On Wednesday, Sony’s PlayStation State of Play event started off in a surprising and exciting way. A trailer began with a vortex appearing above a city, and from the hole, dozens of dinosaurs began falling out it in a flood. When Capcom’s logo later flashed, fans' eyebrows raised at the possibility ofDino Crisisreturning in a new form. The new game revealed from Capcom isn’tDino Crisis, however. It’s namedExoprimal, and it’s as intriguing as it is confusing.
WhatExoprimalis isn’t entirely clear at this point. Players will be taking on the roles of a force of “IAS Exo Fighters” that are partAnthemand partWarframe. They’re humans wearing mech suits, with which they take on waves of dinosaurs. To do so, they’ll use a variety of abilities that hearken toOverwatch’s rosterof unique characters, like using an electronic shield wall, using short dashes with slash attacks, healing areas of effect, and large weapon blasts.
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To be clear, these Exo Fighters are taking on actual dinosaurs. They aren’t robotic dinosaurs or alien dinosaurs, judging from what the trailer shows. They’re just dinosaurs and lots of them at that. InExoprimal’sState of Playtrailer, hundreds of raptor-like blue dinosaurs are shown, including other dinosaurs like triceratops and a tyrannosaurus rex. There was a strange bug-like enemy shown, too, which may or may not be entirely fictional.
What is clear, however, is thatExoprimalis a cooperative multiplayer game. The fine print in the trailer even confirmed thatExoprimal’s multiplayer will requirePlayStation Plus. Players are shown in groups of up to five taking on the flood of dinosaurs together, mixing and matching different mech classes to complement each other. It isn’t clear what the manner of progression will be, but it’s likely safe to assumeExoprimalwill feature Games-as-a-Service elements.
To summarize,Exoprimalis athird-person action multiplayer gamein which players take on the role of the IAS defense force members. These Exo Fighters wear cybernetic suits, which can be swapped mid-game, to battle against floods of dinosaurs that appear through unexplained vortexes. These dinosaur incursions are so regular that they’re treated like weather events.
There’s obviously much left to reveal regardingExoprimal. It isn’t clear whetherExoprimalwill feature a single-player or story campaign, what kind of progression or endgame it will have, if it’s more of aDestiny-like GAASor more akin toOverwatchandOverwatch 2, or what. Expect to hear the near future.
Exoprimalreleases in 2023 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
