For the French, “primitive society” is not just words. This is a matter of national pride. Rock paintings from the caves of Lascaux, Pech-Merle, Font-de-Gaume, Chauvet and Rouffignac are known throughout the world, and the remains in the Cro-Magnon grotto gave the common name to our ancestors. Therefore, it is not surprising that the development of the prehistoric blockbuster was undertaken by Ubisoft. Something else is strange here: the game is presented as a development of the series Far Cry, which is strongly associated with firearms. Only this time, instead of a Kalashnikov assault rifle, we will be given a club, a spear and a bow with arrows.

There, on unknown paths, are traces of unprecedented animals

Action Far Cry Primal takes place approximately 12,000 years ago in the land of Oros (pronounced locally as „Urus”), comparable in size to the world Far Cry 4. It was here, among forests and fields with mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses grazing on them, that the Wenja tribe settled. For its time, it is quite advanced: it builds houses, uses fire and speaks a Proto-Indo-European language – to make it natural, Ubisoft resorted to the help of linguists. To the north of the Wenya live primitive cannibals from the Udam tribe, who managed to survive the Ice Age by hunting their own kind. They are the main villains Primal, so the hero of the game Takkar will have to fight with them. According to the creative director Ubisoft Toronto Maxima Belanda (Maxime Beland), there is also a third people living in Oros, about whom there is still little information. It is known that these are the southern neighbors of the Wenya, ahead of them in the development of technology and intelligence.

The plot of the story is unlikely to be unusual after the plot Far Cry 3. Hunter Takkar, voiced by Elias Toufexis (Elias Toufexis, aka Adam Jensen from Deus Ex), miraculously survived an attack by cannibals, so he has to take revenge, rescue his comrades and look for a place in the sun for his tribe. But here’s the problem: at the start the hero has absolutely nothing, he wakes up in what his mother gave birth to in the middle of a wild area, which is doubly dangerous when night falls – due to the activity of predators. But Takkar has a significant advantage – he knows how to tame animals.

Interaction with smaller brothers is https://nogamstop-casinos.co.uk/low-minimum-deposit-casinos/ a key feature Far Cry Primal. It will not be possible to act alone, because without a four-legged assistant you will not survive in Oros, not to mention battles with bloodthirsty savages. Fortunately, taming here is arranged simply and logically – just like in the story Joseph Roney Sr „Cave Lion”. The hero may come across a potential pet by accident or by scouting out the animal’s habitat and going there specifically. To bring the animal closer, you need to use bait (usually a piece of meat), and then stroke the well-fed beast on the withers.

This is how the hero makes friends and fellow travelers, each of whom behaves in his own way. For example, a wild dog combs out fleas just like a dog, asks to scratch behind the ear, sniffs out useful supplies, growls towards a threat and constantly marks trees. In total, you can make friends with seventeen animals, but you won’t be able to use them at once – depending on the situation, you can choose one. The Saber-Toothed Cat, Oros’s most dangerous predator, is good for quickly eliminating individual enemies, the Bear bursts into crowds and takes most of the damage, and the Jaguar is great for sneak attacks. In order not to get his ass ripped off by bushes during forced marches, Takkar rides mammoths – it turns out to be much faster than walking, and even in the event of an enemy attack, giants can easily replace war elephants. Whoever is not crushed will have his ribs broken with tusks.

But there is an animal that constantly accompanies Takkar – this is a giant owl, a kind of prehistoric version of a reconnaissance drone. Calling on her for help, the hero surveys the site of the future battle from above, highlights enemies, or forces the bird to dive in order to rip out the eyes of a patrolman. However, not only cannibals get it: pets, like the hero, must be treated after each battle. Healing here is as simple as the life of a Cro-Magnon man: eat a piece of meat – and everything is fine.

Whoever the hero does not tame is free to kill, because sewing leather goods from dead animals is Far Cry no one canceled it, and you can’t survive here without food. Clearing enemy camps is also reminiscent of previous games in the series. But Ubisoft for once I got rid of the towers. Initially, the map of Oros is covered with a “fog of war”, which dissipates as Takkar travels. And the function of the towers was partially taken over by signal fires, with the help of which you can save the game or quickly move from one point to another. Together with mounts, this makes traveling around the vast world much easier.

Waste-free production

IN Primal Other features of the series have also been moved, including the hero’s skill tree. There are six branches at once: Gathering, Survival, Beast Master, Hunting, Fighting and our dear “crafting”. Hunter Vision helps track enemies and prey, highlighting traces of blood or smell – we saw something similar in „The Witcher 3”, when Geralt acted as a detective. That is, in order to survive and defeat the cannibals, Takkar must become a jack of all trades and an Indian who reads nature like an open book.

Although the game sends us back to the Stone Age, the hero has an arsenal quite decent for the Mesolithic: in addition to clubs and spears, there are also bows and even bombs of various types – from incendiary pots with tar to bee hives. The latter can be given to the owl so that it can drop them on enemies from above. It is clear that to make weapons it is necessary to use improvised objects: sticks, stones and parts of the bodies of killed animals, especially bones. The same materials are used to improve and repair items. But swinging the same club throughout the game won’t work, since everything here breaks with use, and it doesn’t take long to lose the arrows – not every one will get stuck in the victim, and there are also misses. In other words, in Far Cry Primal there is something to reach the enemy from afar or hit him in close combat.

Experience Ubisoft there is little in the way of creating first-person fights, so the developers have placed special emphasis on animation. This applies to both the behavior of animals and the plasticity of primitive people, for which he was responsible Terry Notary (Terry Notary) – Rise of the Planet of the Apes and trilogy movement instructor Peter Jackson (Peter Jackson) „The Hobbit”. With this approach, each brawl looks beautiful and organic, without turning into a slasher movie.

It is impossible not to note the riskiness of the bet Ubisoft. On the one side, Far Cry Primal – a unique primitive action game with an open world, a search for adventure in wild thickets and caves and a plot for tens of hours. And then – where else will they let you hunt mammoths?? On the other hand, the developments of the previous part were transferred here (this is already noticeable in the interface and some landscapes), at the same time taking away the “guns” from the series about everything that shoots. How about bombs in the Mesolithic, deadly badgers and a hero jabbing a spear at a cave bear or piercing the skull of a yak with an arrow?? Of course, the conventions are here for fun, but how much fun will this prehistoric adventure be?? We’ll find out only after the release.