With Sony once again holding a highly anticipated State of Play presentation on March 9, a litany of new game reveals and details were made available to avid fans regarding upcoming releases within the PlayStation sphere. Of all the exciting new titles revealed at State of Play, it was Capcom's announcement of Exoprimal that stood as one of the most popular.
Exoprimal has excited fans, promising to provide a team-based player vs everything experience within an intriguing dystopian setting. However, with the prominence of mech-suits as a key feature of gameplay, as well as its futuristic setting, many have noticed similarities between the latest Capcom title and BioWare's Anthem.
What We Know About Exoprimal
With Exoprimal only recently being announced, it is clear that details surrounding the upcoming title are few and far between. What is known about Exoprimal is that games will consist of two separate teams of five players, with each team battling off vicious hordes of dinosaurs within futuristic urban settings, with only one team being able to survive the fray.
Exoprimal is set in a dystopian 2043, where the human race is being plagued by mysterious time-warping vortexes which are sending hordes of lethal prehistoric creatures forward in time. The brave few who choose to fight the dinosaur threat are known as Exofighters, who manage to even the odds between humans and dinosaurs with the aid of their high-tech mech suits that they utilize in combat. The fairly unique concept of having dinosaurs as primary antagonists led many fans to think the reveal for Exoprimal was actually a sequel to Dino Crisis, leading to some level of disappointment for hardcore Dino Crisis fans.
However, that is not to say that Exoprimal itself is not worth being excited about. Exoprimal will boast a variety of different mech suits to choose from, with each differing suit offering a unique facet of gameplay to help turn the tide against the dino threat. For example, one of the Exosuits that was prominently featured within the game reveal was the Roadblock Exosuit.
This particular suit offers tank-like gameplay, with the Roadblock focusing on damage absorption and crowd control with a large energy shield akin to Overwatch's Reinhardt. Each available Exosuit will offer a unique and focused avenue of combat and team play composition within Exoprimal, providing the level of symbiotic teamwork and communication necessary in what promises to be sustained and intense gameplay.
Similarities to Anthem
The reveal for Exoprimal has already seen a lot of parallels being drawn by fans to the game and BioWare's Anthem. Beyond the shared futuristic setting and focus of mech-suits as an integral game element, there are plenty of ways why this comparison makes sense.
Although the PvP elements of competition and the more linear settings of Exoprimal are stark in their difference to Anthem, many core gameplay features are strikingly similar. For example, the main enemies of Anthem are aliens who offer an ever-present threat to the human race, acting in the same ambiguous and straightforward manner as the dinosaurs of Exoprimal.
Being an online RPG, Anthem additionally places large focus on teamwork and cooperation as a main focus of gameplay, in a manner very similar to Exoprimal. Anthem offers a variety of different Exosuit types and specialties within its core gameplay as a component of team-based combat, with different types of Ecosuits having to work in harmony to best achieve victory, another large similarity with Exoprimal. However, with the less than favorable legacy left by the lackluster Anthem, Capcom will need to take these comparisons with a grain of salt, and set out to utilize the favorable shared mechanics of the two games in a more sustained and effective manner.
Exoprimal will launch in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.