Far Cry Primal isn’t all that good, unfortunately. It’s general lack of offensive options and variety in fulfilling it’s missions, combined with playing it a bit too safe with it’s structure are all problems that drag it down. With all that said though, hey, it tried something new and in my opinion, should at least be admired for that on it’s own.
Just the basic concept alone is crazy right? Taking this series that’s almost entirely around guns, driving and (up to that point anyway) climbing radio towers and setting it in a time where not only do those not exist, they would be myths at best. You’re straight up a cave man in this game. You have spears, rickety bows and and rocks strapped to sticks. Even if the game doesn’t always make this combination of things works, hey man, they gave it a shot! There’s absolutely something to this lack of modern weapons (aside from the bow, which Far Cry in general just loves) that makes for a unique gameplay experience that’s at least worth talking about.
The other notable thing, for me, is the taming of animals to use as partners. Something Far Cry would tone down and simplify in the future by just having a couple animal friends you can recruit, but here really went for it! You can tame damn near any animal in the game world and they’ll suddenly be your friend and battle partner. I don’t know about you, but much like Cheeseburger the bear in Far Cry 5, having a saber-tooth tiger as a best friend is pretty damn fun. Hell, even the “view from the eyes of an eagle” system that ubisoft seems to love recently came out of this game with your owl friend.
Far Cry Primal isn’t perfect, debateably you could say it’s not even that good. Damn it though, it tried. It tried something strange and new and hey, at least it did that!
