Developers: Circle Five Studios, Pub Games
Publisher: Circle Five Studios
Platform: PC, PS4 (soon)
Tested on: PC
Primal Carnage: Extinction – Review
Primal Carnage: Extinction is an online multiplayer shooter which features the classic human class versus the dinosaur and pterosaur species, developed by Circle Five Studios and Pub Games. Extinction is a sequel, that is in truth a remake of the original game but with superior graphics thanks to the new engine they are using. As a game that features dinosaurs, it’s truly amazing but the key features that make a great first person shooter game are lost in translation.
Story
The Phoenix International corporation housed several facilities on a remote island where they have been recreating dinosaur and pterosaur species. Disaster came upon them when the dinosaurs managed to escape and wreck havoc on the island. A mercenary team was assembled to kill the last of the dinosaurs.
This story is not one you will find in-game but it is the story that the developers have gone with. Fans of the pre-historic creatures may rejoice on this but the fact remains that the storyline is quite unoriginal.
Graphics
As for the visuals of the game, they simply look outstanding. The dinosaurs are incredibly detailed and the skins offer enough “change” in the dinosaurian sceneries. The landscapes you’ll be playing in are lush environments with plenty of bushes to hide in. As the facilities which are build in these lush environments use various materials, these are easy to tell apart thanks to the great patterns that have been used. Still, the visuals are a long way from the incredible realism that most triple-A games have but it is certainly a big step-up.
Another visual feature that has been tackled in this sequel/remake of the game is the UI during gameplay. It has been upgraded to a more sophisticated “clean” UI which clearly shows that sometimes less is more. While the visuals in the game are not bad at all, there are still some glitches that will annoy you to death. Spectating has one of those glitches. Dinosaurs can be spectated without issues but spectating the humans will result into some painful “look-through” visuals.
Sound
As for the sound design in the game, the dinosaur roars are incredibly while at the same time they can truly sent a chill to ones spine. The humans sadly do not have a roar but that does not mean that the sound design is any less great. Each weapon has their own distinctive sound, from pistols to shotguns to snipers and even grenade launchers. As a dinosaur this distinctive sound design allows the dinosaurian player to know perfectly which class he is dealing with before even meeting eye to eye with his enemy.
The ambiance sound on the other hand is good but not great. It’s a rhythmic mix of several instruments with a decent enough beat but the fact that it’s on a loop is disturbing as it could’ve done more, especially seeing as the game has a Jurassic Park theme going on. Personally, I would have loved some more adrenaline-fueled ambiance sound even though I’m easily scared.
Gameplay
The controls in the game are simple, especially considering that you can rebind the keys to your own liking. It uses the traditional WASD-keys for moving around and the mouse to aim and shoot. Those who prefer to play with the controller may do so although I’ve found that aiming should’ve been slower. Then again, I do have a terrible aim when using controllers in an FPS-game. There are two control schemes for the gamepad but the difference in controls is so minor, I wonder why they would even add a feature like this at all.
As for the gameplay, there are two types of “races” in the game: humans and dinosaurs. Each race has several classes with each their own type of trait and abilities or weapons. There are five types of human classes:
- The Commando uses an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attached and a desert eagle.
- The Scientist is also referred to as the sniper due to her sniper rifle. She also carries a Tranq pistol and health kits which also makes her the “Medic” of the team.
- The Pathfinder is a Native American wilderness guide which uses a pump-action shotgun, a Desert Eagle and flares.
- The Trapper is an Australian poacher which is armed with a netgun accompanied with a knife for the actual killing, dual wields pistols and carries land mines.
- The Pyromaniac is a crazy guy who carries a flamethrower and chainsaw strapped together. He also carried impact grenades or Molotov’s.
The dinosaurs also have five classes, but four of these classes have two kinds of dinosaurs.
- The Tyrant class are the large and slow but deadly creatures Tyrannosaurus and the Spinosaurus
- The Predators are the fast and agile creatures Novaraptors and Oviraptors
- The Flyers are the flying Pteranodon and Typandactylus pterosaur species
- The Spitters who do all the spitting are the Dilophosaurus and the Cryolophosaurus
- The Bruiser is the Carnotaurus and is one of a kind.
When playing either sides, you’ll quickly learn that being trapped as a dinosaur simply sucks. You can’t get free and you’ll die without any animation whatsoever. As a human, you’ll be looking helplessly at your screen while the dinosaur is munching on you because you cannot defend yourself. Once in a while you may get lucky and “break free” but even those times you’ll find yourself killed in an instance. This tells me that there are features “missing” in the game, features that could make it more interesting such as melee weapons – or even just a fist knock – anything to defend yourself.
This brings me to the “balanced gameplay”. Yes, there is such a thing and while the game is fairly balanced, in certain ways it isn’t. Each class has their own trait and special ability which is good against a certain class of the other race but there is no general balance. Of course, this type of balance (eg: commando’s are good tanks for larger sized dinosaurs) is pretty fair when successfully playing in team but we all know that this is often this is not the case in online multiplayer games. In all honesty, this type of balance is somewhat of a personal taste.
As for the loot system in the game, it resembles the one of Team Fortress 2 where you can buy several skins, keys and crates in the store but you can also receive these in random drops when playing. Sadly this system allows idling players and guns have not yet been implemented which means that a customizable loadout is also missing.
The game features several game modes but most of these modes are alike. Get to the Chopper is a game mode where the humans have to capture bases to ultimately get to the chopper whilst the dinosaurs need to defend these bases. Unfortunately each race only has one spawn point and the dinosaurs end up camping the human spawn point far too often, which is a serious downside. An anti-camping system would be certainly welcome but the other modes do not have this issue as they use multiple spawnpoints. The second mode is a team deathmatch mode which says it all – the first team to get 50 kills wins. This mode is fairly balanced once the teams starts to unite forces. Another team deatchmatch mode is the “dino deathmatch” where you play dino versus dino. A fourth game mode is the “free roam” mode which is somewhat like free-for-all except you cannot shoot members of your own “race” thus it’s an unlimited sort of team deathmatch. It is also referred to as the “roleplaying” mode.
Every online multiplayer game has pros and cons but Primal Carnage: Extinction seems to be the leader in cons regarding key FPS features. A feature that was missing for quite a while but seems to have been implemented after all is the auto-balance of teams. Another feature that is still missing is the minimap. Without a minimap, you have no clue as to how big the maps are nor can you pinpoint the whereabouts of your team members – it’s more of a guessing game until you stand near them. However, these features do not make a great dinosaur game as the game is just that.
As for glitches and bugs, there seem to be a few that haven’t been flattened yet, falling through lifts and getting stuck is still something you’ll come across which is another downer seeing as the game has left Early Access already. On a more positive note, the game does feature a decent amount of players but when these are too busy, you’ll often find empty servers as the game doesn’t feature AI-controlled bots.
Conclusion
When it comes down to dinosaur games, Primal Carnage: Extinction may as well be one of the best games out there but as a shooter it lacks far too much in too many aspects. The game lacks an original narrative and many features that are standard in the modern first person shooter games nowadays. However, the visuals are astonishing and superior to the original game. Hardcore fans of balanced first person shooters should stay away from this game, whilst fans of dinosaurs may as well find joy in the game.
Note: Scoring the game has been hard but the scoring is based on the fact that it is, in the first place, a great dinosaur game that allows you to slaughter humans as one of the terrifying creatures.
Primal Carnage: Extinction - Review,
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