Welcome To The Stone Age
I'm sneaking. The arrow is not even drawn against the string of my bow as i know it's useless. To have the bow in my hands just gives me a much needed illusion of safety. On the plain before me a horde of majestic mammoths are roaming in the yellow ancient grass. They are absolutely huge and my arrows would feel like mosquito bites against their though, fluffy skin. I know that after throwing myself into idiotic battles with the giants before, just to lose my life in a matter of seconds. So as i said, I'm sneaking...
Just as you boot up Far Cry Primal, all you will see is a year: 2016. Then the numbers start to sink faster than an anchor racing to the depths of the sea, with voices in the background echoing of the different bygone ages. The 1900's trafficked roads to the bumbling steam trains of the 1800's. But it doesn't stop there. The roaring cheers of the 1700's revolutions follows and then it continues in the same fashion until finally hits 10 000 BC, and during this simple introduction the whole game premise has been smartly concluded without even showing a cinematic. Clean, effective and a perfect way to take me back to one of the most hostile ages ever to exist in history. Welcome to the stone age.
Hello World!
There is no multiplayer mode in Far Cry Primal, but it actually does not matter because the campaign and the rich world is engaging enough. Good priority from the devs!
My name is Takkar and i find myself in an bygone age, twelve thousands years back in time. In this world, animal-hide is one of the most important resources that you can posses, not dollars or diamonds. My most modern weapons is a bow and arrow and to be born as a human is not really as great as it is today. Top of the food chain? Forget it! I'm just as much a prey as I am a hunter, which becomes clear when I barely escape the saber-tooth tiger that just slaughtered all of my friends.
If you've played the Far Cry-games before you will immediately feel at home in the game mechanics, but because Primal still offers an completely different environment, setting and gear, and also the ability to tame animals, plenty is new enough to make us feel excited. The game goes trough the basics in a smooth way and it's stupid simple to get into the hunting system, where i can at any time use Hunting Vision to easier filter my surroundings for potential preys.
Bow, club and spear are the three basic weapons in the game. In total there are 24 different weapons of war in Primal, which perhaps may seem stingy after playing the previous Far Cry games that are stuffed with modern guns. However, I do not feel the need for any more weapons. Quality before quantity, and all that.
Wenja's Don't Need No Money
The game challenges me on a mission to find materials to craft a bow, which i quickly and nimbly craft together to go on a hunt. With Hunting Vision on, i quickly fix my eyes on a deer. I crouch, draw an arrow slowly against the string of my bow and with the help of the crossair (which you can of course turn off) i manage to hit my prey right in it's thigh. I certainly am not ready for flipping off the crossair just yet. The deer jumps away while going into panic mode with the arrow sticking out from it's leg and thanks to my special vision i can follow the blood trail the bleeding deer is leaving. Once i get my prey within sight once again i flip away a quick arrow to finish it's misery hitting it right in the head, making it's soul finally walk free. And this is just a small taste of how advanced and lifelike the ecosystem in the game is.
After the brilliant introduction i soon met Sayla, a charismatic woman that becomes my first allied in the massive land of Oros. Together we set up a camp up to the west of the map, in which I soon get a mission to gather more people to our camp. We are Wenja, a group of people that have been broken up across the land of Oros and i already understand that it's up to me to become the emperor of this world. There are other tribes living in Oros with the two largest being Udam and Izila.
The animals behave immensely realistic in Far Cry Primal. Sneaking around in the wilderness and just check out how the different species behave towards each other is as enchanting as it is to actually hunt them.
I feel compelled to look for more people from my Wenja-tribe, because who want to rule an empty Oros? I can horde the finest spears and have the best gatherings around my campfire at night, a living camp where the inhabitants collect material and hunt for food everyday, all while I am being worshiped for my almost god-like abilities (these come later). But before all that, it's just me and Sayla in a poor-mans cave, drunk with power and ambitious dreams of claiming this land as our own.
I eagerly dash off on my mission to find the specific tribe members of Wenja, who have scattered around the gigantic world of Oros. A fast look at the map almost gives me chills up my spine. Oros truly is huge in size. The tiny little part that i so far have explored, and therefore have been lighten up on the map is barely a drop in the ocean. But who cares? The ancient environments that is painted before me as i step outside my camp is stunning and incredibly inviting.
During the night, more dangers show up around Oros, when the worst predators are out to hunt for food, fire is often a good way to scare away hungry beasts who want to take a bite of Takkar.
Exploring The Stone Age Has Never Felt Better
The Dunia 2-engine shows yet again pure brilliance when it comes to the PS4-version of the game (not to say the PC version is not also equally as stunning) because i never experience any lag in the frame-rate even though i am quickly roaming trough an vast, performance-demanding world. Sure there are no gigantic explosions or shotguns flying off left and right as in Far Cry 4, but the rich animal life and grandiose views still drops my chin to the floor time and time again. Other console games can experience some difficulties in holding a stable fps-rate of 30, and still give such an vast, lush and beautiful world.
The atmospheric feeling i get as i wander around is nothing short of fantastic. The color palette during the day is centered as much around orange in Primal as green is to The Matrix. That's not a bad thing though as the orange color fits for the era and gives the game an awesome, warm luster that makes me want to explore every corner of the map. Not the least by the fact that it's riddled with unexplored question marks, caves, hunting grounds and enemy camps. Typical Ubisoft-stuff with other words, but it's nothing that i don't like. Instead my curiosity is drawn to the places that i have yet to explore.
If I go north, I only have a few minutes before the cold kills me. I quickly have to find a camp fire to get warm, and i can also sew winter clothes to provide me with full protection against the cold.
As usual when it comes to sandbox games like this, i quickly get distracted. Soon on my travels i hit a camp filled with enemies, thus i'll wait just a moment before returning to world dominion and do some good'ol camp cleaning. With deadly precision i throw away a flurry of arrows and get multiple headshots. Once all are dead i light an arrow on fire, shoot it into the large bonfire that's in the middle of the camp to then get rewarded with a short sequence telling me that this is my camp now. Fast travel to this location is therefore unlocked to this place and the next time i want to get to the same location without having to go trough the hard marsh that i did earlier i can just teleport here, nice!
A while later i spot a group of wolfs, hunting a smaller animal in the wild forest. I crouch and gaze at the living action as the wolfs brutally break down the poor animal. Then i hear a grunt and feel my controller vibrating at the same time as my health bar is halved in a matter of seconds - a boar has spotted me! All i can do is just run for my dear life, in a mix of terror and enjoyment over the dynamic ecosystem that Ubisoft has managed to create.
It's in that moment that i realize just how much of a victim Takkar really is, it's a wonderful feeling at the same time as it's terrifying. My dreams of Oros being a lush, ancient paradise are quickly fading, not least by the fact that a relatively harmless boar just totally dominated me. I decide to focus on my mission of making mine and Saylas camp stronger, thus i "recruit" the Shaman Tensay, the hunter Jayma, the warrior Karoosh and the inventor Wogah - a crazy character that probably is the descendant of Trevor from Grand Theft Auto V.
The characters are unexpectedly interesting in Far Cry Primal, something that's been absent since the super villain Vaas in Far Cry 3. It is a pleasure to do missions for Tensay and the other VIP guests in my village.
Takkar Help Friend, Friend Help Takkar
Each character is introduced in a exciting and individual way and even though no of my fellow tribesmen speaks English, i immediately start to like them all. It turns out that each and everyone is connected to Takkars upgrade system, which is a genius way of getting me to care about my camp members and also wanting to do missions for them. After convincing them all in different ways to join my Wenja-village that's currently under construction, my sensation for power starts to boil inside me once again. Thanks to the characters in my village, i will be able to become stronger for every skill point i earn.
But before i get permission to unlock the most juicy of abilities, I have to give them all each a hut to live in. And for that I of course need materials, which can only be found around Oros. To gather branches, rocks, mud, plants, animal skins and everything else that's out in the wild, can at first glance sound very boring. This is not the case though in Primal, but rather you feel compelled and motivated to find more material and keep upgrading the huts, thus gaining access to more upgrades.
In Oros, there are plenty of caves that are sometimes so complex that I lose myself. At one point I wandered around for 15 minutes and not finding the exit, and then I remembered that I could simply use the fast-travel function to teleport away ...
Upgrades cost more than pimping your hut though. And as always you need skill points for upgrades and i can only get more skill points by facing all the dangers out in the lush, but lethal world outside my village. The shaman Tensay has helped me to tame an owl, which i can call upon if I need to scout ahead and tag enemies from the air, before returning to being Takkar and using the newly gathered information in my infiltration. The owl can of course also be upgraded and soon I'm diving towards enemies, ripping up their throats with my mighty beak, which also makes thing a bit easier for his master, Takkar.
In Oros you'll meet other people than just the Wenja-tribesmen. Every now and then i come across people roaming the free open world, often in need of my help. It can be anything from helping a few campers protect their settlement from wolfs, or saving some fellow Wenja's that has been kidnapped by the cannibal tribe Udam. I'll gladly help my fellow Wenja's as afterwards they will join my village, thus making our mark in Oros all that more mighty.
The owl can mark enemies for Takkar, but also attack them both physically and with bombs. Bombs made of bee-hives.
Become The Beastmaster!
Except for only making my village population bigger, Takkar also gets more food and resources as day passes. All for free! Everything is refilled in my private stash, that also conveniently is accessible from every smaller camp outside in the wild that i have conquered. After taking a well-needed nap i will always find my stash refilled by my dear village friends, being able to just gather food from the stash box is much appreciated instead of just having to hunt for health each and every time. Instead i can focus my time on exploring Oros, complete diverse quests and unlock more of the much needed upgrades.
But there are also other reasons than just food for hunting animals. Not least by the fact that specific weapon- and armor upgrades demand certain animal skins. If i thought the boars where hard in the beginning, i got another thing coming when meeting the mighty mammoths of the north. Thank god for the shaman Tensay that can teach me how to tame different species roaming the world. With my bait equipped i get ready to face the wolfs who once where so terrifying, with a quick flick of my hairy wrist I throw the bait towards the wolfs, one of them takes the bait. I slowly and carefully sneak towards the beast, calming it Cesar "the dog whisperer"- style, and after that processes the animal is my pet forever. These pets will be crucial when hunting larger animals, even though mammoths are always scary no matter who your companion is.
The spear is the best hunting weapon. It is both possible to jabb with it and throw it, and with some upgrades it is possible to take down even the larger preys with just one throw. Of course, you can pick up the spears again after they are thrown, which of course also applies to arrows.
With one flick of a button i can instantly summon any of the animals i have tamed in the wild, different species also work differently according to what your playstyle is. The jaguar for example is great for stealth as it can sneak and kill enemies without alerting any other guards, while the wolf makes the mini-map expand and also howls if other animals try to attack me. All of a sudden everything is going a lot smoother and i don't feel the same challenge in the game as i did before i got my pets, but that's not to say i can't do challenging quests or tasks if i want some extra action. You don't need to have a pet with you so if you want more of a challenge it's best to go out alone some times.
My personal favorite of all the tamable beasts is the saber-tooth tiger. It's the quickest in the entire game and you can also ride this four-legged death bringer. While we may not have any gliders like in previous Far Cry games, it's actually not anything i miss in Primal. I'm more than satisfied to roam around Central Europe, 12 000 years ago on my pet saber-tooth tiger.
In addition to the saber-toothed tiger, it works excellent to ride on both bears and the smallest kind of mammoths.
Concluding Thoughts
Some minor bugs in the game are consist of just the usual when playing a massive sandbox games, where you'll occasionally get a spinning mammoth or some characters appearing from nowhere in the game world every now and then. This is absolutely nothing that destroys the experience, and some updates that has come since release has patched some the minor bugs (and they are minor) that's in the game. The atmosphere is one of the best in a game, but the feeling can sometimes be a bit disturbed when enemies jump in and out from the screen.
The second and really the last trouble i'm having with the game is the climbing mechanics. It can feel very clumsy in it's moments and sometimes Takkar can't climb rocks that shouldn't be a problem, but at other times it works totally flawlessly to climb. Still i shouldn't complain because the game is so awesome, but you should still note that the climbing mechanics are not really an aspect that got the most attention, and it shows.
Beastmaster Hunts is one of the absolute highlights of the game. I do not want to go into any details, but they involve the strongest beasts in the whole game. And my mission is to tame them ...
But disregarding those minor faults i want to end my review on a positive note before i return to my exploring. If your looking for a survival simulator, this is not the game for you. Far Cry Primal is all about what Far Cry has been famous for: huge exploring joy, fantastical environments, delightful atmosphere, endless side-tracks and one hell of a addicting collection system.
When first starting out this adventure is very challenging thanks to the brutal and dynamic ecosystem. The feeling of triumph after hunting a prey is the most satisfactory in the beginning, just because of the intense challenge. It get's easier though, which does work well in the game as it makes you feel more powerful and that your upgrades actually make you an more efficient killing machine. On my way on becoming emperor over Oros? And I believe that's exactly what I am about to become.
No matter how far you progress in the game mammoths will always be scary as fuck.
Sources
- http://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/371660/
- https://far-cry.ubisoft.com/primal/en-gb/home/
Good comprehensive review as always man :)
Great post! Would you mind if I included it in today's "best of gaming"?
Yes you may include it, thanks for liking and reading it dude :)
I definitely want to give this game another chance, but it felt too much like far cry 4 to me, which I spent a lot of time playing.
Idk I just hate playing a sequel that feels like the same game I already spent 60-100 hours+ hour playing.
How do you feel about that?
I understand your dilemma, i personally think that you maybe can save Primal if you just played Far Cry 4 (even though the environments are completely changed, the mechanics are not) just to avoid some repetition. It's a great game, and if you like the Far Cry-series this one was probably the most interesting of the games IMO so far (and that's saying a lot).
So to conclude, we got an entirely different atmosphere and environment in the game, but still the same mechanics :) It was a great game though, one of the best adventures I've had while gaming so just must check it out eventually bro :D
I think I'll take your advice and put it in the vault! If you said it was a great experince gaming, then I definitely have to check it out haha
Yea do that dude, it's an awesome game you have to play it sometime, thanks for the trust ;)
Upvoted & RESTEEMED :]
Thanks mate :)