Exoprimal Review – Not The Dino Crisis That Was Expected

Japanese publisher CAPCOM has been on a roll these past few years. They released plenty of solid games, ranging from multiple entries in the Resident Evil series to Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter Rise, and, more recently, Street Fighter 6. This streak made everyone forget about the company’s mediocre output during the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era. All of these titles, however, belong to established franchises, so CAPCOM has been a little lacking when it comes to launching new properties, showing a certain fear of doing so. In the current climate, launching a brand new series is a bet that very few publishers can make.

The multiplayer title Exoprimal is the first game in a while from CAPCOM to be an original IP. While not as good as most of the recent offerings from the publisher, it’s still a solid game that can only improve in the future with new content and features.

Despite its focus on multiplayer action, Exoprimal comes with a story that is, surprisingly, one of the best features the game has to offer. Taking on a role of an Exosuit pilot, players crashland on Bikitoa Island, forced to participate in wargames simulations created by the Leviathan AI for an unknown purpose. During these wargames, Exosuit pilots will not only have to contend against others but also against the same hordes of dinosaurs that have been plaguing the world for three years.

While the characters are a little tropey and the premise somewhat over-the-top, the Exoprimal story is incredibly entertaining. Unfolding with a mix of real-time cutscenes and static dialogue sequences, the mystery of Bikitoa Island and the Leviathan AI is rather engaging, providing players with a good reason to continue playing the game. Players don’t need to win games, as just participating in games counts towards progression, which is a very nice touch.

While having an interesting story is definitely a plus, most people will play Exoprimal for its PvEvP experience. While it is a solid multiplayer experience, a few design decisions drag it down, although some of them should be solved as more players progress in the campaign.

The Exoprimal’s basics are incredibly simple. During each Dino Survival match, players will be grouped into two teams of five total players to compete in games divided into two phases – PvE and PvP, respectively. During the first phase, the two teams must complete mission objectives as fast as possible to reach the second phase with an advantage over the opposing team. In this phase, mission objectives include defeating hordes of dinosaurs or protecting a target, which comes with some chaotic fun thanks to the hordes of dinosaurs going after the players.

In the second phase, mission objectives are different, involving activities like escorting a data key, securing and protecting certain targets, collecting a certain number of energy charges on the battlefield, and so on. All of these objectives must be cleared while fending off dinosaurs and the opposing team, as it’s only during this phase that the two teams can fight each other off. Unlike in the betas, the final version of Exoprimal gives players the option not to play the PvP final round, although deciding to matchmake for a random final round is more beneficial, as it grants more experience points to level up and unlock additional rewards.

While all this sounds varied enough, some issues arise quite prominently. For starters, the six different launch maps are not particularly well-designed, as none of their features actually influence gameplay a whole lot. They do offer some slightly different mission objectives from one another, but after a short while, they will start feeling like nothing more than mere backdrops for all the dinosaur extermination the game offers.

One much bigger issue, which thankfully should not be much of one in the coming weeks, is how all Exoprimal content is accessed. Trying to keep story progression as linear as possible, Exoprimal makes it so that the content that is accessed in every game of Dino Survival is limited to that of the player with the lowest level. As such, during the launch window, most players ended up playing on the same first few maps, and even replaying the same story missions over and over, making Exoprimal feel more repetitive and limited than it actually is. This is a shame, as during the mid and endgame portions, Exoprimal feels rather dynamic, as the Leviathan AI will spice games up frequently by interrupting them and transporting players to new areas where they will have to deal with unexpected dangers. Among these interruptions, the most fun are the raid-like games where up to ten players have to fight off some massive dinosaurs. Still, with only five PvE and five PvP objectives, the game gets repetitive over time.

The repetitiveness of Exoprimal is slightly alleviated by the Exosuits, whose handling and abilities are the best-designed features of the entire experience. Roughly divided into Assault, Tank, and Support, the currently available Exosuits all handle and play great, and all come with playstyles that are very distinct from one another. Speaking about tanks, for example, there’s a world of difference between Roadblock, whose gameplay revolves around taunting dinosaurs to get aggro and stop them in their tracks using a huge energy shield, and Murasame, whose gameplan revolves around powering up its long-reaching katana attacks by unleashing counterattacks. All Exosuits are so well-designed that even Support suits are fun to use, which doesn’t happen too often in similar games. Additionally, the ability to switch between Exosuits, and secondary weapons called Rigs, on the fly during a match not only makes the experience more dynamic but also solves a common issue in squad-based games when playing with random players, making it easier to have a proper team composition at all times. Exosuits’ capabilities can also be enhanced by installing modules unlocked by leveling them up, although the changes aren’t exactly massive, though they do matter in the grand scheme of things.

While Exoprimal doesn’t exactly deliver when it comes to its gameplay, it fares a little better on the technical side of things. The game is far from being the best-looking game released in the past few months, but its RE Engine-powered visuals get the job done, especially character models, which give the game a certain visual identity. Maps, on the other hand, continue to be as average as they are when it comes to design, looking a tad too generic and not particularly well detailed, which is, in truth, not a big issue, considering the fast pace of the action.

Thankfully, Exoprimal doesn’t seem to suffer from the horrible stuttering issues that have been plaguing PC ports in the past few months, as the game runs pretty smoothly with an average of 90 FPS, 4K resolution, FSR 2.0 Quality preset on the system used for the test (i7-10700 CPU, RTX 3070, 16 GB RAM).  The game features a huge number of graphics settings as well, so it’s very easy to make the game run well on a variety of systems, although the lack of NVIDIA DLSS support is disappointing.

As I played Exoprimal more during the various betas, I couldn’t help but feel that the game needed something more to rise above the competition, and the game’s final version hasn’t changed my opinion. In short bursts, the multiplayer game by CAPCOM can be fun, but the novelty of killing off hordes of dinosaurs wears off quickly, leaving only a passable experience that most people won’t come back to after experiencing the surprisingly interesting story. Additional content and gameplay tweaks could turn the experience around, as the game’s basics are solid enough, but as things stand, the game would have been easier to recommend with a lower price tag.

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

Exoprimal

While its basics are solid, and its story surprisingly interesting, Exoprimal leaves something to be desired. With a limited amount of PvP and PvE missions, and average maps, the excellent visual and combat design of the Exosuits and the occasional surprise raid mission are not enough to keep the whole experience engaging after a dozen or so hours. Taking down hordes of dinosaurs can be fun, but the game definitely needed something more to be a must-have, especially at its price tag.