Exoprimal Preview – Not The Dino Game I Wanted
Exoprimal is currently going through an open beta test phase and we had the chance to check it out. Here are our impressions of the game so far.
Exoprimal is a brand new co-op-focused shooter from Capcom that has been on a roll recently with almost all of its games. The Resident Evil series is the best it has ever been, and the same is true for Devil May Cry or even Street Fighter. Almost every genre or IP that Capcom has touched recently has turned to gold, but what about Exoprimal? I am not that optimistic about the game based on my impressions of the ongoing beta test.
Exoprimal is a game set in the far future. In this future, humanity has to rely on exosuits to fend off hordes of dinosaurs that spawn through mysterious portals. Since this is the open beta, I didn’t pay much attention to the story, but the opening cutscene does try to explain the cause of this dino outbreak. It serves the purpose of throwing hundreds of dinos at the player at a time.
For this preview, only the Dino Hunt mode is playable, along with the introduction that allows us to create a character. I didn’t delve much into customization and picked a default preset. The game then provides a training arena where we can test our different exosuits and learn the ins and outs of combat. Each exosuit is suited for a specific role, e.g., attack, defense, or support. They all have abilities, including a special move that takes some time to recharge, making them unique to use.
The training mode is necessary to learn the weaknesses or strengths of the exosuits as the Dino Hunt mode itself lacks any tutorials. Players are just thrown into a match that consists of 5v5 in a PvEvP environment. At the start of each round, we have to complete a set of objectives followed by an encounter with a large dino, like a T-Rex. The last part of the match is a PvEvP stage where the two teams have to collect containers and fill a bar that goes up to 100. This is the round with the most action but also the one that shows how chaotic the game can be due to the abundance of enemies and particle effects.
If I am being honest, Exoprimal has a lot of flashy attacks, and I found it difficult to keep track of the enemies as well as the dinos. Maybe I am just not a good player, but the enemy exosuits appear quite similar to ours, making it hard to keep track of them. It is also not as fun to shoot the dinos, who are bullet sponge enemies. On top of that, the game ties any of the special abilities to a cooldown timer, meaning that each time we use them, we have to wait for a specific time before they are usable again. There is only one normal attack and a move that allows building support infrastructure like a wall or block, like in Fortnite.
I came away less than impressed with the Exoprimal beta because it feels incredibly repetitive. It might be due to the lack of other gameplay modes, and Dino Hunt is just not as fun as I had hoped. Some of the maps might be fun to explore, but others feel generic with a repetitive environment that doesn’t set them apart. The confusing layout of the maps means that we will have to rely on a helper function that outlines where to go for the next mission objective.
I am hoping that the final game offers a lot more than Dino Hunt and tries to provide some variety in its multiplayer modes as well. I feel like the foundation of the game is solid, with each exosuit feeling quite good to control. The issue lies with the content, and in this regard, the game doesn’t inspire much confidence in me. Perhaps it is time for Capcom to bring back a single-player Dino Crisis game.
