Sometimes the best way to sell a game is to just show people the premise and let their imaginations run wild. Someone at Capcom understands this, because when the company announced its newest IP at March’s PlayStation State of Play, it didn’t give us too many details, all it did was show the premise: a world where portals drop dinosaurs into cities. These dinosaur invasions are announced via a weather forecast, and when they occur, it is up to a group of trained individuals to stop them. Supposedly there is a plot in this multiplayer-focused adventure, but do we really need to hear about it when a game already has our money within the first 30 seconds of being announced?
For those of us who do need a reason for our actions, the plot itself is simple enough to push us forward. It’s 2040 and the planet is in crisis. Dinosaurs are appearing from thin air and laying waste to cities across the globe. Threatened by the Earth’s original predators, the world turns to the Aibius Corporation and its revolutionary technology for help. The company’s next-generation AI, Leviathan, can forecast where dinosaur outbreaks will occur and deploy Exofighters to the area. Armed with state-of-the-art mechanized combat armor known as Exosuits, these warriors represent humanity’s last hope.
The combat itself feels a lot like what most of us wanted Anthem to be. If we’re going to play a multiplayer cooperative shooter, then let the plot exist but give fans a fun reason to go out there and blast through waves of enemies. While it’s obviously still early, it’s really hard to go against a premise that sounds like someone made a Sharknado video game. Everything about this sounds like it has just the right amount of self-awareness to be along with players for the ride, but also the correct amount of earnestness to not feel like it’s trying too hard.
We have no idea of Exoprimal is going to be good, but we already know we want to play it because sometimes you just want to play a game where dinosaurs rain from the sky.