Far Cry Primal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 23, 2016, and for Microsoft Windows on March 1, 2016. The game is a spin-off of the main Far Cry series. It is the first Far Cry game set in the Mesolithic Age. It revolves around the story of Takkar, who starts off as an unarmed hunter and rises to become the leader of a tribe.
Far Cry Primal received generally positive reception from critics, who mostly praised the concept and setting, as well as the animal-taming mechanic and world design. Some reviewers felt there was a lack of weapons for the player to utilize, leading to repetitive gameplay design, while others felt the story and characters were not on par with the previous Far Cry games.
Gameplay
Far Cry Primal is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a first-person perspective. As the game is set in prehistoric times, the traditional gunplay and vehicle gameplay featured in the Far Cry series were removed, and the player can only get access to melee weapons such as spears, clubs and ranged weapons such as bows and slings. The player cannot purchase weapons and must craft them using the materials scavenged in the world such as wood and stone. As the player progresses, they can craft more lethal weapons with a larger variety of resources.
Besides facing natural predators, the player must also compete with other hostile tribes occupying the area. By attacking and seizing bonfires and camps, the Wenja tribe will move in and begin patrolling the nearby region, and the player will gain fast travel points as well as camps to rest in. Non-player characters will also task the player to rescue tribe-mates and perform other tasks which improve the village, as well as provide free crafting materials. The game also features a dynamic weather system and day-night cycle, which affects the gameplay. At night, more predators are present, and many become more aggressive and dangerous, whereas at the day, the player can gather food and scavenge other resources such as tools for hunting. The player can also make use of fire as a tool for personal protection or hunting at night.
The player can bait different wildlife in the game using lures, and can also tame predators while they're feeding on the bait. These animals serve as a companion for the player and can assist them in combating enemies after being tamed, and can be summoned remotely and issued basic commands. Larger animals such as sabertooth cats can be used as mounts. Takkar has an owl, his spirit animal which can be directly controlled. Through the owl's vision, the player can scout enemies' outposts and highlight enemies. Through skill improvements, the owl can be upgraded to have various abilities added, such as diving to kill an enemy or dropping bombs.
In a post-launch update, a survival mode, which drastically increases the game's difficulty, was introduced.
Plot
Takkar, a hunter from the Wenja tribe, is the only survivor after his hunting party is ambushed and killed by a sabertooth, cutting him off from the rest of his kin. Resigned to proceed alone, Takkar meets Sayla (Cara Ricketts), a Wenja gatherer whose life he saves, and once they arrive at Oros, Sayla informs Takkar that the Wenja are scattered and homeless across the land after their village was destroyed by Ull (DeLaRosa Rivera), leader of the Neanderthal-like Udam tribe who live in the northern mountains, prize warfare and hunting, and frequently kidnap Wenja to cannibalize them. Takkar then starts gathering the Wenja he meets around his cave, eventually encountering the wolf shaman Tensay (Terrence C. Carson), who helps him to learn the ability to tame the local animals. Tensay dubs Takkar the "Beast Master" for his skill.
After repelling an Udam attack led by Ull on his newly established village, Takkar enlists the help of three other skilled Wenja: Jayma (Ayisha Issa), a veteran huntress, Wogah (Ron Kennell), a one-armed craftsman, and Karoosh (Nicolas Van Burek), a one-eyed warrior with his own vendetta against the Udam. With the help of Tensay, Takkar discovers that the Udam are eating Wenja flesh in hopes of gaining immunity from a terminal genetic disease, the "skull fire", that is wiping out their tribe, then tracks down and apprehends the Udam commander Dah (Juan Carlos Velis) to learn more about the Udam's techniques. Several Wenja reject Takkar's decision to give shelter to an Udam warrior at first, and take him to a cave to be executed by drowning, until Takkar himself arrives in time to rescue Dah and chastise the tribe for disobeying him, earning Dah's gratitude and help. When the agrarian, ritualistic Izila, another, more advanced tribe that lives in the marshlands of southern Oros, begin capturing Wenja prisoners for slavery and human sacrifice to the Sun goddess Suxli, Takkar invades their domains to rescue them, coming face to face with their leader Batari (Debra Wilson). After he refuses to become Batari's slave, a war begins between the Wenja and Izila. Takkar then infiltrates the camp of an Izila commander named Roshani (Ali Momen) and captures him, allowing him to live in exchange for sharing Izila technology in both warfare and agriculture.
