Far Cry Primal‘s map is absolutely huge, and is literally teeming with objective markers and missions. I challenge even the most ardently focused of players to travel to their intended location without getting sidetracked on the way.

What shined in the story were the tribes’ cultures. It was great to see how Ubisoft created unique, fictional tribes and still made them feel natural and real within the game.

While this is a different direction for the Far Cry series, Far Cry Primal is an excellent entry into the franchise. While it might not be the best introduction to the franchise, it’s certainly one the fans of Far Cry should definitely check out and those interested in the series will find something incredibly unique, action-packed, and a lot of fun.

There's a fine balance between tension and fun that elevates the whole experience.

I like Primal the most when it's many systems interact in interesting ways and when it forces me to think of new ways to deal with a powerful predator or a powerful group of enemies, but there are also moments when the entire experience feels to close to both Far Cry 4 and 3.

It’s beautiful to look at, and the idea it’s based on is pretty interesting. Unfortunately the magnificent game world and the interesting beast taming mechanics are not enough to cushion the repetitiveness of the main campaign. An uninspired storyline is the last nail in the coffin, for a game that, while still having solid mechanics, is just not as fun as its predecessors.

It feels like it has even less of a story than Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon has, but that's because that story is spread incredibly thinly across a large world that's packed with cookie cutter content. There's nothing inherently wrong with Primal, and I found the game's combat systems to be pretty exciting at times, but the structure of the game and most of the tasks you're given are one-note. It's a monotonous grind that gets a good lift from its approach to combat and a handful of other tweaks to the formula, but it's still the formula.