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Far Cry Franchise never hesitates to present new creativity. Far Cry Primal is a prime example. A game depicting the plot of a stone age era, but it might sound boring and give a false idea of just roaming and killing mammoths. But instead, it’s a well-crafted experience of a lifetime. You not only face the dangers of human competition but the bloodthirst of wildlife too.

Takkar, our main protagonist, has seen the worse outcomes of his Wenja Tribe. But being a true Wenja, nothing can oppose his will of survival. The stone age shows no mercy, and only the fittest can survive. Will he be able to claim his victory over the danger and rebuild his community? Or will he die in the fate of wildlife?

This is not a light-hearted roaming game. It’s fierce and dangerous at every step you take. Jumping right into the action usually diminishes the concentration, but here starting off with your tribe for a hunt and being surrounded by enormous mammoths sets up the mood perfectly. It makes you feel the rough and bold nature of our ancestors. After the cinematics, your journey for survival starts, while death and danger keep on lingering over your head and ready to face you at each turn.

Know your surroundings-
You are smart enough to acknowledge what’s good for you and what’s not. Attaining an expert knowledge of surroundings opens up the possibility of the crafting system. If you think you can kill a wild beast with just your bare hands, congratulations, you are allotted as his next full meal. Keeping your consciousness sharp, learn new crafting equipments for both striking and healing situations. But each idea needs components, thus, Hunter Vision comes into play. An anytime usable feature that allows you to highlight enemies, crafting materials, animals. But watching the world in grey and yellow kills the awesome graphic work of the game.

Hunting and Taming-
When you are in a wildlife encounter, there can only be one alpha. Either be the winner or become his food. Primal offers a wide variety of animal species showcasing interesting behaviours at different terrestrial locations. You don’t just kill a goat for food. You use its skin for advanced crafting too. Resting isn’t an option; you are prone to attack literally all the time. So, your best chance of survival is with a wild companion. Taming a wild animal might cause some hassle with all that stealth baiting, but the results are fruitful. You get a hunting partner, plus free rides and most importantly, a cute animal to pet.

Difficulty and Enemies-
The game feels fairly easy for multiple hours, but once you face your first boss, the sh*t turns real. Now the game is full-blown bloodthirsty gameplay. You are never safe, and nearly impossible to survive without a tamed beast. The difficulty is not well balanced. Sometimes you can clear the entire area just with your flying owl, and sometimes it takes a full army of villagers, weapons and beast just to make the boss say Ouch.

Primal enriches in enemy types too. From archers to melee to strong tanks, the human enemies are varied and forces you to follow a stealthy playstyle. But sometimes, they spot you from miles apart. Very volatile behaviour from AI enemies. Sometimes they stand in a corner doing nothing and sometimes ready to kill you and drink your blood. The same goes for animals. Even though animals follow a decent variety like hostile types, scared from fire types or not giving a damn type, they are still pretty hard to understand. Your deadly beast cannot identify the enemy and takes a long path to attack, plus him being afraid of water, how convenient!

Progression-
Staying alive isn’t your only goal. Becoming the strongest and fulfilling your tribal needs hold the same importance for the sake of survival. Doing missions for your tribe and keeping them safe acts as story progression. But there’s no limit to your tribe population. Recruiting skilled members and reaching a specific population count grants you various perks and rewards. These missions had straightforward tasks, but oh boy, the surprise encounters, along with a pinch of immersive cinematics, made them quite an experience. Each main mission was unique and heart throbbing. At one moment, you are collecting wood for your tribe member and another second drinking blood of your enemies and smashing their skulls.

Primal passes the quality testing for a creative stone age game. But there were various drawbacks like Hunter Vision ruining the game graphics, sides of elevated areas being slippery, forcing you to take a long U-turn just to climb a 3 feet high ground, dumb AI, minor bugs and God-like bosses. These drawbacks luckily get overshadowed once you get a hold of gameplay. There aren’t many games achieving stone-age survival this well. The game well balances the execution so that you don’t feel like a wild monkey running through the woods, instead learns the environment and adapt accordingly.

To showcase a stone age, elements like environment, clothing, animals, and weapons hold the most importance. And Far Cry Primal successfully constructs the accurate vibes. Everything fits well with the timeline, except the grappling hook. That’s a bit of a stretch but neglectable if you focus on other successes. Top-notch animations and variety in landscapes make the map feel fresh at each step. Overall, a brilliant work of art throughout the whole gameplay.


Pros-

• Good storyline.
  
• 40+ hours of gameplay.
  
• Hunting and crafting.
  
• Taming of beasts.
  
• Variety in gameplay.
  
• Good graphics.

Cons-

• Minor bugs.
  
• Dumb AI.
  
• Uneven difficulty.
  
• Sponge bosses.
  
• No change in weather.

Tame a beast as early as possible. The problem isn’t the human enemies, but the wild animals that attack you randomly everywhere. So, having a wild beast with you is your only hope. The same goes for beast rider skill to unlock map quickly. Owl is very handy if you remember to use it well.

Extra content/DLC-
If you are buying the DLC for an extra interesting mission, then please don’t. The mission in DLC is boring and not worthy. But if you are seeking other perks like tame perks and skins, then yes, it’s worth it on sale.

Easy time killer with a variety of fun elements. Going on a hunt with your tamed beast is priceless. Missions are interesting, locations are beautiful, and most importantly, hunting is fascinating. The base price might be high, but it’s from Ubisoft, so a high price is expected. Wait for a good sale and sharpen your spear to jump right in front of a mammoth.

Rating: 8/10
Fulfilling ear fetish of my gf.

underrated

This was a bit of a let down for me. Not a bad game in any manner, but it felt a bit empty and repetitive. The world was beautiful and I liked the setting, but there was something missing. Story could have been worked on more, it felt rushed. I still recommend you try it, you don't have a lot of occasions to be a caveman :D