My Experience with Far Cry Primal
Hi there! After 18 hours with the game, I think that I can talk about it. So, what is Far Cry Primal? Well, it is The Ubisoft Sandbox(TM): Prehistoric Edition. Me being a junkie for such checklist-style games, I've got to say, I quite like it.
The Story: You are Takkar, Stone Age certified badass. After a hunt that went really bad for your small party, you are all alone and must survive in the fabled land of Oros, for like 20 minutes, until you find a girl named Sayla, which comes from the same tribe as you. She tells you that the Wenja, your tribe, is scattered all over Oros and that two other tribes are subjugating them. Your mission is to reunite the Wenja and defeat the other two tribes... and that's the story. Quite simple stuff, but it is 10000 BC after all. Anyway, the story is there just because and the main attraction is wandering around.
Gameplay: It is mostly lifted from Far Cry 4, with the exception that your only ranged weapons are the bow and the shards which act like throwing knives. Oh, also, you can throw your clubs and spears at enemies. And you make grenades out of bees. A new addition are the beasts. While going out, exploring the wilds, you will run into wild animals, like any other Far Cry game. Instead of hunting them for their pelts, you can tame them, by throwing hunks of meat in front of them and then holding the interaction button. Everything sounds good so far? Well, good times don't last, and here's why. The combat is shoddy. You can only attack, no blocking or dodging, which is weird, as you will get your head bashed in by enemies with clubs and spears, and your only defense is jumping and running away to use healing items. It baffles me how they could half ass the combat this much, but for some reason, it is not a deal breaker for me.
Atmosphere: The game really channels the curiosity of exploring a dangerous new world. This sense of exploration is quantified by how you uncover the map: there are Ubisoft towers(TM) in the form of bonfires, which you linght and they highlight a radius of the map around them, but they are not sufficient for uncovering everything, so you will have to go to unexplored areas yourself to uncover their secrets. You may find a cave, an enemy tribe camp, some of these Ubisoft collectibles(TM) or a sidequest. Still, the game looks gorgeous, not just from a technical standpoint, but from an aesthetics one too. Whenever I was on a cliff, I would gaze at the horizon, seeing all the beautiful jungles and/or snowy areas. The atmosphere is also helped by the sound design, especially because Ubisoft worked with linguists to create a language for the characters to speak. Yes, the game is not presented in any intelligible modern language, and that is a brilliant move to deepen the immersion in a, might I say, primal era.
All in all, I recommend you give it a shot, if you find it on sale, because although it is an interesting game, 50 Euros is kinda steep for a prehistoric version Far Cry 4 (which costs 30 Euros).
