Capcom’s new multiplayer action title will restore your love for dinosaurs… Well, for annihilating them! We have already tried Exoprimal.
It almost backfired on Capcom by announcing their new game Exoprimal back in 2022 within the State of Play. Many were disappointed by what seemed to be a hint of a new Dino Crisis… To later be a “more” shooter. We have been able to test Exoprimal (coming to PS4, PS5, One, Series X|S and PC) and we assure you that our expectations have improved.
For those of you who don’t know him, this is a multiplayer action title (with teams of 5 people) in which the objective is, in each mission, overcome waves of dinosaurs all the way to other end goals, like an escort ride to a data cube. In each mission, there will be two rival teams of 5 players. The team that finishes all the tasks first will be the winner.
Do not expect an argument with a lot of sense, because it is not necessary either: In the year 2040, strange “black holes” appeared out of nowhere and hundreds, thousands of dinosaurs emerged from them. They attacked the cities. Now armed with a exoarmor (a very versatile suit for combat), we have to help in the simulations of the AI called Leviathan to tackle the problem.
so we we chose exoarmor and joined a group of five so that Leviathan (which manifests” as a flying orb) guides us to each battle zone. Once there, they will begin to sprout dozens of dinosaurs that we have to eliminate at full speed and that the AI itself will describe us.
The “basics” are the velociraptors, but there will be bugs of all kinds, from tough carnotaurs to the deadly T-Rex or, later, the fearsome Neo Tyrannosaurus.
The exo-armors that we can equip before the battle have 3 categories: assault (the most balanced, with damage at any distance), tank (more resistant, to defend others or repel waves) and support (specialized in healing and granting advantages).
In turn, within these categories there are various models of armor (which in broad strokes are like “characters” of a hero shooter) that can be equipped with weapons and attacks of their own.
each of special attacks (from throwing grenades that we detonate from a distance to shoryuken-type air slashes) is assigned to one of the buttons on the controller and need a cooling time before being used again. Playing with the basic attacks, the simple special attacks that recharge fast, and the more deadly and slow ones is crucial to survival.
Brutal special abilities allow you to launch huge waves of shots or even summon your own dinosaurs to help you in combat.
As you are assuming, the action is very intense and fast, because in fact our objective is to dispatch the dinos in less time than the rival. It might seem chaotic in the first few seconds, but actually everything is articulated in an “ordered show” in which the mini-radar and the rest of the indications on the screen help us a lot to follow the action.
The first few missions last about 12 minutes., which is very digestible, although we understand that as the story progresses things will get more uphill. The main mode is called Cretaceous Sea and builds on those waves of enemies.
Overcoming all these waves will help us to progress a “very Capcom” plot thanks to several secondary characters who accompany us and converse with us before and after the skirmishes, with very Japanese and crazy designs.
We don’t know exactly why, but this set takes us back to the times of other games like Lost Planet… It’s also very important the AI Leviathan itselfwho is like another character who assigns us missions and seems to have a secret plan behind everything…
This futuristic and sci-fi setting is joined by a technical section that for now gives us very good feelings. We have been able to play on a mid-high range PC with high graphics and everything has worked very smoothly even when it was literally raining dinosaurs. Explosions, electrical discharges, particles and more flourishes are constant during the games.
Much of the credit has to go to that Capcom RE Engine that is giving such good results in Resident Evil Village or Street Fighter 6, for example.
The sound section is merely compliant for now, with English voices and Spanish subtitles although, curiously, Leviathan does speak in Spanish (probably because his dialogues are also generated by synthetic voice and this is based on the default language of our team).
So that we maintain interest constantly, the game will be organized by seasons, which will offer unique rewards. All this will be part of the “Jurassic Pass“, which will have a line of rewards (gestures, new skins…) free and other premium (paid, wow).
There are tons of cosmetic items and upgrades to be had (so far it doesn’t look like there will be any “pay to win”), plus some side challenges to delve into the mysteries of the plot.
For all this, and in the absence of delving into more complex missions, the experience is seeming very enjoyable for nowespecially when it’s time to cooperate to eliminate the largest dinosaurs or when the rival side is close to us and tries to stop us with shots.
Exoprimal doesn’t promise to revolutionize the genre with new game dynamics, but it does have everything necessary to set up a highly entertaining multiplayer game. When it goes on sale on July 14 (it will be in Gamepass from the first day!), we will see if it can survive in this harsh ecosystem full of similar proposals and if it has variety so as not to end up… extinct.
