Exoprimal Review – Infinite Crisis

Once upon a time, in September 2018, Bungie released Forsaken, a massive expansion that redeemed the problematic Destiny 2. It included many welcome additions and a new mode that mixed PvP and PvE – Gambit. Gambit saw two teams competing on a map to slay enemies, going from one area to the next to do so. The team that does so faster gets to the “final round” sooner, giving them an advantage. Players could invade the opposing team, sending someone to their instance to mess with them.

Almost five years later, Capcom released Exoprimal, a co-op PvEvP game where two teams of five players each compete to complete objectives. You’re told where to go but given much less freedom in exploring and can also invade the other team’s instance to wreak havoc and set them back. There are several other differences, but for the most part, it’s astonishing how much Exoprimal is almost a paid version of Destiny 2’s Gambit.

"There is an air of mystery around it all, which is telegraphed pretty early on but still intriguing. The problem isn’t the premise – it’s the disjointed story-telling."

It’s also worth mentioning that in this day and age, Gambit is perhaps one of the least popular modes in the looter shooter. It receives pretty much no updates, but even after some attention and support, it received criticism for being unbalanced, stressful, unfun and downright painful, especially with randoms.

The fact that a lot of that applies to Exoprimal is no coincidence. That it doesn’t have tons of other content to fall back on, unlike Destiny 2, is also highly disappointing.

Let’s start from the beginning. The year is 2043, and we called it the Traveler – sorry, I mean, dinosaurs randomly attack the globe. Where are they coming from? Why dinosaurs? Regardless, the totally not suspicious Aibius Corporation is on hand to help, dispatching powerful Exosuits to slay them. It can predict where said dinosaurs appear with its advanced AI, Leviathan. However, for some reason, Leviathan has gone rogue and is now conducting experiments on Bikitoa Island.

You join as a new Exofighter recruit assigned to the Hammerheads, a motley crew of Lorenzo, Viktoria and Alders (with Sandy providing robotic assistance). While patrolling the island, you’re forced to drop onto it. The player encounters Leviathan’s Watcher, who sends them back three years in the past as part of its WarGames. Why is it a specific day? What do the hordes of dinosaurs have to do with Leviathan’s experiments?

There is an air of mystery around it all, which is telegraphed pretty early on but still intriguing. The problem isn’t the premise – it’s the disjointed story-telling. As you play Dino Survival, you obtain data to plot on the Access Map. The data leads to new plot points and revelations among your team as you work towards escaping the island.

"Your team of five goes from one point to another, following Leviathan’s Watcher, completing objectives that range from defending an area to slaying dinosaurs."

There is some interesting lore to glean. You could learn about the island’s past or how an orbital elevator was destroyed, and then suddenly witness the last moments of an Exofighter as they slowly descend into madness. Hilariously, you don’t even need to check the Access Map for updates – at one point, I watched a cutscene, unprompted, that advanced the plot. When going into the Map, and using the data to unlock a new plot point, it played the same cutscene again. It’s like the data I collected didn’t even matter.

The tone alternates between goofy and serious, with the writing suffering from annoying banter. There’s a time for quipping about the proper way to say, “There’s no place like home,” and it isn’t after hearing someone’s violent, crazed death. Even worse is when the game attempts to acknowledge some of the more annoying tropes, like the silent protagonist or Leviathan’s constant alerts. Doing so doesn’t automatically make them less cliched or annoying.

It’s a shame because the voice acting is pretty good – each character comes across as charismatic and comfortable in their roles. The data points provide some opportunities to learn more about their lives, but outside of Leviathan, your squad doesn’t play that much of a pivotal role in the actual gameplay.

Of course, this game is about Exosuits slaying hordes of dinosaurs, so not many would care for the story. Exoprimal doesn’t take too long to throw you into the thick of it. Your team of five goes from one point to another, following Leviathan’s Watcher, completing objectives that range from defending an area to slaying dinosaurs. Progress enough, and you reach the final mission when you can control a Dominator to invade the enemy team.

"Exoprimal balances dinosaur quantity with quality, throwing enough hordes to keep you preoccupied while the elite dinosaurs and Neosaurs cause a nuisance. "

You have limited Exosuits, but more become available as you level up. The ten suits are divided into three roles – Assault, Tank and Support – and offer some decent variety. Deadeye is your run-and-gun shooter with an explosive shot, but soon you unlock the likes of Vigilant, with her sniper rifle and freezing capabilities, or Murasame, who can block attacks and counter into a devastating blow which enhances outgoing damage for a time.

Each has a specialty, whether it’s Barrage and his focus on demolitions or Skywave mixing crowd control and flight with AoE healing. They all control very well, feel distinct and even have unique personalities, which can grate at first but help with communication in battle. Some interesting synergies exist, but it’s also often about filling roles that your team is lacking, like multi-target damage, close and long-range tanking, healing, crowd control and so on. Given the heavy emphasis on damage at times, you may be encouraged to sacrifice some tankiness for the sake of another Assault unit to slay enemies faster.

In the early going, you slay hordes of raptors, with the occasional Triceratops or Carnosauras thrown in. The raptors mostly run into the meat grinder, but the Triceratops can charge you across the map into the ocean, while the Carnosauras rampages about. Tyrannadons also mix things up, by sheer virtue of requiring ranged units and Rigs (tools with their own cooldowns) to shoot them down.

As you complete more matches, additional dinosaurs like the Ankylosaurus, which is incredibly tanky unless you expose its underside, and Neosaurs, mutated dinosaurs with functions like teleportation, sniping from afar or exploding, join the fray. Exoprimal balances dinosaur quantity with quality, throwing enough hordes to keep you preoccupied while the elite dinosaurs and Neosaurs cause a nuisance. Sometimes it can get a bit too chaotic and messy, and things eventually fall apart if there are no Tanks or Supports, but it’s all pretty well controlled.

"The problem is that there isn’t a proper PvE mode, at least not right now. You’re constantly competing against the enemy team to complete objectives faster."

The problem is the objectives – you’re going to play a lot of Dinosaur Cull, mindlessly slaying dinosaurs again and again. Even as the game introduces new objectives, several still follow the same formula of defending a point or killing dinosaurs, when they’re not outright repeated.

Several interesting objectives are in PvP, like capturing and defending points while staving off the enemy team to grabbing a hammer, slaying enemies to charge it up and destroying a barrier to progress forward. If you opt out of PvP, that’s a decent chunk of the game you’re not experiencing. Even then, there are occasions where I got the same objective, Defend the VTOL, three times in a row in the same location. Hearing Leviathan tell us to follow the Watcher and stay in the same spot was humorous at first, and unbelievable the second time.

While the maps themselves look good, they’re also very rudimentary. Aside from areas where you can fall off or into the ocean, they don’t feel very distinct or different from one another, which makes the monotony of objectives that much more pronounced. That you’re constrained to a singular path without the ability to explore or mess around is also a buzzkill.

The final mission in a match can be PvE or PvP, but following feedback, Capcom implemented an option to matchmake for either. The problem is that there isn’t a proper PvE mode, at least not right now. You’re constantly competing against the enemy team to complete objectives faster. Leviathan constantly tells your team that it’s going faster or slower, which gets old quickly. Then there are the Dominators, which are still PvP elements, even if they’re used to invade in the final round.

The Dominators themselves offer very little counterplay. If you don’t have a Skywave to freeze them, a Vigilant for single-target damage or a team capable enough to burst one down in the middle of all the other mayhem, they can easily wipe the floor with you.

"Visually, Exoprimal looks pretty good, whether it’s the textures on the character’s faces or the Exosuit models themselves."

Perhaps my biggest gripe with the so-called “campaign” is there are some genuinely great, curated missions to play. One involved another NPC illegally joining us in the WarGames to get some data, and Leviathan responds by sending hundreds of dinosaurs. There are other cool missions with fun mechanics which I won’t spoil, but they showcase what Exoprimal could have been if it wasn’t so preoccupied with PvEvP.

Win or lose, you’ll get XP and BikCoins (and data, so you don’t have to try hard outside of the pivotal story junctions). The former increases your player level and doles out new Modules, more BikCoins and War Chests, which are loot boxes with cosmetics and, well, even more BikCoins. Leveling up an Exosuit unlocks specific Modules which can modify an Exosuit’s functions, like increasing the range of Murasame’s counters.

These can also be upgraded with BikCoins, though for some reason, you don’t just get to use a Module when you level up. It becomes available to unlock with BikCoins and can then be equipped. BikCoins are also used to purchase cosmetics, like new skins and charms, so you must decide between gameplay benefits or fashion.

This is probably to encourage leveling up each Exosuit, which is odd because switching to fulfil the team’s needs is also sometimes necessary. You can’t buy War Chests or BikCoins with real money, which is fine, but spending BikCoins to unlock Exosuits is annoying.

Visually, Exoprimal looks pretty good, whether it’s the textures on the character’s faces or the Exosuit models themselves. Environments are also similarly sharp despite how dull they can feel, and even with hundreds of dinosaurs, explosions and more happening on screen, performance doesn’t dip. Online performance is also good – I didn’t experience any lag, and everything felt extremely polished. I’m not sure how aim assist works but it felt extremely iffy at times, making Exosuits like Deadeye somewhat difficult.

"If you want to slay dinosaurs with cool mech suits and can deal with all the flaws, Exoprimal may be worth a quick look but not much else."

As for the user interface, which uses the same cursor as Destiny – it’s very hit-or-miss. During matchmaking, your equipment and Exosuit are displayed, but selecting either doesn’t let you change them. You go to a screen where you can look at them, but alter nothing. Backing out has you in the Hangar screen, so now you must return to the matchmaking screen. Want to cancel matchmaking? Better move the cursor to that small matchmaking square – there’s no button to back out.

You must navigate the cursor at the end of a match to get to the results but can skip things or go between tabs with buttons. The way the Exosuit level-up screen is handled is odd. The latter has so much space, probably to fit the upcoming Exosuit Variants. Imagine if the latter was redesigned to showcase how much time you used an Exosuit, how much XP it received and so on instead of everything at once, but alas. Overall, the cursor use is yet another case of a developer using what Destiny does without understanding why.

Exoprimal is a mixed bag. The Exosuits are the stars of the show and perform admirably, whether it’s looking good or providing some of the biggest gameplay thrills. The dinosaurs, the real supporting cast, are also unique and pose a fun threat. Aside from that, numerous questionable design choices, from the interface, the PvEvP focus and limited objectives to the annoying writing and odd story-telling abound. So much content is drip-fed throughout the game, highlighting its paucity.

Of course, this is a live service title and more content will be added later, but you have to wonder how often this same formula can be repeated – with the developer “fixing” things post-launch. Whether Exoprimal will have a robust enough player base remains to be seen. For now, if you want to slay dinosaurs with cool mech suits and can deal with all the flaws, Exoprimal may be worth a quick look but not much else.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.