Far Cry Primal

The world of Far Cry has traversed the Archipeligo, African Savanna, Pacific Islands and the Himalayas through four main titles, giving a massive open world full of characters, guns and animals. Now just over a year after we received Far Cry 4, comes Far Cry Primal to add the Stone Age to the list of destructive environments.

Primal sets the scene in the prehistoric land of Oros where it follows the Takkar who while on a hunting party with his Wenja tribe are ambushed and Takkar’s party are killed and he is left for dead. From there you begin the three main story lines to bring down opposing tribes and rule the land.

The main control system is instantly familiar to anyone who has played a previous title; the challenge for Primal is in the removal of all modern technology. No longer can you simply pull an automatic weapon and decimate an area, Weapons and packs must all be crafted from collected resources through hunting and gathering and can be upgraded through collecting bone, hides and stone. This change takes some time to adapt, being caught in a battle and breaking every spear you have is a fast track death with a limited supply of craftable items, though quick flicking between weapons can be very effective.

The true star of this game though are once again the animals, now using Takkar’s Beastmaster skill, you can tame animals you find such as Bears or Jaguars to have them assist you in hunts and takedowns, along with utilising an Owl for flyover scouting and drop bomb attacks (think Bran from Game Of Thrones) and Mammoths taking the rideable pachyderm place of Far Cry 4 Elephants.

Oros is a lush, detailed and graphically stunning land with a vast level of cliffs, valley and rivers to traverse. Teaming with other tribes members to take down and beasts to overcome, it maintains the franchises style choice of heavily interactive environments.

Primal falls flat through it’s storyline however, the characters have little impact on the game other than their featured cut scene, there is no great arc to follow other than removing the other tribes and once the main missions are completed, you’ll quickly find yourself simply running around hitting up side quests and capturing opposing tribes bonfires and camps.

If you are desperate for that Far Cry rush again, this will satisfy the urge, just remember, Far Cry 5 this is not.

Released Feb 23