Exoprimal review | VG247

Every once in a while, you come across a game that is a real surprise. I’m willing to bet that I, along with many others who saw an early trailer for exoprimal around a year ago it was shrugged off as an attempt by Capcom to cash in on some of that juicy wonga of live service. I still think Exoprimal is an attempt to do that, but as far as cynical follow-ups to Overwatch go, it’s hands down one of my favorites.

That reality is something I’m still slowly getting over. Exoprimal is an objective-based, team-based PvPvE dinosaur word salad of a game that combines many tried-and-true aspects of the live service market with its own distinctive style. Exoprimal’s unique selling point has been obvious since the game was first announced in 2022: this is the game where you get to pilot cool robots and blow dinosaurs to a million pieces. It’s an unabashedly honest premise that I quite frankly love, and one that doesn’t lose its luster once you roll the credits.

As the pilot of one of ten different exo suits, each with their own variety of attacks and abilities, you will find yourself thrust together with four other pilots in a race against time. Each dino survival mission (currently the only game mode available in Exoprimal) pits two teams against each other in a mad race to complete identical objectives before being teleported to a shared final location where a victor is decided.

Of course, there are ways to influence the outcome. Teams receive dominators; player controlled dinosaurs that you can send out to attack the enemy team. There are also team-wide buffs and debuffs that you can apply through destroying special shiny monsters. Each allows each game to retain the tension. Comebacks are a constant possibility thanks to just one smart play.

But at its core, underneath the occasional clash with the enemy team and the complexities of the various objectives you’ll encounter are the dinosaurs that act as natural barriers to progress. Each different type of dinosaur is a puzzle, requiring different approaches to take it down quickly. Sure, any team can take down a T-Rex, but quickly? Therein lies the challenge.

Everything good about the game works thanks to Exoprimal’s excellent use of its greatest resource: the dinosaurs. They are endlessly entertaining to fight. Even the basic raptor is a hilarious item, whereas in the larger special the dinosaurs I won’t mess up can totally change the pace of a game. There’s rarely a dull moment in Exoprimal, and I’d rather fend off a triceratops than any bland copy-paste robot you’ll see in a PvE mode of Overwatch any day.

The game lacks places. For one thing, it desperately needs some sort of queue that allows players to lock in their preferred exo suit class. I recognize the purpose of the seamless ability to change suits as you play – different combat encounters can benefit from more DPS, an extra tank, maybe even an extra healer. For those who are serious about Exoprimal, a role queue would be redundant.

But for the layman and newer players, it would greatly improve the experience. Garry, 43 and back from a long day at work in the coal mines, just wants to go home and lock himself up in the Roadblock. Great choice Gazza, good. However, the team has three tanks now, which means they lack the damage necessary for any chance of victory. You can’t tell Garry to switch, and being dragged through the slow doom of bad team composition in Exoprimal is about as close to a torturous experience as video games can get.

I also think the game has a pacing problem. In the first few hours of Exoprimal, the selection of maps, game modes, and enemy dinosaurs is quite limited. Still fun, but absolutely limited. This opens up and expands beautifully as you play, with each of the game’s especially radical raid encounters acting as doorways to additional content. However, I’m afraid that by the time a curious Game Pass user finishes their sixth game escorting the data cube, they might believe that Exoprimal is a superficial experience.

I must also make a special note of the RE Engine shenanigans at play here at Exoprimal. There’s something really special about watching a horde of dinosaurs climbing over each other, running down a street while attacking you. There’s this wonderful interaction with the Roadblock suit where if enough raptors hit your big front shield, you’re slowly pushed back if they scratch and climb on top of you. The cool factor at play here is only enhanced during massive swarm events, where over a thousand birds of prey drop from the sky and pour down on your team in jaw-droppingly cool fashion.

My biggest concern with Exoprimal comes with its longevity. If it was a single player experience, of course I’d judge it by its price and what’s on offer as of launch, but as a multiplayer live service game, you have to look to the future. The game at the time of writing has its singular gameplay, however those who earn credits will unlock a challenge mode called Savage Gauntlet later this month. There’s also a roadmap of future updates that promises additional maps, exo suits, Capcom collaborations, and even a new final mission (which I’m personally not a fan of).

In addition, it is a game that is sold at full price. Sure, with Game Pass you can download it for free, but for those not interested in the service, the question of “why spend $59.99 on Exoprimal when there are so much more popular games out there already?” it is unavoidable. Overwatch 2 can be a constant series of problems, but it is free to play and has little risk of player abandonment.

I think, despite the undeniable fun factor and morbid nature of this game, that Exoprimal is in danger of disappearing. This is why I recommend that at home, with a vague interest in multiplayer action games and an open mind, you get a Game Pass subscription and download the game as soon as possible. There’s no better time to experience a game like this than when it’s most popular. Yes, it may still exist in the future thanks to members of the computer-controlled bot group… but it’s not the same.

Exoprimal will be a roller coaster of surprises for most players. Fighting your way through the fifty or more matches it takes to earn credits, experiencing all the spectacle on display in this curveball of a game is well worth the cost of admission for Game Pass users, in my opinion, and perhaps with a discount for all the others. It will still be present on my PS5 home screen, at least for now.