Far Cry Primal on PS4 – The DVDfever Review

Far Cry Primal: Ubisoft are in the zone at the moment with their current releases, launching Tom Clancy’s The Division and also this one within weeks of each other, not forgetting Assassins Creed Syndicate just before Christmas alongside Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. It has definitely been a good few months for them heading out of 2015 into 2016.

So here we have a new spin on Far Cry. Long gone are the Trigens and other mutated creations from Dr Krieger on the exotic tropical island that Jack Carver ended up on. Since the series roots, we have visited a war torn Africa, another large tropical paradise, the Himalayas and now we are heading back to 10,000 BC when Sabre Tooth Tigers and giant Woolly Mammoths still roamed the earth.

As with the prior games in the series, Far Cry Primal is an open world story driven first-person action game (avoid the shooter part there!). You have typical stone-age-inspired weapons like spears, clubs, bow and your grenades (bombs) are pots filled with bees initially. Again, the animals are taken direct from that period in time with variations on Sabre Tooth tigers, Jaguars, Wolves, Bears, Woolly Mammoths & Rhinos and the annoying Dhole’s are back from Far Cry 4 to name a few. The story itself sees you Takkar of the Wenja tribe having to roam the land of Oros recruiting new members (hunter, warrior, crafter), once recruited and completing each recruitment quest you then have to upgrade your village and get more of your nomadic folk under your fold.

Now to make things harder there are 2 opposing tribes, each with their own set of unique abilities. You have the Udam who are cannibalistic bullies who like to steal from you and capture your tribe members to eat to gain their knowledge and there is also the Izila, who are a bunch of Pyromaniacs. Of course, with these three factions it is up to you to take out the leaders of the Udam and Izila and bring peace and prosperity to Oros and your people.

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Far Cry Primal Gameplay Walkthrough Part 1 [1080p HD PS4] – No Commentary – MKIceAndFire

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The gameplay itself is very similar to Far Cry 3 & Far Cry 4 minus the modern day guns and grenades. You will find yourself collecting as many items as possible while on your travels to be able to craft extra spears, clubs and arrows etc. Understandably, there are no stores to buy these items so crafting is key and done via the weapon wheel to replenish stocks. You do have a stash which is replenished daily with random items that can be used for said crafting and upgrading. Once you have rescued the key members of your tribe you unlock extra upgrades to your weapons which can be upgraded on the relevant screen, you also have skills where you assign points to like in Far Cry 4, as an example upgrading what your owl can do and being able to tame a larger selection of beasts, getting said skill points comes from completing missions etc. Your home area on the left side of the map can also be upgraded – the huts to the key characters and your cave, once again the benefit of doing this unlocks extra weapon upgrades and the likes. Side missions like the prior two games (this seems to be the norm here!) will see you rescuing people from other tribes hands, killing a higher up member of another tribe and taking over guard posts and small villages to give you a fast travel points and opening up the large map.

The combat is what you would expect. Clubs, I must admit, do feel a little wavy with the way you use them, the same can be said for first-person combat in general though looking at Skyrim and Oblivion etc. This game feels more suited to a stealthy/hunter type approach to objectives, your owl replaces a set of binoculars and you fly above outposts tagging enemies so Takkar knows where they are and they show on your mini map. If you have upgraded your owls abilities, you can also take out a target, maybe taking out someone that will be higher up raising an alarm which makes it quite tactical. Other than that, though, spears and arrows will see you picking enemies off quietly and thinning out numbers.

You will have also seen that you have a pet with you at all times – you will get an early quest where you have to tame a white wolf. This is a great way to complement stealth or create chaos. Send your animal in to take out key targets while you snipe at others – it has a great synergy to it. Once you unlock higher Beast Master skill levels, you can tame animals like bears and Sabre Tooth tigers. Each animal has its highs and lows; heavily guarded outposts, I usually send my bear in to occupy the heavier enemies while I pick off the stragglers. Taming animals is a neat feature but it is not something that is overly hard – throw some meat down if in the right area and when an animal goes to the bait, creep in front of them and hold the tame button for a few seconds and you are done. No long hunt and tracking needed like the first mission to find the white wolf.

Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the game.

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Far Cry Primal Gameplay Walkthrough Part 2 [1080p HD PS4] – No Commentary – MKIceAndFire

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