So I Watched The Far Cry Primal Gameplay Video, And Here Are My Thoughts

[Renegade343]

Ubisoft (which I always like to rewrite it as "you be soft", then pronounce that in such a way that it can be interpreted as sexual, because why the hell not?) has announced Far Cry Primal, or "Far Cry set in prehistoric times". The idea alone got me interested, because:

• I do like a bit of Far Cry every now and again.

   

• We do have a bit too much Far Cry set in modern times, with helicopters, guns, flamethrowers and whatnot, and having a change of setting could bring something new to the series, such as heavily altered gameplay using the same foundations, or a whole different story compared to the other Far Cry games in terms of plot. 

   

So, when the gameplay trailer video (or gameplay video) came out, I decided to watch it, in which the video stumbled on the first fifteen seconds, where (I assume) the protagonist is viewing death and destruction, then meets what I assume is the eccentric antagonist (because it is Far Cry, and Far Cry always enjoy its weird antagonists). Now, correct me if I am wrong, but that is very similar to the start of the latest Far Cry games (latest as in: Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4, disregarding expansion packs), which is: 

 

Protagonist is in the middle of a scene of death/destruction/oppression, then meets the eccentric antagonist very soon after. 

 

That is what happened in Far Cry 3 (with the protagonist being imprisoned, along with his friends, to be sold as a slave, then meets Vaas), and what happened in Far Cry 4 (The bus that the protagonist is riding in gets stopped at a checkpoint, then chaos, fighting and death ensues, with him being thrown off the bus, then soon meets Pagan Min, who then stabs one of his soldiers for some reason I seem to have forgotten right now). So, points deducted for originality going by the video alone, but maybe the rest of the story would be something different and refreshing. 

 

Anyways, moving on, we then see that the protagonist can now tame animals to do his bidding, which is something for new gameplay elements, and there is more emphasis on hunting gameplay compared to the other Far Cry games, with new gameplay elements thrown into that, so that is a plus. Of course, that goes without saying: Still need to hunt animals to upgrade stuff!

 

All looked well and nice in the gameplay video, until at a point where I cannot help but laugh: An owl used for reconnaissance and for bombing. Now, I barely studied history (I find it rather dull), and there is a line in the video that would justify that happening in the game, but the owl acting as a prehistoric reconnaissance and bomber UAV is somehow silly even for a game such as Far Cry. For one thing: How the hell is the owl carrying that many bombs? Does the owl poop it out every time the protagonist calls for an airstrike? Oh, and the owl can also act as a kamikaze plane, but without blowing up every time it hits the target, which is probably a good thing compared to actual kamikaze planes.

 

Also, the protagonist can summon any animal he has tamed whenever he wants, by the looks of it, so I assume we are also going to play prehistoric, gritty Pokemon. The rest of the video is a trailer followed by responses from the employees, which by that alone should say volumes. 

 

Other than that, most of the gameplay elements are basically stuff from previous Far Cry games, but with a lot of replacing of words and items. In summary: More of the same Far Cry, but hopefully with some noticeably different changes. 

Edited December 24, 2015 by Renegade343

[-Mandachordian-Tenno-]

the owl having that many bombs reminded me of pigeons and coconuts.

[(PSN)Pharen]

Yeah it's funny, Ubisoft claimed they built a new engine for the game, but watching the gameplay videos it's quite clear that it's running the far cry 4 engine. Even the bows have the same sound files from far cry 4....