Far Cry Primal - Final Review
- Shon Reed
- Mar 3, 2016
- 4 min read
*Note that this is only our Final Review and thoughts on the game. If you would like to read our full comentary and opinions on the world of Oros you can find Part 1 Here and Part 2 Here
After 18 hours I can finally say that I completed my playthrough of Far Cry Primal, and what a ride it was. From the early moments of stepping into Oros through the final moments of defeating my rival tribesman, I was immersed in a world like no other. I constantly felt like a member of our early ancestors and was at one with the wilderness. I commanded and fought beasts alike, scrounged for materials to make crude weapons, and explored a valley long changed by time itself. Primal did an amazing job of immersing me in a world I had never experienced and earned a place as one of the most memorable games in recent memory for its unique setting.
As I mentioned in previous articles, the language developed for the game is amazing. It feels like an early language and has an excellent vocabulary. Words fit with modern words to show the change in language that develops over time. The developer also did a great job with the look of the weapons and clothing. Everything looks like it fits in the time period and every little detail is looked after. There are some stretches made (bee grenades and the grappling hook), but these work to move the gameplay forward and do not feel like too far of a stretch of the imagination.
That being said the game did have its shortfalls. The melee combat, unfortunately, was lacking. While your club was a very powerful weapon, there was no depth to the combat. I simply mashed the trigger until my foe fell to the ground (or careened off a cliff in a hilarious ragdoll fashion). I wish Ubisoft had added some sort of block feature so that I could engage the tougher enemies in melee. The combat is not bad, but it could be better. The tamable animals do add another factor to the combat, but most of them are not worth using. While the badger is a cool animal to control, it is not worth using. The badger’s special ability allows it to revive itself upon death, which is never an issue for your tamed animals. If an animal “goes down” you simply walk up to it, give it some meat and it gets right up. If you are unable to revive it in time, the animal can instantly be revived from your animal menu using a specific number of red herbs. The fact that animals are so easily replaceable keeps the player from getting attached to them.
There are some interesting and unique story missions, but unfortunately most of them consisted of fetch quests or quests of the go here, kill this variety. The saving grace was that I could tackle most of these missions from a variety of ways. I could stealth the area with my jaguar, all while stealthily setting fire to the area. I could light my cave bear on fire and send him in to unleash hell or ride my sabertooth into battle while shooting my enemies with a bow. The variety of ways that you can tackle missions is always a highlight to the Far Cry series. Most games have a set style of gameplay that forces you to do a mission a certain way. While I did miss firing a grenade launcher from a gyrocopter, I still felt that I had many options when it came to accomplishing a task.
Unfortunately I remained frustrated with the Beast Master Hunt quests. These were often frustrating as they quickly burned through all of your resources. While I should have been enjoying the boss fight, I found myself frustrated as I ran for random trees or rocks to obtain resources in order to craft more arrows or spears. One such mission requires you to kill three wolf pack leaders all while getting swarmed with endless wolves. This mission caused me to nearly tear my hair out as I burned through all my healing items and never had a chance to catch my breath. The mission was not a deal breaker for the hunts, but it could have been so much better. It is a shame that these missions changed for Primal, as they were some of my favorite missions in previous Far Cry games.
Equally disappointing were the story mission boss fights. Both bosses are extremely overpowered and even with an upgraded Takkar I found myself constantly running and healing. The fights do offer unique methods to damage the boss (knocking over bowls of fire or knocking down icicles), but these methods were hard to pull off and sometimes did not even work. There were instances where I would drop the icicle on the boss and it would simply clip through him. Like the Beast Master hunts, I feel like these boss fights could have been slightly more polished.
Even with the negatives I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Far Cry Primal. It is a great entry in the series and feels fresh enough to stand on it’s own. The environment was fresh and I had a lot of great moments as I rushed across the valley on my tiger. I fully recommend this game for fans or the Far Cry series and gamers looking for a new experience alike. It may not be the most polished game of the series, but I had a great time in Oros.
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