Raise your hand everyone who wants to see the return of dino crisis. Although no, we can’t see them, we’re pretty sure if we were in the same room, everyone in the place would have one or both hands up. And while fans are desperate for a new installment in the beloved franchise, Capcom has shown no sign that it’s considering making a remake of dino crisis. Instead, the Japanese studio came up with a new proposal that caught more than one by surprise: exoprimalan action game that combines the best of both worlds: hordes of dinosaurs and heavily armed exosuits.
Several weeks ago we were at the Capcom offices in San Francisco to give the studio’s prehistoric proposal a good taste. Does it have enough dinosaurs to make us forget dino crisis? You better put on your sexiest exosuit because here we answer that question and tell you about our first impressions of exoprimal.
Yeah well… who’s hungry?
exoprimal is a cooperative online action game in which players will have to select an exosuit with unique qualities to defend humanity from the most ferocious beasts in history: the dinosaurs. How do these prehistoric creatures get to the year 2043? Get ready because this is 420 worthy: For some reason, space-time tearing cracks known as vortex generators began to appear in the sky, through which the invasion of these giant chickens began.
To defend humanity from such an extroverted invasion, squads of ex-fighters were created; soldiers trained to handle the exosuits and fight the dinos. During a routine patrol, the squad to which our character belongs, the Hammerheads squad, crashes on Bikitoa Island, where a new generation Artificial Intelligence will force the squadron to participate in a series of war simulations that seem to have no end. This is where it all gets weird, why is there an infinite series of war simulations? What is the true intention of Artificial Intelligence? These and a lot more questions will be answered in the main game mode: Jurassic Tide.
to be honest, the plot of exoprimal looks like an exotic high. Undoubtedly, it could have been more elaborate, but it works to give a little justification to the confrontations against the hordes of dinosaurs. We already want to test the game in a much deeper way to be able to explain in great detail how and why the dinosaur invasion begins, but if it is as it was presented to us, it is very likely that the narrative is lacking. lots of flavor.
They did it, the sons of bitches#$@ did it
Now how do you play exoprimal? As we already told you, we are facing a third-person action game in which we will control an exosuit. We tried the way Dinosaur Survival in which two teams of five players each face waves of dinosaurs while completing different missions. The first to complete these missions will be the winner, but it is not an easy task: during the second act of the mission you will also have to face the opposing team, so having a balanced squad will be one of your priorities… because facing waves of dinosaurs is not that complexbut when a bigger dinosaur appears along with the opposing team it could turn the game around.
Exosuits are now divided into classes much like the Exosuits. hero shooteryou already know: we have assault, support and tank type exosuits. Each of these classes has their own abilities and different styles so that the player can choose the one that suits them best. For example, we were playing with the assault class and we were very comfortable with Zephyr, a suit focused almost entirely on melee attacks and can destabilize the opposing team with good cover fire.
Each of the costumes will have its own pack of modules, cosmetics, emotes and a rig combat weapon an interchangeable accessory that will give you access to an additional weapon or a perk. We were able to test between a catapult, a laser cannon, and an energy shell that produces a small repair shield. Don’t lose sight of the rig combat because it can be decisive when facing the opposing team. These modules can be improved with BikCointhe in-game currencyso yes, it is to be expected that exoprimal have microtransactions to acquire more of this currency.
What leaves a very good taste in our mouths are the commands of exoprimal: moving ex-fighters is not complicated; there is a button to shoot, another to use the rig combat, one more to perform a melee attack, and another to throw a grenade. By combining them you will be able to perform your exosuit’s special attack, a devastating and very colorful attack that could give you a great advantage in confrontations. In fact, we believe that the commands are very well mapped, causing exoprimal be a frenzy festival of brontoburgers and bullets, many bullets. The action takes place in an agile way and will make you feel like you are in a real battle against the dinos. But abused, because you will also be able to control, from time to time, a huge dinosaur to make life miserable for the opposing team.
In general, exoprimal we were quite surprised. Not only because of how good the game feels and looks, but also because of the genuineness of the experience when playing it: it was fun in excess. To be honest with you, It reminded us a lot of those old days when we would meet in the same chair to play the horde of Gears of War 2 with friends: There was rudeness, tactical talk and a lot of strategies. We would have liked them to be there to see the celebrations our team did when we reached a victory, which is probably the case for you too.
Of course, being a previous version of the game, after a couple of hours it became a bit monotonous, since we were only testing one game mode, but when all the options are unlocked, it is very likely that this feeling will be different .
I like how dinosaur blood glows in this light
It is important to note that although we were playing a preview version of the game, exoprimal it looked pretty good. We were surprised to see that despite the generous amount of enemies on screen, the game doesn’t suffer from huge framerate drops or completely game-breaking bugs, overall performance is good.
What we are a little worried about is the version of exoprimal for the previous generation of consoles because it may not look as pristine as some expect. And speaking of which, we played on a laptop with the right specs for the game to play in high-quality graphics, so we’re looking forward to seeing what it looks like on current-gen consoles.
Moving on to the art department, Capcom is going overboard with the style of exoprimal. Not only does it propose its own style for the exosuits, it also gives a very familiar touch to the dinosaurs, resulting in a combination that will surely leave your inner child very happy. In fact, It reminded us a bit of when we wanted to get on a Gundam to fight with a lot of monsters. It is a nostalgic experience that warmed our hearts.
On the other hand, the colors, the destruction, the games of light and shadows look quite good and leave us with a very good feeling for the final version of the game. We hope that the skinsdances, celebrations and cosmetics that appear in the game are very varied and have collaborations with other Capcom franchises.
With a crazy but functional story, a gameplay fun and an artistic design of those who fall in love, we believe that exoprimal could be one of those games you’ll play constantly. We will have to find out how well designed the final version of exoprimal on July 14, when the game is available on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows, Steam, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
