Far Cry Primal Review (Xbox One)

One of the great evolutionary advantages of Homo Sapiens was that it was able to run at a moderate pace for long periods of time, mainly because of cooling via sweat and muscle distribution, whereas most of the creatures that it hunted were built for sprints and often dropped dead after prolonged chases.

This allowed our ancestors to prosper at a time when they had to deal with massive threats from the environment in which they lived and gave them a chance to then develop the social interaction, the language and the rationality that led to the development of our modern civilization.

Far Cry Primal asks players to start hunting by activating a special vision mode to see tracks and animals around them and to then move as quietly as possible to close the distance and catch prey, which can range from goats to saber tooth tigers, unaware and unable to run away or mount a solid defense.

The game then offers a wide array of weapons, all of them created using Stone Age tech, and various other gadgets to give gamers a chance to either take out their targets and skin them for resources or to tame them to gain valuable help during future engagements.

Far Cry Primal might not be interested in authenticity when it comes to our distant past, and the way they approached hunting, but the new title in the long-running series managed to offer an interesting take on familiar mechanics, although it fails to deliver true innovation.

The video game is developed by the Montreal studio and published by Ubisoft and can be played on the Xbox One from Microsoft as well as the PC, starting on March 1, and the PlayStation 4 from Sony.

Story

Far Cry Primal moves the action back a few thousand years to the Stone Age when tribes of hunter-gatherers roamed across Europe, trying to establish more permanent settlements and to make sure that they can protect them from both the powerful fauna that populates this untamed world and from more bipedal rivals.

The player becomes Takkar, a hunter separated from his original hunting party who needs to unite the scattered members of his tribe and create a new home for them in the middle of the land Oros.

This involves talking to quest givers, traveling across an open world space, dealing with enemy tribes and trying to find upgrade paths that make the protagonist more powerful and allow the player to adapt his skills to his play style.

There are two other tribes that want to control the same locations, the Izila, who have a thing for fire in all its forms, and the Udam, who are more interested in hunting and eating proto-humans than animals.

Far Cry Primal allows the player to expand his village and recruit new characters to live there, giving him both quests and new skills, but the story is mostly centered around gamer action and it's nice to see Ubisoft pushing the idea that survival is the main aim, dispensing with some of the over the top nature of the previous narratives crafted for the series.

Gameplay

Far Cry Primal is an open-world exploration and combat experience, like its predecessors, with the animal taming and interaction adding the biggest element of innovation to the tried and true formula of the series.

Takkar starts off as a rather weak and inexperienced tribesman who has to fashion crude clubs and spears and avoid the most powerful enemies in his path, but as he gains experience and deals with challenges, more tools, upgrades, skills and extra weapons are introduced, allowing him to stand up to both beasts and humans.

Ubisoft has the open-world formula for Far Cry down at this point and the core elements are all present, from bonfires that need to be conquered in order to extend territory to points of interest that reward exploration and plenty of collectible flora and dead fauna that can be used to improve the character’s gear and to open up more options in his home village.

The actual map of Primal is not as big as in previous titles, but the fact that no vehicles are featured and the density of events and challenges make it very fun to explore and even create situations where it’s a good idea to ignore fast travel altogether and actually move from place to place, just to see what’s new along the way and maybe collect some supplies.

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The day-night cycle is important, with the dark allowing a range of powerful predators to come out and play while offering more cover, but I preferred to conduct most of my exploration and combat during the day because it makes it easier to see enemies and develop a clear plan.

Far Cry Primal does not feature many weapons for Takkar to wield, but there are plenty of chances to try and stay stealthy, although frontal attacks are also feasible, but combat with other humans tends to be a little disappointing, especially when flailing around in melee.

The addition of animals that can be tamed and some of them ridden, including the mammoth, adds extra dimensions to both exploration and combat, but the bait and petting mechanics that taming involves feel a bit too simple and it's a shame that a companion can be replaced with a simple whistle.

The true highlight of Far Cry Primal is the simple act of moving across the world towards a mission point or a bonfire, because it creates interesting interactions, like seeing a pack of wolves who are tracking down a three-man enemy patrol from a cliff or stumbling on a massive bear while you have another one at your side as a tamed tank.

The mechanics of the game are good and can provide tens of hours of enjoyment, but they never push too far past the template of the series, which means that after a few moments of wonder and interest, the combat, the exploration, the skill development and even the owl based scouting can start to feel a little repetitive.

Graphics and audio

Far Cry Primal looks good on the Xbox One, mainly because Ubisoft has clearly put a lot of effort into the wilderness that the player spends most of his time in, with plenty of strong trees rising to the sky and impressive density for foliage that makes sneaking and stalking actually fun.

The characters, both friendly and enemies, tend to lack a little detail, especially when it comes to the enemies that often appear to be cloned, especially in the middle of a big engagement, and the creatures that move across the world feel suitably menacing, especially the saber tooth cats that seem to be the top predators of Oros.

Moving through the forest and through the clearings can create impressive vistas for players to admire and it's a pleasure to switch to the owl view in order to spot enemies and get a clearer view of the landscape, although melee combat can feature some interactions between weapons and bodies.

The classic Far Cry grenade-rolling-down-the-hill problem is exacerbated by the terrain design in Primal and tends to affect corpses in weird ways, which leads to mostly hilarious but also somewhat frustrating moments when a dead deer rolls for about one minute down to a river bed and I have to decide where it's worth going after it or not.

The audio side of the new open world title is unique because it features three dialects of a made-up language, designed to be as close as possible to what tribes of the period would be speaking in Central Europe.

The voice actors do a good job of showing the urgency and directness inherent to the situation they are going through, and the world is filled with ambient sounds that can make the difference between a swift death and a successful ambush.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion