It is difficult to know what to think of Exoprimal, since the concept is quite strange, even delusional, with thousands of dinosaurs falling from the sky, which must then be eliminated with a team of fighters with well-defined roles. If the tone was completely crazy, like in Orc Must Die or Borderlands, we could understand. But the characters of Exoprimal don’t seem to be laughing, and the rain of dinos is a real problem.
Paper Clip Maximizer
The story trailer, above, gives some background on this pre-hysterical situation (sorry). Dinosaurs have started raining all over the world, and the origin of the problem has finally been identified: a very powerful AI, equipped with incredibly advanced technologies, is entrenched on an island. All the exoskeleton teams sent to the scene to investigate and try to solve the problem have disappeared. And the player’s team is no exception.
Once there, we discover that the AI has been instructed to develop the ultimate exoskeleton. Unfortunately for its designers, they encountered the so-called “Paperclip Maximizer” problem, an image used to illustrate the possibility that an artificial intelligence could destroy absolutely everything by simply trying to obey orders in an optimal way. If an AI is asked to produce as many paperclips as possible, without setting limits, it can seek to recycle the Earth, then the universe, in order to have as many means of production and resources as possible in order to perform this task in accordance with orders. In the case of Exoprimal, the AI came to the bizarre conclusion that sending hordes of increasingly dangerous dinosaurs all over the planet, and especially into its experimental lab, is the best way to test the exoskeletons and optimize them, in order to produce the ultimate one, as crazy as that sounds.
In order to put an end to the actions of this cousin of Glados, the exoskeleton pilots caught up in this deadly experiment try to survive and put in place a plan to escape, even destroy their adversary.
Cooperation and neo-dinos
The team of exoskeleton pilots includes various members, like a veteran instructor, a mechanic, a scientist, and a robot with an AI that doesn’t try to kill you. On the ground, it is necessary to use the right composition of exoskeletons in order to respond to the threat of the moment. There is the heavy exoskeleton with a huge shield, in order to hold back the horde and the biggest threats, the one with melee weapons, the one with ranged weapons, and a support, able to fly and kick launches remotely. Each role has special abilities, and performing various actions, such as blocking a dinosaur, also earns points. It’s not just for DPS.
It remains to be seen whether the game modes and gameplay will be varied enough to keep players interested, once the first hours have passed. Exoprimal is scheduled for release in 2023 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC Steam.
The anime resulting from the collaboration between CD Projekt Red and the Trigger studio has been released on Netflix. After watching its 10 episodes, we share with you our feelings and our feedback on it in this review, as a Cyberpunk 2077 player and fan of Japanese anime.
The second patch of the expansion brings its share of novelties, with 3 new monsters, special weapons, high-level investigations, and new recipes for serious craftsmanship. Here is the detailed list of additions in Update 1.2.