Far Cry: Primal (2016)

Chronolog II: The Ancient Era, part 2 – The Stone Age

After spending millions of years evolving both physically and mentally, humanity finally began to leave a lasting imprint on the world. Enter Homo Sapiens, standing on the edge of the Stone Age—around 10,000 BC.

This is where the Chronolog leads to the next step, and the first fully human-centered game on the list appears.

In Far Cry Primal, we see early humans shifting from loose groups into organized tribes. Survival is still central, but it’s now coupled with cooperation and early culture. The in-game crafting system (lightweight, but effective) lets you shape basic tools and weapons—spears, arrows, clubs, wasp bombs (some gaming creativity had to be had), to name a few examples. It captures the essence of how humans started to gain dominance over nature, while also being at each other's throats for the dominance itself.

Beyond conflicts and survival, Primal also dips into the cultural evolution of early humans. The game introduces spiritual elements—rituals, idols, sacrificial rites—all hinting at the beginnings of religion and belief systems. While loosely grounded in anthropology, this is also where the Chronolog takes its first step into the mythical.

Because while Ancestors was a more grounded depiction of early hominid life, Far Cry: Primal marks the point where historical fiction and fantasy begin to blur. And honestly, that’s something you’ll see a lot more of as this journey through time continues.

The line between fact and fiction isn’t always clean—but that’s part of what makes gaming such a unique way to explore history.

Prehistorical Period <-- Chronolog: Ancient Era main post --> Old World

Far Cry Primal is a great spin-off Far Cry set in the prehistoric era. You control Takkar, the Beastmaster, who tries to unite his tribe against all odds. The formula is similar as before and the map is based off of Far Cry 4's map, yet it feels unique due to the very different historical setting.

You arsenal consist of primitive weapons, like bows, spears and clubs that can be upgraded by collecting the necessary materials and hunting animals. The lack of modern weaponry feels odd at first, but if you like bows you can get used to it. You have to master the tools at your disposal to fight the 2 enemy tribes and beat their leaders. The game has actual boss fights, not just QTE events, which is a great addition.

The worlds has many threats, but you don't have to face them alone. You can tame wild predators to be your companions in fights and explorations, some of them even ridable. Going into an outpost on the back of your Sabretooth Tiger is pretty cool feeling. You also have a pet owl, who does recon and aerial bombardment.

Despite being a spinoff, Primal is not much shorter game, than the others, if you want to 100% it. It has the usual collectibles, side missions, where you help your fellow tribesmen build and maintain the village and some legendary beasts to hunt. The main campaign is also enjoyable, although don't expect too much logic. The mammoth DLC is fine in my opinion, some people hate it, but you can get used to the controls and the AI shenanigans.

Overall, a great experience and a bunch of animal companions that you can pet :)

The premise although quite interesting gets old fast. There is a reason there are not many pre-civilization games, the simplicity of society has its limitations. This game tried to patch together a story, but the characters were not really there and the story was quite weak, nonexistent really. While the world is huge as expected for a modern-day open-world game, it is not that interesting or unique. There are only so many times I will find running into a pack of wolves engaging. The gameplay gets old fast as you grow tired of just shooting arrows, spears, or hitting the enemies with a club. The good things about this game were that it was a great way to pass the time, the beast control/master system was the best feature in the game, and it feels familiar and safe, which is not a bad thing, but not revolutionary or unique whatsoever. I also found myself running into a lot of glitches and bugs. Overall the game is not really doing anything interesting to warrant a recommendation, but I had fun since it feels very familiar to other better-executed games that have a similar premise (Skyrim, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc).

I'll give you the formula of how to enjoy Ubisoft games more.

1-) Never play them right after release. Wait at least 6 months to let them solve all of the bugs, glitches or DLCs be completely released.

2-) Don't play games in series right after complete one. For example if you bought Far Cry 4 or Primal together leave at least 2 months gap between them to play.

3-) Make sure you use last version of your GPU driver. I got 10+ fps more than the benchmarks on YouTube. Because they only use early AMD drivers.

4-) Don't play more than 2 hours a day. Playing it more makes the game repetitive and boring. And always play another shooter or platformer etc. too. I played Far Cry Primal - To the Moon and Titanfall together. Makes each of them less boring.

Far Cry Primal is kind of game that i can understand all the hate it got from gamers. But it doesn't mean game is bad. It's actually very enjoyable.

Far Cry Primal is like any other Far Cry game, except it is not. Far Cry Primal is another open-world, first-person shooter, except it is not. Far Cry Primal is a game that is so familiar, but at the same time, so unique and distinctive. Primal does not offer a memorable protagonist, a compelling narrative or an innovative entry into the genre. Primal’s novelty does not lie in rehashing the same Far Cry formula in a new setting, but rehashing the same Far Cry formula in a new time-period. This change, though miniscule, makes all the difference.

Takkar, a member of the Wenja tribe, travels to the land of Oros, where he finds his fellow tribe members dispersed and powerless in the midst of other hostile tribes. After allying with several tribal specialists who improve his abilities in hunting, crafting and combat, Takkar retakes his homeland against rival tribes of cannibals and slavers. Outside of his ability to tame the prehistoric beasts that roam the land of Oros, nothing distinctive stands out about the main character. However, what Takkar lacks in personality and narrative drive, is made up for by the characters who surround him. Wogah, after pissing on Takkar, refers to him as “Piss Man” provides some comic relief, while Karoosh provides pathos, seeking revenge for the death of his son. Even the enemies are more compelling than Takkar. The Udam, a group of cannibals living in the mountainous, arctic north or Oros, are afflicted by a terminal brain disease that is wiping out their tribe. Dah, an Udam commander, captured by Takkar, is protected from the victimized Wenja, before being mercifully killed by Takkar to relieve him of his incurable condition. The game progresses predictably, capturing camps and bonfires, finding collectables, gathering and hunting for supplies to upgrade equipment and weapons, leading to fighting area bosses. After the initial introductory mission, the player is free to explore the world, search for collectables, hunt, craft or even complete campaign missions.

The achievements are fairly easy, and encourage fully engaging with the world the developers created. While some are tied to skill, the majority can be obtained by playing the game thoroughly. The achievements tied to collectables do not require finding all of them. Technically, the game functioned well without any noticeable issues. The fast travel locations are conveniently located throughout the map allowing easy movement throughout the gameworld. Progress through the main story is made far simpler by tackling as much of the side missions, opening as much of the map, Weapon selection is limited, with each weapon having a specific role in hunting and combat. Depth is found in upgrades, rather than different, more powerful versions of the weapon types. The same is also true of the equipment upgrades. Tamed animals, however, are the most powerful and the most versatile weapon available. Combining the owl with a tamed legendary beast of a potent tactic to scout locations and clear enemies.

What makes Far Cry distinct, not only in the series, but among games in general, is the primeval setting. The developers not only crafted weapons, flora and fauna to support the setting, they also created a language allowing the player to become fully immersed in the distant past. While it would have been easy to caricature primeval humanity, the developers crafted a world that is familiar and populated with characters that are realistic and relatable. The world is populated with characters who share common humanity. It is a strength to show a less developed culture with respect and dignity, rather than as cartoon cavemen.

At the end of Far Cry Primal, you will probably not remember many character names, or much of the plot. However, the experience is worth the investment. Primal’s value does not lie in its novelty, but in its solid execution of a well-defined formula in unique period of human history.

Wow, this was fun. When Far Cry Primal was released I was kinda disappointed. I have never been interested in Stone Age so much (well, until now!). But some weeks ago I became more and more curious about this game. First because of the great rating on amazon but also because I totally enjoyed Far Cry 4 and Far Cry 3. Of course Far Cry Primal suffers from Ubisoft syndrome like Far Cry 4 did. But still they are awesome games. Because they don´t try to change things that don´t need to be changed. They add interesting things. Like riding elephants in Far Cry 4 or vehicle takedowns. But this review is about Far Cry Primal, so these things I loved about the game: 1st: The World: I am not sure if I´ve ever seen such a beautiful created open world like in this game (maybe Witcher 3?). It´s all so unbelievable atmospheric, the night and snow areas seem dangerous, the woods seem endless and waterfalls and big mountains everywhere. Awesome. The wild life is also very awesome. I just saw an eagle catching a goat and flew away with it. Or two lions fighting each other. 2nd: taming animals: I think it was pretty much fun to tame all those animals (I got them all) and use them in different situations. It was just almost too easy to do missions using the saber-tooth tiger, so I sometimes sent him home. Or used a jaguar. 3rd: Controls: Far Cry Primal is fun. It´s quite easy to do great headshots using the bow (especially if you skilled it). 4th: Crafting: It was really much fun to collect different things to develope a new bow or something like that. Well, of course this isn´t that new either but still it was fun in this game.

... and that´s not everything. I liked this game a lot. I´d give it 4.5/5 stars.

...BOSS fights. There are only two of them but they are BAD enough that they diminished my feelings about the game and after the last one I was DONE playing.

Even though there are missions and objectives and animals to tame that last fight sucked so hard I could not stand to continue.

That said, most of the systems and progressions are interesting and immersive and fun. It is kind of doing some stuff different. It feels like FarCry but the story is presented in a more holistic way.

Those damn bulletsponge bosses though...

It's been awhile since I completed this game, but I'm finally getting around to my review of it. Far Cry: Primal takes the traditional Far Cry gameplay back to the Stone Age with this prehistoric FPS, and it doesn't miss the 5 star mark by much. Like other Far Cry games, Primal is full of treacherous wilderness to explore, complete with vicious animals to hunt, plenty of side missions and locations to complete and explore, and a pretty decent story line coupled with beautiful environmental graphics. Don't let the similarities fool you though -- Once you remember there aren't any automatic weapons or vehicles around, you'll start to realize Primal is a little more challenging than at first glance.

You play a character named Takkar, who is trying to reunite/rebuild the Wenja tribe, scattered across the land of Oros. In the process, you'll have to hunt and track down dangerous beasts and defeat the neighboring tribes, as well as their respective leaders. Since you don't have the luxury of automatic weapons or vehicles, you'll have to live true to the era and do quite a bit of hunting and scavenging. This not only replenishes your supplies, but also unlocks character and equipment upgrades along the way. Just to list a bit of your equipment that you can access and upgrade -- bows, spears, clubs, darts, and stones.

You'll also be able to tame the beasts that you hunt, and you can use that animal as a companion throughout the game. Each beast has their own unique stats and traits, and once you're a high enough level, you'll even be able to ride a few of these animals.

You'll notice I only gave 4 stars -- My only complaint was that the game felt rushed. It didn't feel vastly different from Far Cry 4, and I encountered several glitches throughout the game -- most of them were graphics -- but occasionally I found myself trying to jump over a rock or on a ledge, and falling down inside of the rock or ledge and getting stuck where I'd have to turn the game off and back on. Other than that, everything else in the game was on par.

I know this is a brief overview, but again it's been awhile since I completed the game, so I'm sure i left out some details. It's worth noting that I completed the game 100% AND all the achievements in about 35 hours. It wasn't too terribly difficult or tedious-- at least, no more so than any other game I've played. Bottom line, whether your new to the series or a long time Far Cry, there isn't much about this game not to like, and I would recommend giving it a go if you've got some downtime.

Watching a 50 minute play through of the beginning of Far Cry Primal on Polygon and just realized that Elias Toufexis is the voice of Takkar. Now I'm doubly stoked to play this game. Adam Jensen as an early hominid. Play this back-to-back with Deus Ex for an interesting juxtaposition of disparate evolutionary moments (including potential ones) of our species and the tools/technology with which we have augmented our bodies. .