Exoprimal immediately grabs attention through its unique hook; a 5v5 team deathmatch in which players fight in Anthem style power-suits and the winner is determined by who can kill hordes of dinosaurs the quickest. It's a premise that lives comfortably in the absurd and the execution of this premise is no different, but that's by no means a bad thing.

Capcom is no stranger to absurdity. The Resident Evil series is a prime example of this, as the fourth, fifth, and sixth installments of this horror franchise include action elements that sometimes reach cartoonish levels. That said, incorporating that style into a live-service, multiplayer shooter is definitely new territory for a studio known for fighting and story-based action games. With a string of strong releases over the past few years, such as Resident Evil 4 Remake and Street Fighter 6, is Capcom able to keep the streak going with Exoprimal?

An Okay Story Told In A Messy Way

In the year 2040, dinosaurs suddenly appeared in every part of the world and quickly became a threat to the future of humanity. Players enter this world three years later as Ace, a volunteer for Aibius Corp.'s Exofighter program. Aibius Corp. is responsible for the Exosuits that players fight in, as well as an A.I. called Leviathan who predicts where a dinosaur vortex will open and dispatches forces to investigate. While investigating a vortex with the Hammerhead patrol squad, the ship crash-lands on Bikitoa Island and Ace is forced to compete with other Exofighters in mysterious wargames designed by Leviathan.

While this setup is interesting enough to catch the player's curiosity, it struggles to maintain it after a few hours due to how the story is delivered. Unlike similar live-service games like Destiny 2, Exoprimal's story mode is not an isolated, linear mode that players can play through alone. Instead, players jump right into the competitive game modes in order to gain lost data files that unlock story beats in the Analysis Map.

Each story beat requires a certain number of files to be collected, some needing three specific files while others need six or seven. The issue is that these files aren't provided linearly, meaning it might be a couple of hours before players get the specific files necessary to unlock part of the story. While it makes sense narratively to compete in the wargames and gather information to solve the mystery, it fails to keep players engaged because it takes so long to gather the pieces necessary to progress. It's a shame because the story has a strong and lovable cast that are a joy to watch.

Fighting Dinosaurs Never Felt So Good

The building blocks of Exoprimal will be familiar to fans of team-based action games. Players are grouped into teams of five and dawn an Exosuit from one of three classes: Assault, Tank, and Support. For better or worse, each Exosuit is very archetypal of their respective classes but have enough variation to make each one feel unique. Plus, if a player isn't feeling the Exosuit they initially choose, they can change to a new one at any time.

Combat in Exoprimal is the highlight of the whole experience, especially the melee based Exosuits. Exosuits like Zephyr and Murasame are clearly built on the fantastic combat mechanics of the Devil May Cry games. The movement is fluid, fast, and impactful in an addicting way. Firearm based characters are no different. Shooting feels weighty, accurate, and powerful thanks to a variety of special abilities and tools like Rigs and Modules.

Rigs are a changeable support tool that include a heavy cannon, a healing zone projectile, and a mobility thruster. Modules are meant to enhance existing abilities, such as increasing movement speed and health recovery. While these tools are part of why combat feels so good, they also address the issue of team synergy. This issue is due to the Support class feeling weak and underpowered, which is okay in PvP games where players can flee combat, but not when players are facing an onslaught of dinosaur hordes or fighting a powerful player-controlled dinosaur.

Fun Game Modes That Are Poorly Presented

Exoprimal's gameplay occurs in Dino Survival, which features nine potential game modes that are split into two categories, Objectives and Final Missions. Each game is a race that starts in the Objective phase and ends with the Final Mission phase. To maintain pressure, players will occasionally see real-time ghosts of the opposite team and get status updates from Leviathan. However, since Dino Survival is also tied to story progression, it takes time for players to get access to all nine game modes, meaning the first couple hours are spent with two modes: Dinosaur Cull and Data Key Security.

Dinosaur Cull is the most common Objective phase, in which teams fight in a number combat arenas that require a certain amount of dinosaurs be killed in order to progress. Completing this phase allows players to progress to the Data Key Security, the most common Final Mission phase, where players must escort and defend a data block.

Being stuck with these two options for the early game may turn off some players, but it's worth sticking it out. As new modes are introduced, Exoprimal will switch between them during a single phase; instead of one mode, the Objective phase may have three. This changes the game significantly because it encourages players to experiment with Exosuits and strategies multiple times in a single game.

Boring Live-Service Features

Exoprimal does nothing to differentiate its live-service model from the standards people have come to be familiar with over the years. Players are met with menu tabs that lead to the Survival Pass, which is this game's battle pass, a "career" tab that has random awards and bonus objectives to engage with, an online store, and even loot boxes in the form of "War Chests." It's all the standard stuff that some competitors like Destiny 2 and Overwatch have either discontinued or adapted in a way that feels unique and unintrusive.

This model also leads to some annoyances like story progression being impossible without successful matchmaking. There's no way to go through the story offline or in single-player, so it's totally inaccessible for those with less stable internet or players that just want to experience the story on their own terms.

Final Thoughts and Review Score

Exoprimal is a strong game that lacks the it-factor necessary to keep players coming back for the long-term. It has incredible combat and aesthetics that are a joy to engage with but that enjoyment only lasts so long when it takes a couple of hours to experience new game modes. The story is interesting but is told in a limiting way that risks players feeling confused and, at worst, uninterested. It's hard to tell if this will be a title that really hooks players in, but with its release on Game Pass and new content coming very soon, Exoprimal is well worth jumping into and keeping up with.

Source: PlayStation/YouTube

Exoprimal is available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass for Console, PC, & Cloud. Screen Rant was provided with a PlayStation 4 digital download for the purpose of this review.