Primal Carnage (+Video Playthroughs)

It’s a known fact that everyone loves dinosaurs. That’s right; everyone! Therefore, Primal Carnage is already treading a golden path, as they offer gamers a team-based, dino-oriented first person shooter (FPS). The ancient battle of voracious carnivores against that ingenuity of mankind rages on. It has some balancing and other minor foibles, but this unique massacre does have the makings of a great title.

The killing fields take place in between jungles and overrun complexes of old storage crates, deserted hangars and various buildings. So far, we only saw 2 maps, which is way too little. Hopefully though, there will be a few additions, as the maps presented did have a good layout. Multiple tiers are available, with both open plains and more restricted buildings. This, paired with the hectic gameplay differences between dinosaur and human, make the levels seem oddly claustrophobic. Even if a roar is just heard from afar, its resonance beckons an impending doom that drives up the adrenaline levels. No one place is safe, as buildings might conceal enemies, while open fields make for easy targets.

Animations, at least those of dinosaurs, deserve equal commendation. With fluid and realistic movements, dinosaurs spring to life and reveal their scary side in all its glory. A T-Rex can gobble up humans, while raptors violently shake their target as they rip them to shreds. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for anything, like textures that look better on dinosaurs and crates than they do on rocks and other less defined structures. Jumping also has issues with finding the right height that is needed to get onto structures or just a general glitch in the system. It might not be perfect, but at least the functional parts are in top shape and that’s really what matters. We’ll even forget the blatant lack of proof reading in a game with almost no words.

I played a match on the dinosaur side. Check it out.

As mentioned, Primal Carnage splits into a human and dinosaur side. Each team has 5 classes to choose from with a distinct gameplay scheme and a set of arms. Humans have a firearm and an alternative fire, as well as a melee attack, while dinosaurs use their natural skills to fight and get a special roar skill that buffs them. A strong point is that classes actually do what their outlines state. Pyros will use their flamethrower, which blinds most of their vision as a downside. Trappers can shoot a net that cripples creatures, but it’s very slow and leaves the player vulnerable. Raptors can unleash critical pouncing attacks, but get picked off easily, while larger monsters create more chaos but are easily spotted and are sluggish. Depending on the situation, one class will become more important than the other to turn the tide for the team, but all are easily picked up due to the use of only 2 weapons.

Primal Carnage also has a good balance between health, damage and a third stamina bar. Stronger characters are slower and will have low stamina, which doesn’t allow them to run for long, making them damage sponges. Small creatures however can use big chunks of stamina, but are left vulnerable without it and have too little health to sustain this flaw in their defenses. This ensures that players need to manage their need for either fight or flight at the right time.

While this is enough for this multiplayer title to be an original and entertaining feature, there are some key issues. More specifically, the game often suffers from camp zones between resources. Players can stock up on health or ammo at designated areas, which often see an entire side flocking together to form a tight unit. Consider it a turtle formation in ancient wars. As long as the pack stays together, almost nothing will penetrate it. Sure, this reveals the relative ease in which teams will operate in this way, even completely spontaneously. However, this deadlocks the grid to a halt, until one pierce later, the paradigm shifts to the other side. This is true for humans as well as dinosaurs, which means a reevaluation of these drop points is needed.

I also played with the humans and they're not as boring as you'd think.

Besides a certain imbalance that can ruin match sections, Primal Carnage makes an excellent display and that’s not an easy feat in this dinosaur versus mankind game. Who doesn’t want to play with dinosaurs? No one; that’s who. Dinosaurs are cool. Primal Carnage knows that.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)