Familiarity breeds content in Far Cry Primal

Clickbait

" I don't go by the school grading system for review scores"

Actually, it sounds like you do, judging by this:

"So giving this game a 40 would mean it has no redeeming qualities"

Further info:
http://www.quartertothree.com/...

"One of the reasons I avoid percentage ratings is that too many people
associate it with grade school, where anything below a 70% is a failing
grade. Any scale where only the top third of the ratings is considered
acceptable is a broken scale. Which is fine for children doing multiple
choice questions about The Scarlet Letter, isosceles triangles, or the
capital of France. But adults evaluating entertainment should be
afforded the full range of any ratings scale."

http://www.quartertothree.com/...

"(2 stars)

I didn’t like it"

These are reviews, which are subjective. 2 stars doesn't necessarily mean it was broken and bug filled, it just means Tom didn't like it. Having your game pass quality assurance before release (granted, increasingly a tall order these days) doesn't entitle it to a minimum of 3 stars.

Well so basically is a new reskin of farcry 3 on a primitive theme maybe they could create a new ip to do that...but again i guess they thought the name will raise sales anyway great review by the way.

This dude's review was all hate. Far Cry 4 was very similar to Far Cry 3, yes. But Far Cry Primal is way different from both of those games. Sure it has outposts and bonfires you can take over but they don't feel like outposts from FC3 and FC4. The setting and ability to tame animals make you feel like you're in a different world. The reviewer focuses on the similarities but he downplays the differences. There's different weapons in case you run out of arrows or spears. The crafting and hunting for resources actually matter in this game. Far Cry Primal is a Far Cry game and it has similarities to the previous ones but nevertheless it is a new experience. He gives Primal a 40 but praises GTAV (which is a great game) when all the same things can be said about that game. I love GTA V and the whole series but people don't complain that in GTA V you steal cars and shoot people just like in previous GTA games. And that's because GTA is shooting people and stealing cars just like Far Cry is surviving and becoming a hero.

Will you update the review with the survivor mode?

I should, shouldn't I? It's so much better with survival mode.

And the fact that there's breathing room in the game. There can be entire 30-60 minute chunks of time where you're just wandering in the savanna exploring, not an enemy in sight.

I'm really enjoying the smell of butthurt bitterness in this thread as I sip my coffee this afternoon.

I might get this game on a steep sale . I like the Farcry games, They are tough to easily mod (PC I see this is for a playstation) and sometimes a few tweaks here and there is all that is needed. I think they should redo Farcry 2 with combative factions roaming the land as in Farcry 3 and 4. It is great entertainment in those games to sit back and watch for example in Farcry 3 the pirates to tangle with the komodo dragons or to set an ambush only to have a rhino trash the retaliation convoy your after in Farcry 4.

Correction:
"Sleestacks" (apparently it's Sleestaks)

Some missing apostrophes:
"It didn[']t matter"
"isn[']t what it used to be"
"that[']s not entirely fair"
"You can[']t wait"
"it[']s downright tame"

Great review, you make all the points that Ubisoft needs to hear, but for someone who never enjoyed Far Cry games much because of their context (white protagonist mowing down colored people in their indigenous homes) the changes made to Far Cry 4 & now Primal have gotten me to immerse myself in these games to the point where I am actually appreciating the mechanics for the first time.

Even with the ridiculous plot and copout of making Ajay white, fighting US-backed fascists in a Maoist revolution as a Nepalese-American kid living in diaspora was fresh & relevant, something I never thought I'd see in a AAA game. It's a great leap forward from being a literal tourist who is worshiped by natives for wreaking havoc on their pirate island. With Primal they've gone in a totally different direction and though I haven't played it through, RPing as an indigenous Nordic caveman in prehistoric Europe is also fresh despite the copypasted mechanics and is the type of thing that more of these big budget games, and works of popular fiction in general, should be trying.

I was also surprised at how much more polished these are than other Ubisoft games I've played, like Assassin's Creed III, which also experimented with setting & context in a good way but was an overall mess of a game.

Your last paragraph felt SO true. Just picked up Primal and can’t stop playing, but I feel like shit after. Like binging fast food. It’s fun while you play…kind of? But ultimately leaves me feeling hollow and uninspired.

I’ve been playing this the last few days on Xbox. I picked it up on sale a while back, and immediately turned on survivor mode. First attempt was a quick bust. Second attempt got me farther, but according to the game measure, nor that far (~10%). After that crushing defeat, I put it down- just couldn’t bear to go through all the early stuff again.

Last week I picked it up again- playing Subnautica made me remember what a survival/exploration game could be. I also re-read Tom’s review, and comparing it to the Survivor Mode patch notes, it seems they addressed many of his problems. They decreased the population density- large portions of the game go by without seeing any people at all, and an interesting twist is predators don’t show up even in your hunting vision unless they’re hostile toward you. They took out a lot of skills- notably the Owl dive bombings. You can still fast-travel- they did put in a meat/stamina cost, but that’s pretty trivially worked around.

I’m playing with Second Chance now, and only on Normal difficulty. It’s been pretty harrowing, especially at night (given not knowing when predators are around). The Second Chance thing is interesting- your premadeath resets after a ‘significant threshold of the game goes by’ or something like that. My first death came around 17%, and it quickly reset- that was odd. I died again a little while later and wondered what made that tick over. Turns out it’s every 3%- not from when you died, but just every multiple of 3. So it ticked at 18%, and then at 21- and unused lives don’t stack Kind of funny to game it, but it’s definitely getting interesting now I’m pushing into harder areas. 3% may not seem like much, but if to get it you need to take over a Hard outpost…

All in all, I’m having a blast.

Yeah, this has come a long way since its release. I’m tempted to revisit it myself.

By the way, did I actually write that headline? Yeesh. You guys might need to stage an intervention if I keep doing dumb stuff like that.

-Tom

Primal on Survival with Second chance is a sublime experience. And the way the game is structured and how the Ubisoft writes their games fit this theme so incredibly well - easily the best Far Cry game imo.

Just started Survival today after I finished HZD and needed more Far Cry fix. Playing on Expert diff, but none of that permadeath nonsense. The game is hard enough on Expert, thank you very much.

Also lost my first white wolf, the one you get as part of the quest. He just poofed, gone. It’s a cool “feature” on Survival mode. https://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1435876-Tamed-Beasts-Disappear!-Forums

Still a great game.

Yeah, I’ve had that happen a few times. I just find a new something and go on my way.

They also turned off the minimap! Navigating by landmarks (and occasional glances at the map) is awesome.

This is the greatest Far Cry game yet. So awesome!

Bumping this thread, for everyone playing this now and tempted to try Survival mode.

Ok I am a bit past the part where you do a village defense mission. I am tempted to turn down the difficulty. Also the owl is really hard to use after getting so use to Senu’s controls and extra zoom, in AC:Origins.

And just like in Far Cry 4, I dislike the vision sequences from the witch doctor guy.

Best part is just how different the game feels in terms of combat and world. It’s weird to not hear English in a game.