurs. In other words, you are a pilot of the Exosuit, very powerful exoskeletons used to protect the population from real rains of unknown large hungry reptiles. As soon as you’re assigned to your team, you find yourself dealing with Leviathan, a sadistic AI that endlessly repeats battle simulations to test the effectiveness of the “mechanical suits” described above.

The plot evolves from game to game in theory – it doesn’t seem to affect the experience too much – and it’s clear that Capcom is at least trying to figure things out; However, its surrounding nature has been noticeable since beta and we now seriously doubt that the ending will be memorable. It’s a video game after all ruthlessly tearing the dinosaurs apart: It is out of the question to live with who knows what critical spirit on the narrative.

But the Exoprimal’s specialty is not the cold-blooded nature of your opponents, but its special nature. The game is, in fact, for all intents and purposes a Third-person cooperative crowd shootercomplete with division into specific classes and roles (classic trinity tank, support, DPS); however, each mission’s objectives are completed simultaneously with another team of five players to provide early access to a “last mission” where everything is going crazy. PVP clash. The trick adds a certain tension and overall rush to the shoot, because one must not only think about survival, but optimize roles and resources to eliminate threats as quickly as possible.

It’s an admittedly exciting idea that can keep us hooked to the screen during games, but it only works halfway. While everything flows quite naturally during crowds that actually seem problematic, clashing with other players can sometimes be awkward due to the expansion of maps, the need to save resources during the mission, and the “random” trend. the team abandoning any strategy to aim pure offense (a trend that is rewarded in co-op stages and is hardly recommended in competition). For God’s sake, this is just the beginning, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Capcom decides to set things up differently at launch, or to support exclusive use of certain roles in the final stages of missions (to avoid uncurated teams, at least). Considering this is a definite suicide, and we’ve seen some), but perhaps the management of mods lacks the necessary heuristics to push players into certain behaviors naturally.

A thousand ways to cook a T-Rex

There frenzy The action doesn’t help, because you’re suddenly thrown into a race against time with a drone to follow and a series of objectives to complete (mostly masses of dinosaurs will be destroyed, but vary from game to game). For the average gamer it is not difficult to understand how to act if nothing else, and the experience is anything but hilarious due to the excellent gameplay that supports it.

While shooters aren’t Capcom’s bread, Exoprimal boasts mechanical It’s solid and well calculated, probably because the team took a closer approach to the action than classic third-person shooters. this Exosuit in fact, they are extremely diverse and equipped with a multitude of skills, from a timed laser cannon available to practically everyone (interchangeable with other tools) to special moves dedicated to the role covered. Zephyr, for example, is a melee attacker with blade combos, devastating shoulders, multiple sprints, and the ability to blast enemies (dinosaurs or humans) into the air with a kick for spectacular aerial combos; The Witch Doctor is a primary field healer in PVP, with electric attacks, the ability to glide and jump; Even the classic assault suit armed with the tank base and automatic rifle we tested has a hidden uniqueness, not to mention that each class can use powerful ultimate skills that can turn the game upside down or take temporary control of a devastating T-Rex to tear apart enemies. .

Of course, given the number of dinosaurs on screen and the existence of creatures Manager very active with armored attacks, shots turn into chaos, but overall we were able to follow the onscreen action well and even PVP enjoyed it despite the structural glitches we’ve dealt with before. The Exosuits we tested were just a fraction of what was available in the final game, and since the base skins have already glorified us so much, we’re really curious as to what variations they’ll offer.

Even from a technical standpoint the game maintains itself pretty well and we found it well optimized on PC. Only one problem to be solved at all costs: server stability he looked like nothing more than a dancer to us. While we had no issues in the first two games, it was clear that we had some teammates who had serious connection issues in the third challenge. The delay was enough to make everything unplayable, to say the least, especially considering that the final scene in that particular mission is not competitive, but a cooperative challenge against a custom boss (it happens sometimes, but it’s not clear which ones). factors trigger this unique mod) teleported here and there due to the dancer network and was impossible to dodge. We sincerely hope for a more stable network infrastructure (or more choice in the matchmaking phase) after the game is released.