Farcry Primal PS4 Review: "A prehistoric behemoth worthy of your time and money."

Farcry Primal PS4 Review

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Patch Version: 1.03 --

Farcry Primal is an interesting beast.

It establishes the date, then starts with a simple but informative cutscene detailing your tribe's relocation to greener pastures, but having found somewhere lush and full of promise then tells how your tribe are soon set upon by the Udam; the flesh eaters.

The game then quickly fades up revealing a gorgeous landscape where a herd of woolly mammoths can be seen. Graphically the world looks beautiful. It is now where we meet your character.  Takkar.  You are on a hunt, and having been told the plan in your tribe's native tongue, (a fact that requires you to read the subtitles if you want to know what is happening) you then crouch and move through the tall grass towards your prey. The thought running through your mind at this point will be one that you cannot avoid.

After the hunt ends you are separated from your kin and alone must embark on your mission: to seek those who will help you defeat the flesh eaters whilst at the same time growing and reuniting your people.

You quickly learn that there's a lot to Farcry Primal than just pointy sticks.  One look at the crafting tree, let alone the eight skill trees will leave your mouth agape!  But rather than flood you with this 'mammoth' sea of features it gradually introduces them, (albeit in a strange sort of order that I will talk about later) teaching you how to forage from the land and hone the basics of this prehistoric period.

The most important being your hunter vision. With one press and hold of R3 your senses are heightened.  The ability allowing you to see a multitude of aspects that would otherwise be missed, like blood trails, body heat, pheromones and objects of interest.  Though it wears off after a time, a fact you can adjust in the menu, you can cancel the feature by pressing and holding the same button.  It is a feature used time and time again now in games, but perhaps makes more sense in Farcry Primal than anywhere else.

Having crafted a weapon and made your first kill, quickly from hunter to hunted you become as night descends; the game world enjoying the benefits of a day/night cycle, but it is at night where you must be the most alert, for with the darkness comes dangerous new animals that stalk it.  Some which hunt alone, others in packs; their Ai impressively mimicking their basic animalistic behaviours as they charge or flank.

It's quite a harrowing moment when you hear their growling.  Do you run or stand your ground? Either could be wrong early on, but if you do decide to run, pray you are fast enough or are luckily enough to find some lake to dive into that is free of crocodiles, or giant fish that will swim up close and take a nibble.

However, like every task there is a tool, and night time gameplay is no different.  For in your arsenal you possess the most powerful element of the era, fire!  It will not only aid your vision during the night, but can be used in multiple ways to aid you on your adventure. The act of covering your arrows, club or spear in animal fat and setting them alight, scaring away those beasts that would otherwise attack.  Be warned, some do not fear the flames, so learning the difference will be important.  I was impressed by the feature further when I realised that the fire slowly burns down you implement eventually destroying it. So setting alight your weapon has a cost, but you can extinguish and relight it at will in either case to help manage this.

You can also set alight the environment itself.  A fact I learnt purely by accident that almost saw me burnt alive, so be careful as to where you wave your weapons.

With these lessons learned, your search for those that will help your kin continues, their tracks leading you into a cave, where eventually you meet your first ally and together make your way through it to the other side; the mouth of which serving as the base of what will be your new village.

So far the experience has all been linear, but from here on out the open world side of Farcry Primal rears its head.  One view of the map will leave you daunted at first by its size, but traversing it is swift on foot, your character some sort of Olympic runner it seems, so the distances do not feel that long in reality.

Later you can unlock the ability to mount and ride larger animals according to one of the skill trees, which should expedite your efforts. Something I look forward too as I'm keen to see how the feature handles.

It is also at this point that you learn a little more about crafting. All your gear and tools once unlocked being upgradable regardless of where you are once you have foraged the required ingredients.  The interface detailing as to what you need to both construct and improve them.

The foraging menu is likewise easy to read; the plethora on display equally impressive and giving hints as to where you might find each on display.

The skill tree at this point shows two paths that are available.  One for your character and the other your first ally; both trees though benefiting you, and you can spend points where ever you wish with no limitations if the options are unlocked.  The acquiring of the points from what I can gather coming in two ways: earning XP that sees you levelling up, and as rewards from certain missions including those that are optional.  As yet, I'm not sure how the other trees unlock.

Your first venture into this vast open world sees you seeking some plants that you need for their healing properties.  Upon which you soon happen upon the Udam.  However, while embarking on this mission and cautiously sneaking up to make my move, a pack of predatory animals swept on by and tore them to pieces.  Either this was scripted or some chance encounter, either way it proved to me three things:

• do not underestimate the beasts that roam.
• do not for one minute lose your focus in this land.
• do not wait too long to strike as opportunities never linger.

Lessons learned I searched their corpses, gathered the herbs and quickly made my way back to the safety that is my village. After this and in my excitement to explore, I pull up the map and choose a direction of interest.  The first icon I rush towards is a white campsite believing it to unlock a spawn site and fast travel location. The game map even confirming this when hovering over it. This was a priority to me, one that all fans of open world games will most likely do because death is a punishing mistress.  There is nothing worse than exploring some far off corner only to die through misadventure or by some chance encounter and then spawn right back where you started; for me it was a bear that I decided to not just poke in a preverbal manner. The act of throwing two spears at it only seemed to piss it off before it ripped me to shreds like I was Leonardo DiCaprio!

However, to my dismay I spawned at the start of the zone and not the campsite I had discovered. So I investigated.  Turns out that discovering them is not enough, you have to clear the area of your enemies, but the game fails to tell you where they are. I was so confused.  So I set off for nearest orange mission marker.

Having crept up on the target to discover it to be a mission giver and not the content itself, I accept the mission and move towards the relevant location on the map that is now highlighted.

Having completed two of these types of missions, both being different and unique, and gifting a worthwhile amount of XP for my troubles, and as a bonus increasing my village population, the campsite I had discovered still had not become a fast travel marker nor a spawn location.

Further confused, I chose the only other special marker on the map that I had not tried yet, which had a face on it.  It never occurred to me at the start that these faces indicate key goals. Primarily because it was never explained or established during the prologue to look for these special types of icons; I assumed it was just optional content like all the others since they were coloured similarly.  Then again, perhaps it was established, but I was just too busy reading the subtitles in the cutscenes that I missed it. Match all this with the lack of a quest tracker, and that the marker was so far away when it appeared in the first place compared to other a-like markers, my assumption could possibly be forgiven.

(It was later that I discovered that the main map filter doubles as the map legend, but since it’s defaulted to 'ALL' and called a filter not a legend, I never opened it up.  If I had, then I would have seen the indicator icon representing only main missions and my confusion would have instantly been averted. Still, this streamlined function seemed a step too far and not very user friendly for newcomers to the franchise.

While en route to this main mission location it is now that I discover fire-piles; they were never on the map at first for some reason, else I would have gone straight to them instead of the white campsite markers; a bug perhaps?  Regardless I trek on.

These fire piles are the game's towers as seen in the previous Farcry games.  Refreshingly they are different in the sense that there is no climbing them.  Instead you reach the area, clear any threats if any are nearby, and then set them ablaze.  Doing this not only reveals a little more of the map, but also becomes a valued spawn location and fast travel point.  I press on.

Reaching the mission location I discover a shaman of sorts. And without spoiling what comes next, all I will say is that it's completely like everything else so far.  Beautiful, but confusing; again you are given not a lick of guidance.

However, I'm starting to grow used to this neglect and muddle on and complete it regardless. I must admit that there is a sense of gratification figuring all this out without hints or overly having your hand held; still, a little guidance at the start of a game never goes amiss, especially for those players who might be unfamiliar with the franchise.

Having completed the shaman's mission, and now established what distinguishes a main mission from optional content, I head to the next with eager interest to continue the story.

Initial Impression

It seems so much of Farcry Primal is hidden at the start, and rightly so else you'd be totally overwhelmed, but there is also a lot of mechanics that are available that do not get explained.  I guess for those familiar with the franchise it will be straight forward, but to others who are new to it, it is very alien and not a welcoming experience.

For example: it was almost two hours into my playthrough before the game explained basic hand-to-hand combat. Though in Farcry Primal's defence, the tutorial popup was tied to the first firepile I talked about earlier, and given my proclivity to explore first, this tutorial did not show until I approached that location.  However, Farcry Primal should have accounted for this and factored it in rather than tie the tutorial to one specific locational trigger.

However, once I started to learn the arts of being a primal hunter in this world and balancing those abilities, the combat side of things felt very gratifying.  Headshotting enemies with my arrows as they charge and watching their death animations, which I might add are quite realistic, will please any avid hunter.  Not only that, but miss and instead hit their body, they react and stagger equally impressively.  The detail and animations are very well done.

For those of you who enjoy a bit of stealth gameplay, Farcry Primal doesn't disappoint either. It would be remiss if there weren't any stealth mechanics considering you play a hunter. So fear not, aside from crouching and hiding in long grass or bushes, the ability to perform stealth takedowns is permitted, along with body management and other things that become available later if I'm reading the skill trees correctly.  Such as double takedowns, chained takedowns and aerial ones.  This all pleasing me, especially the body management since it suggests that human A.I. will react to seeing their fallen and become alerted.  There is nothing that breaks immersion more than seeing human A.I. walk passed one of their own yet not react in the slightest!

On top of all this you also gain something unique that I wasn't expecting; pets that you can collect and command. These pets are not only companions, but protectors as much as they are hunters that you can control once you have baited and tamed them.  Let it be from the ground or the air; their loyalty for you knows no bounds, and as an added bonus, each beast gifts you with an advantage of some sort when active.

Typically I start writing my first impressions anywhere between the first hour up to the second.  But considering Farcry Primal's lack of signposting early on that I experienced due to how I played, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and played a little further, eventually seeing me make my first upgrade to my village. 

It was at this point where I understood the beast that is Farcry Primal.  It all was starting to make sense.  I'm having fun, but only because I persevered and I am glad I did because there are some really heart pounding moments; especially at night when you are stalking something that can kill you in one swipe.

There is an extremely good and rewarding game here, one in which I look forward to learning more about as I progress through its campaign.

Pros

• A unique and fresh take on the Farcry franchise
• Plenty of features and mechanics
• The addition of taming and controlling animals to fight alongside you is an interesting and useful feature
• The game world is beautiful.
• The ambient animal sounds really sells the world as one that is living and breathing 

Cons

• For gamers not familiar with the franchise, certain systems will be confusing.
• Human enemies blend too well in to the starting environment making them almost invisible, forcing you to use hunter vision most of the time.
• Certain aspects of the game is inconsistent in how it functions

Initial Score after 3hrs of play

Full Playthrough Score after 25hrs of play

Overall Verdict.

Farcry Primal is a different beast entirely to the sort of games that we have become accustomed to. It's a brave and bold attempt to move from normality.  It still has the same winning formula of its heritage at its core, but it has broken free from that familiar mould and is asking players to trust and take its hand.

The problem is, sometimes, normality is there for a reason when a franchise is one that is established. So when a game tries something new, it's extremely important to strike a balance and not change too much or deviates from that formula blindly.  

Farcry Primay doesn't necessarily do what it does blindly, but it is very far removed from the Farcry games that came before it. Some may welcome this fresh approach, others may not.

Its biggest failing though is not this difference, instead it is the lack of guidance early on that to veterans of the franchise will probably understand, but to newcomers will confuse and frustrate them to the point that they may never truly appreciate the beast that is Farcry Primal. Sure there is a help menu, and the game shows you the same messages from said menu at the linked triggering point, but deviate from that trigger and you will find yourself a little lost early on.

However, when the game does eventually dawn, it will not only make sense, but it will come together immensely well!

There is an ocean of depth in terms of features and mechanics to occupy you as you move around the world, and never knowing if suddenly you will be set upon by the one beast you cannot outrun only adds to the excitement! 

There are some inconsistencies with the design though. For example, when approaching vines to climb up a ledge, you have to press 'X', but when wanting to climb down or up vines that don't require you to jump, all you need do is approach it and it will automatically start the animation. This can be very frustrating when trying to lean or aim over the edge at whatever is below. However, once you have grown used to it, it ceases to be an issue.

For the size of the game, I was truly surprised by at how polished it was in regards to bugs. They are there though don't get me wrong: icons for example sometimes vanishing when in control of your owl being one example, but nothing terribly major or ones that will spoil your entertainment.

The cutscenes are superb.  All the characters speaking in the era's native language, or at least what could possibly pass as one.  So if you wish to know what is going on you must read the subtitles.  This does detract sometimes from the action and subtle nuisances of the scenes as they unfold, which does get annoying, but all in all they are extremely well done.

The only quest that didn't really fit with the tone of the game was Urki's quest line. And considering it's a main story character it baffled me more; it's the only time you meet someone in this sculptured world where the dialogue heard and the manner it is spoken sounds completely fake.

This aside, everything else about the story and sub stories is superb.  The missions are coherent and the main parallel story premises will have you trekking all over giving you a chance to experience very different environments, all of which look amazing whatever the time of day or night.

If you are feeling like a challenge, then outposts are for you.  These are enemy strongholds, all well-guarded.  They will test you, especially the very hard ones.  It's not impossible to go in all Rambo like, but the odds will not be in you favour.  It's far more rewarding to scout the base with your flying owl, take out a few lone guards and sneak in killing everything that moves one by one, utilising every trick up your sleeve in case things take a turn.  Each area has at least one of these camps; each one in turn totally different in numerous ways only increasing the challenge and keeping it fresh.  You can even reset them after capturing them from one of pause menu options, in essence giving you another chance to try your hand at a taking them all over again.

Fans of open world games that enjoy cleaning up everything available instead of just gunning through the main story missions will not be disappointed that is for sure. However, for those who would just like to experience the story and not touch a lick of side mission related content, you'd probably be better giving Farcry Primal a miss.  The two main story lines are extremely hard towards the end, and unless you are fully upgraded in both gear, weapons, and have unlocked the majority of the skill trees, something that you can only do if you do 30-40% of the optional side mission content at least, the boss fights will prove frustratingly hard otherwise.

The game's melee combat and stealth mechanics have impressed me the most.  You really feel like it is you swinging that club or thrusting that spear.  Stealth is equally rewarding, not only because missions grant bonuses for completing them in such a playstyle, but if you can get close enough unseen, the ability to do a multitude of takedowns will greatly satisfy.  

The stealth system is so smart in fact that once unlocked, all you have to do is jump down on to an enemy and it will auto do an aerial takedown. Want to perform a chain kill, time it right and you can; the system smoothly and beautifully moving you from your first victim to the next if they are close enough.  For situations where the second is just out of reach, fear not, kill the first and throw a sharp shard of stone.  It all just works so well and shows they really thought about stealth to great degree.

There is also so many subtle systems that never get explained, but for the eagle-eyed will impress, for example: taking on an outpost at night is slightly easier; there's less guards on patrol as they are sleeping. You still have to kill them though, ponder that for a moment.

Pets are another aspect that unlocks so much of the game for you.  Night time will not feel as cold and lonely; your pet, warding off wood-be predators that loom.  Don't drop guard though, they will still strike if you do!  And when you have unlocked the riding ability, jumping on your larger pets and charging around feels amazing.  You're not exactly slow on foot, but every chance I had to ride my pet I took.  It handles very well, and the game didn't really suffer either as I raced about like He-Man atop his mighty Battle Cat!

Bang for buck, it took me 25hrs to complete, which included doing about 50% of the optional content and achieving a village population of 214 out of 300, and not once did I feel bored or like I was limited in regards to what I could do or how I could do it. And before you ask: yes, once you complete the two main story line missions you are returned to the world to carry on cleaning up any content you have left.

Overall, Farcry Primal is a game that fans of the franchise will either hate or love, but for newcomers who perhaps were never interested in the previous Farcry games, yet fancy their chances in this new yet prehistoric world will find a game worthy of their time just as much their money.

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Farcry Primal:  PS4 Gameplay

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