Exoprimal

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Remember when Overwatch showed up and took the gaming world by storm? Great, me too! Now remember all the other hero-shooters that arose in its wake? Yeah, me either. A lot of those games didn’t stick around; recall that even Call of Duty tried that concept back in the day before it decided Battle Royale might be a safer bet. That doesn’t mean we’re done trying, though, and sometimes even winners can emerge in the same vein.

Capcom’s Exoprimal serves as a surprisingly recent example of just that, combining two flavors of gaming rarely seen together; mechs and dinosaurs. It’s just like peanut butter and jelly, only a lot more explosive.

via YouTube

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, because it’s been a few years since we started: dinosaurs have been showing up lately, hopping through space-time vortexes and causing chaos all over the world. It’s thanks to the heavily-armed, mech-suited Exofighters of the Aibius Corporation that we’re still able to live in relative peace. It’s no surprise, then, that you’d want to join up with Aibius and become an Exofighter yourself. Go for it!

If it turns out that Aibius might be a little more involved in the dinosaur situation than expected, well…it’s probably in your employment contract somewhere that you can’t talk about it. Likewise, if you end up stranded on Bikitoa Island, dinosaur ground zero, you’ll want to hush about that too. You’ll definitely want to be extra quiet about the crazed AI Leviathan running interdimensional wargames between squads of Exofighters in order to produce research data. At least the benefits are good.

Exoprimal is a 5v5 team-based hero shooter where teams of Exofighters battle hordes of slavering dinosaurs. Each session is a test run by the aforementioned mad AI, who requires an enormous variety of combat data and therefore mixes things up a little bit each time you play. Matches typically amount to several dinosaur encounters followed by a final mission played out in Overwatch style, with teams competing to push a payload or capture points, and these often spin out into PvP battle as Exofighters attack each other directly to impede the opposing team. Conflict-averse players can opt out of matches that end in PvP, but there’s always an element of competition as teams strive to clear their objectives first.

You’ll take the battle to the dinos and other players by piloting one of ten heavily-armed Exosuits. These range in functionality and role, from the standard assault-rifle-wielding Deadeye to the shield-bearing Roadblock to the more esoteric skill-swapping Nimbus. A varied team with diverse abilities is important both for dealing with dino hordes and countering the other team’s Exosuit choices. To this end, it’s actually possible to hop out of your Exosuit and summon a new one mid-battle, though you’ll be precariously unarmored for a brief period as your new duds warp in.

That’s the “exo” part, but what about the “primal”? Your dinosaur foes come in a number of scaly shapes and sizes, with plenty of your childhood favorites present and accounted for. There’s raptors, of course. Tons and tons of them. You’ll kill hundreds in every match, and some matches feature surprise incursions by thousands of raptors at once. Pteranodons, meanwhile, will flap about and stab at Exofighters, while larger lizards like charging triceratops, skill-disabling stegosauruses and player-munching carnosaurs tend to cap off each wave of dinosaur attacks.

If that’s not enough, Leviathan’s got Neosaurs, newly-crafted dinos of his own with nasty tricks like explosions and dark-energy sniper blasts. Dinos aren’t always bad, though – by collecting and using a Dominator, players can take direct control of a big ol’ thunder lizard and go on a rampage against the enemy team. Eat your heart out, Jurassic World.

It all makes for a rousing, romping, dino-stomping good time. Matches are quick, snappy and endlessly varied. Beyond that, this is a hero shooter with a plot; as you complete matches, you’ll collect data on the underlying Aibius conspiracy, view cutscenes and so on. This has effects on future matches, with “boss” matches eventually showing up that twist the whole concept around on its head. You might have come in expecting a 5v5 PvP match, and the game’s happy to let you think that’s what you’re getting…right up until both teams are combined into a 10-person raid group to fight a giant ultra-saurus together.

All this dino-slaughter certainly looks and sounds great. Battles are top of the pops when it comes to both performance and presentation – the Exosuits are a lot of fun to pilot, your dino baddies are stompy like you’d expect, and PvP battles are the chaotic whirlwind of carnage they ought to be. Likewise, there’s a lot to be said for Exoprimal’s plot and cutscenes, which really don’t need to be as well-crafted as they are. Kudos in particular to Leviathan, who manages the rare feat of pulling off the “insane AI” shtick without leaning too hard on Portal’s GLADoS.

Mix all this with the fact that Exoprimal is available on Game Pass – a huge win for a multiplayer-focused game like this – and there’s no question this one’s worth a try. Chances are you’ve got nothing to lose, and the darker side of Exoprimal being a multiplayer-focused game is that it probably won’t be around forever.. Give this game a download while it’s still fresh, hop in and get to blasting. There’s plenty of prehistoric punks that need to be put in their place.