Exoprimal Review – Multiplayer dino mayhem for Musou fans

thesixthaxis.com:

Exoprimal is a multiplayer team-based hero shooter, twisting PvE and PvP elements together to create a hybrid that’s half Earth Defense Force, half Overwatch. You’re decked out in an Exosuit – think Anthem meets Iron Man and you’re there – with different suits bringing a unique set of skills and weaponry into the sci-fi fray.

And what a fray it is. For reasons that will become clearer as you progress through Exoprimal’s story, you are a test subject for Leviathan, an insane AI that forces you to take part in a series of wargames. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill wargames though, as you’re facing off against huge numbers of dinosaurs, ranging from vicious Velociraptors and hard-headed Pachycephalosaurs to the almighty T-Rex.

Except this isn’t just about facing off against dinos. Leviathan also pits you against a rival team, hoping to take ‘meaningful’ data from your combat exercises. While it’s a good excuse for Exoprimal’s repeated rounds, there’s an interesting time-travelling, dimension-hopping tale to uncover alongside the other members of the Hammerhead crew, even if the Analysis Map – the collected data and cutscene repository – manages to make War and Peace look straightforward. It presents the game’s lore and database in a series of convoluted, non-linear branches, wrapped around a circle where random sections unlock as you progress. It’s unhelpful, and frankly completely unnecessary.

I’ve played Exoprimal a lot. Not just here at launch, but through every beta test and preview period, and its greatest mistake is that at no point has it fully shown its hand, including the first three or four hours of the final release. You and your teammates will undoubtedly be asking “Is this it?” after a couple rounds, and the