Far Cry Primal

Quote from Sprony

Apparently, Far Cry Primal uses the same map layout as Far Cry 4. Let the controversy begin!

It's a shame, but to be completely honest I don't know if I would've noticed until it got pointed out by reddit/various publications.

On the topic of things that got recycled, I would've liked some more variety in the wildlife, especially with the focus of the game being so much on animals. I think it's pretty apparent that most of the animals are the same ones we've seen in previous games just reskinned - which is a bit of a bummer. New wildlife with new mechanics attached to them would've made the exploring the game's map feel mysterious and dangerous, and instead I just sort of feel like I know exactly what's around every corner. Although, I am excited to ride my tiger soon =).

Now this is probably going to come across as very pretentious but I felt like sharing some of my thoughts and wondered how you guys felt about the game as well.

So, I just "finished" the game. From an audio/visual standpoint, the game is pretty great. To me, this is clearly the biggest strength of the game. There are so many incredible vistas/scenes, I found myself screenshotting every 30 seconds early on in the game. They nailed the presentation part of the game in my opinion. The language they've created, the ambient sounds. All of that stuff is awesome. The world is gorgeous and makes me wish there were more games set in this time period.

My biggest problem is that exploring this world feels a bit empty. I feel like in open world games, you should want to say "you know what, I actually think I'm gonna walk there instead of fast-traveling." In Fallout you might find yourself in the midst of a three-way skirmish between mutants, raiders and the BoS's vertibirds. In The Witcher you might find stumble upon the lair of a monster with a price on its head. This is the magic of open-world games, you lose yourself and just get sucked in by the world around you. Random events or enemy skirmishes that happen out in the world of FC: Primal are extremely predictable and overall they feel uninspired. I found myself completely ignoring them about halfway through the game. Points of interest sometimes contain interesting scenes but overall feel a bit dull, and again - I basically just started ignoring them and felt no desire to seek them out. There are a few of the caves that stand out as being interesting, mostly in a visual sense, but they are few and far between. Everything starts to feel the same about halfway through. It's not that the core game is absolutely awful or unpolished or anything. The combat is generally pretty satisfying and very fluid. The beastmaster idea is cool and ties into the Far Cry theme very well. But even with the best combat system, clearing out camps/packs of enemies/animals becomes tiring after a while. At that point in most other open world games, this is where I start to look for something other than carnage to grab my attention again - but I felt as though I couldn't find that in Far Cry: Primal. So while riding your mammoth into a base and burning it to the ground is undeniably awesome the first time through, it does start to get old pretty quick I feel.

The game started off very slow for me but then hit a very high point at about the middle (when all the upgrades were coming in) and then probably hit it's lowest point in the last 2 sessions of play. My excitement and interest for the game was very short-lived I feel. I was hooked on the game for a time and was having fun trying out all my new toys. But, once I got all of my upgrades I basically was like "alright that was fun but let's get this over with." and I basically just fast traveled and sprinted my way through the last couple of quests. The last hour of the game almost felt like a chore, which is a terrible feeling to have in a game. I didn't feel any desire to stick around and explore the world any further because repetition and predictability just became almost overwhelming. I loved the idea of this game, and I think it had some good moments, but overall I just think it's shame that such a beautifully crafted world surrounds a somewhat hollow gameplay experience.