When Capcom first showed off its new not Dino Crisis dinosaur shooter a couple of years back, it was easy to write it off as some weird multiplayer thing. Now, Capcom hasn’t always had the best track record when it comes to multiplayer games (looking at you RE:Verse).
The Weekend Forecast: Exoprimal Impressions
However, the absurdity of blasting thousands of dinosaurs in overpowered mech suits seemed like the kind of dumb fun I might enjoy if the game supports it.
Exoprimal launched yesterday, and I’ve sunk roughly five hours into it, and the weekend forecast is predicting even more this weekend. I’m not here to say Capcom has struck gold with this game, but it’s the kind of video game fun we rarely see these days.
From Exoprimal’s opening moments, when it shows a seven-day weather forecast filled with raining raptors, I know I was in for a good time, however brief I decided to stay on this journey. The game being on Xbox Game Pass helps!
I hopped in the first mech suit known as Deadeye, a pretty standard all-rounder with an assault rifle, grenade launcher, and dash, and went on my way. During the tutorial, I learned of the other weird little freak suits I could pilot, like the support Witch Doctor who can pull its little freaky shell off and use it as a glider.
Each mech comes equipped with a mobility option and a unique ultimate ability that is almost always over-the-top, like Deadeye’s Barrage which pulls out four different machine guns and just sprays led across the field.
After a surprising amount of story cutscenes, the game finally lets loose and lets you engage with its primary mode Dino Survival. This pits two teams of five against each other in a race to clear out areas of dinosaurs.
You can choose between PvE or PvP, which determines what the final encounter of each match will be. In your early hours, the PvP final round will consist of an Overwatch-style payload needing to reach its destination while the two teams duke it out to try and stop the other from completing the task.
The core gameplay consists of clearing out hordes of dinosaurs as fast as humanly possible, and with the right group of friends, it can be a blast.
Dinosaurs pour out of giant floating black holes and can range from large swathes of raptors to the mech impaling Triceratops. Taking down the various dinosaurs can require a new strategy for your team and a whole lot of ultimate abilities.
You see silhouettes of the other team as they clear objectives, so you know how close or far behind you are to them. It makes for an exciting back and forth, and oftentimes, when I thought my team was surely going to lose, we turned it around in the PvP section to barely pull off the win.
You can swap mechs anytime, much like an Overwatch match; if something isn’t working for your team, try something new! Maybe you need an extra tank to take some of the aggro off. A family can be five DPS if you really want, after all.
Whether you prefer long-range engagements, up close and personal melee builds, or a mech that just hits hard, Exoprimal has the feel nailed.
All of the suits feel unique enough and come with some excellent designs to match. I’ve never been one for a Battle Pass or lootbox, but the skins in Exoprimal feel really interestingly designed. It’s clear the team at Capcom didn’t skimp out on the season 1 skins. They put their whole mechussy into them. [Editor’s note: I love this sentence so much].
Maybe you want your giant Mech to look like a tree, a firefighter, or even a construction worker (yes, these are all currently available).
Exoprimal has a surprising amount of story, and it’s dolled out by completing online matches. After a set number of games, you’ll be treated to a cutscene, some more lore, and furthering the narrative set in the game’s opening moments.
The cast of characters known as the Hammerheads are pretty likable, and I haven’t found myself groaning at the TV yet, so I have hope the story will resolve in an interesting way.
I’m still pretty early on in the game, and this weekend will be a pretty solid test of the game’s staying power amongst my friends and peers.
I just hope I encounter another one of those crazy dinosaur tornadoes.
