Exoprimal Review – Story Multiplayer

The Japanese company Capcom has been experiencing a new golden era for the past few years. After all, this year alone, he has already given us two very successful games in the form of a remake of Resident Evil 4 and the action game Street Fighter 6. But it does not end there, because a few days ago the Exoprimal event with dinosaurs took place. arrived, for which Capcom reserved a relatively large marketing campaign. And, probably, it was necessary, because no one really understood why they started such a game. And why didn’t they make another Dino Crisis instead, because, unfortunately, the novelty has nothing to do with this series, except for dinosaurs. In any case, I must say at the outset that Exoprimal will surprise you in some way, and it’s not what it might seem at first glance.

• Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Remastered), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
• Publication date: 07.14.2023
• Developer: Capcom
• Publisher: Capcom
• Genre: Third-person multiplayer action
• Czech localization: No
• Cross play: Yes
• Cross Progress: No
• Data to download: 47 GB
• Game time: ~15:00 (story)
• Price: €59.99 (Steam)

Full history

Exoprimal may look like another classic multiplayer game, but it’s not. Its real essence is the story that introduces you to the game, and even the end credits will start after it ends. It seems to me that the developers came up with the idea of ​​an interesting third-person action story, which they then deliberately combined with a multiplayer model, because this was an area in which Capcom had not succeeded very much so far. It’s definitely an original concept, and despite some serious flaws, I have to say that it works quite well.

In the game, you are looking into the relatively near future, namely the year 2043, when the world was taken over by dinosaurs. They are opposed by the so-called Exofighters, trained soldiers in special armor adapted to effectively fight prehistoric reptiles. We, as a soldier nicknamed Ace, have to become a member of a mission that crashes after a plane crash on the island of Bikitoa, where the artificial intelligence Leviathan operates, which has gone a little crazy. She sends the Exofighters back in time to 2040, when the first dinosaur invasion broke out, and organizes the so-called Wargames here, in which fighters must test their skills against hordes of dinosaurs.

You probably think that the topic sounds very B, and there is probably no need to deny this. After all, this is somewhat typical of Capcom if we look at their other games as well. However, the story is surprisingly well thought out and, above all, really interesting. It can be seen that the developers have invested a lot of work in creating the whole world and lore. You gradually reveal the secrets of the local island with the help of new audio recordings, text documents or videos, of which there are many in the game. You will see some unexpected twists, as well as strong and funny moments. In short, the whole game is based on a story, which can be a bit of a double-edged sword, I’ll get to that later.

From a technical point of view, the creators have done a very good job. The game runs, like most Capcom projects, on the RE Engine. Apart from minor flaws such as rare low-res textures and flickering, the game looks very nice, especially considering that this is a multiplayer where usually the graphic side is not a priority. This stands out even more when you consider that up to a hundred dinosaurs can be seen on the screen, which, combined with the great sound design, looks really impressive. In addition, the PS5 game is aimed at 4K 60 FPS, which it usually holds, but it must be added that in more demanding moments the frame rate can drop to somewhere up to 50, which can be quite noticeable, especially if you do not have a screen with VRR support. However, such recessions do not happen very often.

dinosaurs attack

Now I would like to finally move on to the gameplay. At the time of writing, only one mode is available, 5v5 PvEvP. You choose one of 10 Exofighters, each with unique weapons and abilities, and go into battle. By the way, fighters are quite traditionally divided into three classes: Assault, Tank and Support.

What really pleased me is the fact that the game really emphasizes teamwork and you will need at least one Exofighter from each class. A tank to defend and take the most damage from enemies, a support to heal or stun dinosaurs, and an attacker, of course, to deal the most damage. Everyone will find here the role that suits him best.

A match always consists of several missions, most often it is about killing a certain number of certain dinosaurs or defending an area. This is followed by the finale, where, in addition to missions, there may be, for example, classic cargo transportation. Be that as it may, the task is always the same – to complete missions faster than the enemy team. In addition, you can also attack him directly in the last part and reduce his chances of winning. Alternatively, you can use the so-called Dominator – control a dinosaur and, ideally, use it to kill the enemy team.

I’ve seen a lot of opinions that the game lacks a pure PvE mode, and I agree. Capcom theoretically offers it, but you only get rid of direct confrontation, Dominator is also an option in it. Despite the essence of PvP, which is not exactly my cup of coffee, I surprisingly enjoyed the gameplay because fighting dinosaurs is really fun. However, you will have to endure the first matches because most of the content is hidden behind the story progression. At first it may seem that only the lower units of the dinosaur species are present in the game, but in fact the opposite is true. As you continue to play, you will find that many of them are gradually unlocked and the variability is high. From small and fast predators through flying pterodactyls to the biggest dinosaurs in the form of T-Rex and more. On the contrary, there are not so many maps yet and they are very often repeated, so I hope that some new ones will be added in the future.

In any case, by far the most fun part of the gameplay are the story missions, where you sometimes even team up with the enemy team and take on the larger 10-man threat. These matches can be very intense and quite demanding, some of which I even had to repeat. Basically, they are limited not only by the time limit, but also by the maximum number of respawns for the entire team.

But as great as story missions are, they have one major problem. Since they are available through Classic Matchmaking and not individually, finding players can be tricky. It still works, but even then we had to wait even less than a few minutes and in the future it will probably be even worse. The game tries to solve this problem by giving story missions even to players who have already completed them. It can be quite frustrating, I’ve played one of them maybe five times so I almost knew all the segments by heart. Quite a price for such an unconventional gameplay model that the developers have chosen.

In addition to matches, of course, in the menu you will find a lot of options for modifying the appearance and various upgrades. You gradually upgrade not only the account as such, but also individual characters at the same time, which opens up new modifications, of which there are quite a few. On a positive note, you unlock all of the gameplay upgrades just by playing, but there’s also a paid Survival Pass with various skins. The cosmetic additions are optional, but the surcharge is a little surprising as the game itself is sold at the full price of €60, which is perhaps too much for the current amount of content.

Does the game have a future?

The thing is, once you’ve finished the story, you basically have nothing else to do, there’s no endgame content. Of course, you can keep playing classic matches and make the most of the Survival Pass, but I personally didn’t have the motivation to do so. The included skins are not good enough for me to really need them. And the question is, will I ever return to this game, because I have no reason. However, Capcom thought that a new, purely PvE-mode Savage Gauntlet should be released in July. It should contain challenging missions that will change every week.

More seasons are already on the way with new maps, missions, exosuits, or even crossovers with other Capcom brands, but will that be enough? I’m afraid that if we don’t get the story expansion, many players may not return. This is not a classic online multiplayer game that has years of life ahead of it and it will be very difficult for the developers to maintain a solid player base.

The concept of Exoprimal is very strange, the multiplayer is heavily story-driven – quite a risky combination, but it works very well. The matches, while inevitably repetitive, can be quite interesting and the story surprisingly complex. Basically, it’s a great game that’s hard to recommend at full price, but given that it’s available on Game Pass, it’s not a problem at all to try it out. And it’s definitely worth a try. In any case, its future is very vague.