'Exoprimal' Review: A Solid Dose of Dino Busting

So let me get this sentiment of mine out of the way before anything else is said - the first few hours of Exoprimal can feel a bit monotonous. While the act of tearing up rampaging dinos alongside your four armored teammates while trying to complete missions faster than the enemy team is exciting the first couple of times you do it, you start to fall into a bit of a lull the more you do it. That's not to say that the gameplay itself is the reason for that feeling of monotony creeping in - the super suits in this game all feel varied enough to make them feel incredibly different from each other, which is why I got so much enjoyment out of cutting down dinos as the "Murasame" Tank-class warrior and setting off planted explosives as the "Barrage" Assault-class fighter. Even as someone that doesn't usually step into the role of a Support-type character, Exoprimal encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone to see how they perform. And to my shock, I appreciated the powers they wield that can be used to continually heal my teammates and pick off the reptilian/rival exosuit opposition. Every exosuit in this game delivers equal amounts of satisfaction whenever you use them - I can't wait to see what the new "Alpha-" and "Beta-Variant" exosuits are capable of.

Now I mentioned before how the opening hours of Exoprimal can easily drive most players away if they don't enjoy the general gameplay loop. But for those of you who do enjoy all the dinosaur culling and the implementation of a final PvP or PvP mission to decide the winning team during that period, you'll be rewarded for your efforts. "Dino Survival," which is this game's main mode, starts to unveil its additional tasks over time and showcases the best parts of what they have to offer. My addiction to Exoprimal kicked in as I found myself caught in an epic struggle against hundreds of dinosaurs that fell out of a portal in the sky, planted turrets & walls to strengthen my team's defenses while we all secured uplinks in a Capture the Flag-type mode, and linked up with another team to clash with a badass "Neo T Rex." I will admit - the marketing behind Exoprimal did a horrible job at making it clear that players need to play at least 20 matches before they're treated to a larger variety of game modes. Even still, I'm glad that this Exoprimal rewards players' forbearance with some of the most amusing multiplayer modes I've ever played in a very long time.

Now the one part of Exoprimal I found myself not all that invested in was how it handles its story content. As you get deeper into the game, you'll be treated to cutscenes and dialogue sections that expand on the sci-fi movie-like lore it's all about. It's pretty easy to wrap your head around the game's concept about a twisted AI trapping exosuit users in a constant time loop and witnessing the actions of a team looking to get to the bottom of why this is happening in the first place. That's not to say that the way the game's plot is told is all that interesting - it's inoffensive at best and bothersome at worst when you're just trying to get onto the next match. I would have loved Exoprimal to launch with some sort of single-player component that did a much better job of relaying the trippy story elements it tries to summarize after a couple of multiplayer matches. As I prepared to put this Exoprimal review together, my thoughts about the game's plot came to me in one word - humdrum.

Do you know what shocks me the most about Exoprimal? It has 0 performance issues, bugs, or glitches! Expecting any game to launch with a few technical hiccups is given at this point these days, so I have to applaud the developers at Capcom for putting out a new game (especially a multiplayer-focused one!) that looks great, sounds great, and performs well a hundred percent of the time. The exosuits and dinosaurs that are constantly at odds in this game look amazing thanks to the power of Capcom's in-house development engine (the "RE Engine"), plus the sound of hundreds of bloodthirsty raptors stampeding toward you & the repeated gunfire delivered by the "Krieger" exosuit's Gatling gun is incredible. Yes, the grass seen on that one map looks like it belongs in a PS3/Xbox 360 game. But everything else looks great and points to Exoprimal's developers going above and beyond to make it look its very best.

Now another issue I have to bring up for my Exoprimal review is the way in which it's been released. Instead of doing the smart thing and releasing this game as a free-to-play experience, Capcom decided to put Exoprimal out as a full-priced title with the sort of microtransactions you'd see in that aforementioned game type. "Cosmetic Sets," a "Head Start Kit," a "Premium Tier," and a "Survival Pass" smack you in the face as soon as you boot up this game, which can be enough to make most first-timers boot right back out of the game without even playing a single match. Now I will admit - Exoprimal doles out its rewards a lot faster than I expected, plus the game tends to give you a decent amount of currency and "War Chests" that gift you with new customization options at a steady pace. I feel like more people would approach this game with a more positive outlook if Capcom completely took away the $60 price barrier (luckily, Xbox Game Pass subscribers don't have to worry about that paid barrier to entry).