When Capcom first announced Exoprimal last March, the third-person shooter was met with mixed reactions from both fans of the developer and gamers at large. Partly because they were confused about whether it was a Dino Crisis spin-off but also because it looked like a generic live service shooter, something we’re all tired of.
Now, three weeks after Exoprimal’s launch, I can happily report that it’s a competent mech shooter with solid depth and a rewarding and varied gameplay loop despite falling into some live-service trappings. The game is well worth your time if dinosaurs or PvE elements are your jam. Unfortunately, Exoprimal hasn’t evolved fast enough, and I’m worried about its future.
A, mostly, solo hunting experience
I thought that when Exoprimal dropped, it would be my friend group’s newest obsession to jump into on nights we don’t spend grinding Street Fighter 6 or Pokémon UNITE. Instead, we booted it up on day one to find only a few of us could play together because true crossplay between PlayStation, Xbox, and PC wasn’t available for launch.
When we went to add each other, we quickly discovered there was no way to invite players on other platforms to a party. Strangely, you can queue up and be matched with players from those different platforms even though you can’t party up, so that limitation and confusion instantly killed our hype.
As a result, all but two of my friends either refunded the game or dropped it within a week to focus on other live-service titles—competition and standards are high these days. Capcom has clarified that this should change in a future update, but for now, everyone with friends playing on other platforms is boned if they want to play together like my group did.
That did not, however, stop me from having fun during the time I spent with the game.
Pure fun, with some serious drawbacks
At its core, Exoprimal is a blast for anyone who wants to see cool dinosaurs dropping from portals, planes, and more, all for you to blast away at them while piloting cool mechsuits. Just be aware that even most PvE elements still involve PvP to an extent, whether it’s battling another team directly or trying to finish an objective faster—you will get tired of hearing, “You are completing objectives slower than the enemy team.”
And you’re going to hear that a lot, especially if you want to complete Exoprimal. The only way to progress the story and unlock cutscenes or other narrative content is to play matches, which feels like a slog, but is actually extremely rewarding when you reach a story “checkpoint” that can even drag in other real players for a new challenge Leviathan throws your way.
Dino Survival is the only true game mode at launch, with 11 variants within it that are selected at random when you load up. Some of these variants are locked behind story progression, however, meaning you need to play a set number of matches to access them. The variety still needs some work to keep players from dropping the game early, but it is there if you give the game an actual chance—not that Capcom explains that well.
Related: All Exoprimal game modes, explained
Even if things did feel a bit samey after a few play sessions, especially since I was playing with randoms most of the time, the combat always felt fun and engaging. It doesn’t hit the highest highs of something like Destiny with what story I did encounter, but you can tell the developer had a lot of fun with the game. Maybe the new Savage Gauntlet or upcoming Street Fighter collab will change that though.
While Exoprimal has its positives, there are some major concerns Capcom needs to address, such as gameplay variety and improving exosuit progression and rewards, to ensure Exoprimal doesn’t go extinct before truly reaching a new prehistoric peak.
Additionally, the $60 price tag will likely deter some players from giving Exoprimal a try, resulting in the playerbase slowly dwindling as current users move on. And while future seasons could revitalize those numbers, getting more people invested early is key to longevity when competing for their time against F2P juggernauts like Fortnite.
If you have $60 bucks and like dinosaurs and hero shooters, you might want to give Exoprimal a fair shot. But if you are on the fence, I’d stick to trying it out on Xbox Game Pass or waiting for a sale later this year.
