Member the games you used to play? We member. The basement at the Hardcore Gamer office has a section known as the Crust Room, with an old grey couch and a big old CRT TV. All the classic systems are down there collecting dust, so in an effort to improve the cleanliness of our work space, we dust off these old consoles every so often and put an old game through its paces, just to make sure everything stays in working order. We even have a beige computer with a floppy disk drive.

Far Cry games have a history of taking players to exotic locations where they arm themselves to the teeth with a variety of guns and rack up body counts that put Rambo to shame. There have been an interesting Far Cry entries in between the main numbered series such as the '80s inspired Blood Dragon and the post nuclear New Vegas New Dawn. The most interesting entry they've done between the main entries was Far Cry Primal. A spin off from Far Cry 4, Far Cry Primal revisits the same area where players fought against Pagan Min, except it takes place around 10,000 BCE.

Far Cry Primal has players take control of Takkar, a hunter from the Wenja tribe. He's the lone survivor after his hunting party is wiped out by a sabretooth tiger. Takkar meets other Wenja after this, but the tribe is decentralized and scattered. The Wenja are also being hunted by the Udam tribe. The Udam are cannibalizing the Wenja they defeat in battle in hopes of gaining immunity from a disease referred to as the Skull Fire. Cannibalism to cure what is likely a genetic disease seems like a crazy idea from a time well before modern medicine and peer-reviewed research, but given the nonsense I've heard from people who have conducted their own medical research via Google and gotten medical consultations from Dr. YouTube, the perceived medical benefits of cannibalism can't be simply dismissed due to neanderthal brains.

The biggest change to hit Far Cry Primal is that before vehicles and gunplay were staples of the series, but such things are not present here since Ubisoft didn't take this in a Flintstones direction. This means Takkar has to get by on his prehistoric know how and prehistoric weapons. The weapons are varied enough though there's a greater emphasis on melee combat. Clubs, spears and bow and arrow are the staples, but there are other projectiles like throwing shards and various bombs. Fire bombs are the expected bomb weapon, bee bombs were a bit out of left field. Takkar can throw weaponized pollinators at his enemy, so the enemy will scream in caveman speak the bee bit their bottom and now their bottom's big.

Takkar doesn't have hired guns the same way other Far Cry protagonists did. After meeting the shaman Tensay Takkar learns how to tame animals that become his companions. He ends up curating quite the pet collection, with animals that include wolves, jaguars, cave lions, jaguars, bears, badgers and sabretooth tigers. There are a few variations of each animal. It takes work to find and collect every one of them, and after they've been tamed, quite a bit of time was spent petting them and giving them treats. When it comes to caring for companion animals, cavemen aren't so different than us.

Far Cry games have a recurring comic relief character. He has many incarnations as he seems to simultaneously exist across time and space in several Far Cry games and Far Cry Primal has their own distant ancestor of Hurk: Urki. Urki provides three side missions that require Takkar's assistance. They involve the construction of a flight suit, body armor and a primitive perfume to keep him safe from predatory animals. Each of his inventions fail miserably yet somehow Urki survives. These quests are not just comic relief but are also Easter eggs for Far Cry 3 and 4. Each of Urki's failed inventions are stone age versions of gear from other Far Cry games. While this may make Hurk's ancestor an innovator who's ideas are ahead of his time, he still suffered from the dimwitted Hurkian brain and can't bring the execution to life.

Despite the lack of modern technology, Far Cry Primal plays almost identically to the other Far Cry games. Takkar has an owl companion that serves as a surveillance drone to scout out the surrounding area and identity threats. This is also similar to a mechanic found in titles in the Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon, Watch Dogs... let's just say it's a common Ubisoft element. And that brings us to another common Ubisoft element, which is animals are jerks. Animals are needlessly aggressive, and unlike other Far Cry games where an RPG launcher can be used to take out a vicious squirrel, fighting off sabretooth tigers and woolly mammoths with slings and bees is a more daunting challenge.

Outside the animal kingdom the Udam also pose quite a threat and are the main opposition. The Udam clan are stronger and more organized than the Wenja, so Takkar needs to tip the scales in his favor before he can hope to overcome his cannibalistic enemies. This is done largely by taking over campfires bases of the Udam, which not only strengthens the Wenja's occupation of the land, but also unlocks convenient fast travel locations. The Udam are initial enemy to the Wenja but before long another tribe, the Izila shows up and forces the Wenja into war against two enemy tribes. The Izila tribe are not cannibals like the Udam but bring about their own set of challenges as they are more technologically advanced.

Far Cry Primal was one of the more surprising games to come out in 2016. I can't think of that many games that exist in prehistoric times, and the ones that do come to mind are along the lines of Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja where prehistorical accuracy is of no concern. Maybe because it was so different, but I ended up thinking quite highly of Far Cry Primal even though it's Metacritic score is among the lowest in the franchise. Prehistoric times is a setting that is rarely explored in games and even rarer with trying to maintain some sense of realism. The graphic quality helped a lot with the presentation in that it created an untamed environment that was fun to explore, filled with animals that are never seen outside of museums. The different warring tribes created an interesting enough narrative that included a made up prehistoric language that maintained immersion better than an English dubbing would have. The stone age will likely never become a common setting for games but Far Cry Primal is a rare example how that setting can be done properly.

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