Far Cry Primal (2016 Video Game) User Reviews (10)

An underrated hidden gem!

[Oneirosophos · 8/10 · 20 August 2018]

FC: Primal is the FC: Origins of the series. It takes the core of the series, which is survival and gets back to the beggining of mankind, where three tribes fight each other for supremacy.

You are the "hero" of the Cro-Magnon, the Indoeuropean tribe and your tribe is almost extinct by the tribe of cannibalistic Neanderthals and a pyromaniac Native-American tribe. You have to conquer their lands & defeat their chiefs, by the AC-inspired common system, where you conquer their "bases". Except for this main quest, you have extra characters quests that enrichen the somewhat swallow story and give you bonuses.

The system I liked the most is the beasts system. You just wanna catch em all, because you will need them in the very-hard quests. Yes, each base & quest has 4 levels of difficulty, that never get lower. So, don't rush into the "very-hard" ones if you are not ready. And always use the owl, that inspired afterwards the eagle in AC: Origins.

In a nutshell, I definetely reccomend FC: Primal, especially if you are a newcomer to this insane series! If not, enjoy this unique setting and by far the BEST main playable character of the series, Takkar who is THE Alpha Male! And I put it third in my personal rating, now that I've played every main installment:

5>3>Primal>4>1>2

This ain't your grandpa's Fred Flintstone

[residentgrigo · 8/10 · 15 April 2016]

Blood Dragon once pulled a full conversion of Far Cry 3 and succeeded with it's writing and style but the gameplay and world felt like afterthoughts. Primal basically pulls the same stunt with Far Cry 4 (note the map similarities) but the developers doubled down on reworking the gameplay and most importunately world into a cohesive package. The narrative may be simplistic but what would one expect from a caveman revenge drama and the game is one of the most original big budget productions in years. Which other game will let you drink human eyeballs to send you on a drug induced mass murder vision! The entire game is actually noteworthy for being one of the most messed up M-rated games of all time due to over the over the top gore, the mentioned drugs, heaps of cannibalism and a lot of full frontal nudity. Primal's fictional language is another noteworthy standout but don't ask me how the dude bro audience will respond to it. Don't expect the same amount of content the standard setting Far Cry 4 brought to the table but Primal sill managed to deliver one of the most believable open-worlds of all time and again proves that the Ubisoft collect-a-thon formula works. The very easy Platinum trophy can lastly be achieved in about 25 hours. 8,5/10

A pretty good game, despite flaws

[851222 · 7/10 · 11 January 2020]

Greetings from Lithuania.

I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy "Far Cry Primal" (2016) while I was playing its story. It has a unique open world, solid gameplay and ... that is pretty much it. Graphics were OK, story - just a bit below average "Ubisoft type of tory". And everything else here is a very basic game. There is nothing original, and if you played any of "Far Cry" games before, you will be at home and probably a bit disappointed despite a cool settings playing this one.

Overall, I Platinum'ed it this game, and it was just OK to be honest. Its pretty easy one, and there is not replay ability for it. A bit unique but eventually one of the most disappointing games in this franchise.

Great game

[teafilip-16257 · 9/10 · 9 August 2020]

Really underrated. It's really fun and the weapons and pets are the best part of the game. I liked the villains and the voice acting and animations of the cut scenes where great.

Original concept but i need to say that i couldnt finish it

[AvionPrince16 · 7/10 · 6 December 2021]

The game have an interesting concept. But i need to say that the game is pretty limited in weapons, vehicles because they didnt exist at this time but it have an original story but i need to say that i couldnt finish it. Its good but pretty boring after 3 hours. The missions are pretty the same and feel repetitive. I enjoyed the characters but that s it. Good but thats it.

A fun open-world with loads of content, but is severely lacking in depth.

[DanSchneiderLovesKids · 6/10 · 20 August 2022]

Just like with any Far Cry game, there is a lot to do. The world really feels alive like so much is going on around you. You constantly have people to rescue from enemy tribes, you have animals that will attack you from every angle, and there are plenty of locations to discover and take over.

But as fun as it may be to play the game, it has no depth whatsoever. The developers missed so many opportunities to make this game truly great. In one mission, you have to fight the saber-tooth tiger that killed your brother at the beginning of the game. But that's all you do. You fight it until it is within an inch of its life, and then you tame it.

Why couldn't you have some kind of reckoning with the tiger? This is the creature that killed your brother! Why not have the option to either kill it or spare its life? Why not have the main character talk to it like he does with a lot of other animals? Why not have him forgive what the tiger did to him, and decide to put aside their differences to become more than what they were before? That is kind of the theme with the game anyway: building up your bonds with both your village and the wildlife. This could have been one of the BEST missions, but it ends up falling completely flat.

In another mission, you have to fight the main boss of the Udam, Ull. Once you defeat him, he tells you to look after his children and then he dies. Okay, that could be cool and emotional, but... no.

You could have had him recognize that the Wenja are powerful because they are more in touch with wildlife around them, and they use it to their advantage. The main character is able to tame bears and cave lions for crying out loud! This mission could have been a waking point for the main character as well. The Udam are sick and dying. They need someone to help them, so that could have been the point where they ask for help from the Wenja, but it still falls flat.

It's still wildly fun to play, and the open world is awesome, but the story is so bland that you end up forgetting what you're fighting for in the first place, and you're left wondering what the difference is between you and your enemies with the game doing nothing to address it.

A far cry from the greatness Far Cry 3 had

[hakobyanhakob81 · 6/10 · 9 March 2016]

A formulaic game that lacks substance and characters. Certainly the visuals are very beautiful, but that's what almost all the games out there provide. This is just another step backward and a far cry from the greatness Far Cry 3 had. The concept of FCP already seems wrong. Stone Age? Why? That didn't make the game original, it just prevented the creators from having a wide range of weapons and vehicles, something which in my opinion saved Far Cry 4. So if like myself you thought Far Cry 4 was average, wait till you play this one. If Ajay's (Far Cry 4) motivation was as contrived as 'why not join the local rebells and kill all the bad guys', Takkar's (Far Cry Primal protagonist) motivation is 'let's tame some animals and they'll fight for me'. Taming animals is the only good part of the game, but doesn't save it either, because even that technique needed additions. All in all, it's not a total waste of money, but really disappointing. Ubisoft should really try hard with the next installment, unless they're planning to kill the franchise.

Average

[Analog_Devotee · 5/10 · 4 August 2021]

I really struggled with my rating on this game. On one hand, I really enjoyed the adventure and how unique the game felt compared to the other Far Cry games. Sometimes the main games feel like a copy>paste with a new villain and a couple interesting side characters. The gameplay, story and environment in this game felt incredibly unique and was oftentimes a privilege to explore and immerse into. But that repetitiveness is still painfully present, emerging around the halfway point. Still, though, I played this game all the way through and even attained the platinum trophy, so I can't say that I hated it.

In summary: It's playable.

A literal and physical step backwards for the franchise

[adambill-15969 · 1/10 · 29 March 2016]

After playing Primal for a good 8 hours I am speechless, and not in the kind of way where you might be speechless after seeing a newborn baby, speechless as you would be after a terrorist attack, it really is that bad. It made absolutely no sense for the franchise to go back 10,000 years, I mean sure it's an original idea that we haven't seen before but there is a definite reason for that! One of the best parts of previous Far Cry games is the option to fully customise a myriad of different weapons depending on what type of player you were. In Primal there's only so much customising you can do to a Club. Yawn Yawn Yawn. The different characters you meet throughout the game are hard to make a connection with, and the fact they don't speak English is very frustrating, I know the developers wanted to stay authentic to the time period which isn't a bad move I guess, just very frustrating for the player, As I've previously said, I played 8 hours and quickly got bored of the tedious gameplay and flat missions, go here kill this guy take over this camp etc. To summarise there are so many more better games £40 can buy you, don't waste it on this drivel!

Apocalypto meets 10,000 BC

[jamesnightingale-38369 · 4/10 · 9 March 2021]

I love this game I think the world is enjoyable and rivetingly beautiful it's like Takkar is the main character in Apocalypto

The only thing I didn't enjoy was the in-game voices Hands down I love the game