Far Cry Primal is unlike anything that’s been done before

THE big question fans were asking ahead of the release of Far Cry Primal was if it would work in a stone age setting? Well, we have the answer.

RIDING a woolly mammoth through a tribal camp while brandishing a burning spear and unleashing a sabre-tooth tiger on enemy warriors may be the most mental thing that ever happened in the stone age.

The world of Far Cry Primal is beautifully detailed, vast, and extremely deadly. It is 10,000BC and you are cast as Takkar the hunter, member of the Wenja tribe who has arrived in the land of Oros — what will one day be modern Slovakia.

Upfront, Far Cry Primal’s story isn’t anything remarkable — reunite your tribe, overcome the enemy Udam and Izila tribes, secure a future for your people, and become the apex predator in the process — but it’s only part of what the game is about.

Ubisoft have put an incredible amount of work into the game’s open world, going so far as to have linguists reconstruct actual Stone Age languages, bringing sabre-tooth tigers and woolly mammoths to life, and ensuring the different areas of the game really do feel like the stone age.

The big question which fans had been asking ahead of the game’s release was “Does Far Cry work in a stone age setting?” and the answer remains “Yes, it certainly does.”

Despite the lack of guns and cars, the familiar mechanics are still here — hunting, crafting and the core experience of exploring an amazing world.

There was a danger Far Cry Primal could have turned into a prehistoric walking simulator, but the amount of detail in the world and the variety of things to do and experience ensures there’s far more action to be had than you can comfortably shake a spear at.

You’re not facing off against megalomaniacal scientists, arms dealers, psychotic modern pirates, or even delightfully quirky Bond villain-esque dictators this time around — the villains in Far Cry Primal are the leaders of the two opposing tribes, who each have their own motivations for their actions.

Interesting and quirky characters have long been a hallmark of the series and Far Cry Primal is no exception. Tensay the Shaman is a particular standout here — he lives on a different plane of existence and delights in encouraging you to explore it via an array of concoctions containing ingredients you’ll never see on MasterChef.

The game world is as much part of the story as the characters and particularly in the earlier stages, there’s a real sense that you’re never far from being eaten by something larger than you and with nastier teeth.

As it happens, rather a lot of Oros’ wildlife would like to eat you and since you’re approximately 11,288 years away from anything which might be recognised as a firearm, you’re going to have to make do with contemporary weapons which include clubs, spears, bows and arrows, angry bees, and fire.

Fire in particular is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it provides light at night, scares animals, and does additional damage to targets. On the other, it spreads uncontrollably, burns indiscriminately — and could easily cut off your escape route, or worse, flush out nasty surprises.

While shooting a bear with an arrow will simply make it mad, shooting a bear with a flaming arrow will simply result in an extremely mad bear which is now on fire, running about setting fire to other things as it tries to turn you into a tasty bear snack.

A stone age explorer battling a rival tribe.

Setting aside the huge number of quests, activities and exploration opportunities, the world is teeming with animals and people all doing things completely independent to your own adventures.

There were numerous times during the game when I stopped to watch something like a herd of woolly mammoths passing by or see what happened when two Udam warriors went toe to toe with a rhino.

The gameplay is basically the same as the last two Far Cry games (even the grappling hook makes a return), but the lovingly-created new setting helps keep things fresh, along with some minor tweaks and enhancements.

The major one of these is the ability to tame wild animals in the world and use them as companions — or weapons. You can also pet them — no in-game benefit, but it’s still nice — and later on in the game you can ride woolly mammoths and some of the larger sabre-tooth tigers.

When you load a saved game from the main menu, there’s also a shippable recap of the game’s story to whichever point you are at when you saved it, which is an interesting touch.

Crafting and resource gathering play a larger role in the game, helping to upgrade Takkar’s village to unlock more skills, missions, abilities — as well as given the Wenja somewhere nice to live.

Overall Far Cry Primal is a great deal of fun. It’s enjoyable, it’s immersive and the setting works extremely well, especially considering it’s such a dramatic departure from the usual fare.

While some returning players may experience a slight feeling of “done it before” regarding the gameplay, there’s still more than enough in the world of Oros to keep players busy and the new setting is a bold and welcome change of scenery for the series — quite unlike anything that’s been done before.

Originally published as Far Cry Primal is unlike anything that’s been done before