Screw you Aspyr

You really.... you.... you f**ked the pooch on this one.....

What an absolute disappointment, I feel so damn betrayed like, riddle me this, HOW DO YOU MAKE A COMPLETE SET OF OLD GAMES, INCOMPLETE, ON THEIR DIRECT PORT TO NEW CONSOLES???

.... at least the GTA Trilogy had the decency to slightly improve the graphics, models and textures....

First PlayStation game I've ever refunded.... absolutely ridiculous

I can’t believe what I’m about to write…

But bare with me, there is an honest to god opinion behind them 5 stars….
(Nobody’s paying me worth of sh XD)

So, I’m a Dino Crisis fan…
Wanna see just how much?
Check my profile….
I adore those games.
All of them, even Dino Stalker and Dino Crisis 3
It’s my…. Gaming bible i call it.
The one game I can never get tired of replaying over and over again, and always end up teary eyed when the credits play.
I just…
I respond to games with heart, and good balance of fun and emotion.
That’s what I love so much about gaming, and lord knows I wasn’t expecting that here…

In my YouTube channel, I ALWAYS reacted poorly to the trailers for this game.
Angered by Capcom pushing Dino Crisis aside just to feed the current trope of multiplayer only, battle pass-infested games…
I even got depressed at one point, ngl…
The thought of… waiting all these years… just to see Dino Crisis get replaced in front of my face…. It burn my soul.

I originally wasn’t going to get it.

A friend of mine basically dared me to get it, and I did, with one condition: no online purchase, and if the game annoyed me or poked fun at the live wound of Dino Crisis, I would sell that mf faster than Ezra Miller’s flash would commit yet another felony….. (joke seemed like it fit, sorry)

So, there I was, on Friday.

Got the game, installed it, my expectations were NONEXISTENT.
But, heh, the hub music was a banger… okay, started off with the right foot.
Battle pass…. Ugh
Yet, no microtransactions…
And just like with modern RE games, the DLC’s were just shortcuts for stuff that was already in the game, unlockable through experience…
Plus the war chests, were not random, didn’t have duplicates, and couldn’t be bought….

Huh….

Okay, let’s try the tutorial.

Game looked good, hell the scenarios look BEAUTIFUL, exactly what I always dreamed of a proper dinosaur action game.
The dinosaurs looked great in action, and while they’re as realistic as a fckng Digimon, they at least looked the part and were fun to fight.

Aight aight, doing good…

The rigs were questionable at first, I was fearing an Overwatch effect (expect this term to resurface several times in the review) what I mean by that is that, some would be more fun than others AND toxic players would immediately corner you into picking exactly the one that’s always missing in the team (go medics), however…. This wasn’t the case…
All the rigs were fun to use…
Their abilities all were game changing if used right….
Even the medics, hell, I’ve played in lobbies where there’s at least 3 consecutive medics….
This was perfectly balanced, and an eye opener to me….

Alright, it’s picking up….

Now at first I thought the game was lacking in content.
What, ONE MODE???? AND NO OFFLINE BOTS???? Pfffff bullshit.

But as the game progressed, I found out, with each new mission I did, a new game mode unlocked… or a new variety of a previous game mode….
And while there’s only 5 different scenarios, the maps are huge and are always played in different order, causing the game to not feel repetitive at all (trust me, I’m 30 hours deep in this bitch)

The modes divided in: completing objectives, which usually means killing lots of Dinos and sometimes even pursuing one big Dino throughout the map, protecting a generator, which had you defending a total of 3 generators throughout the length of the match, escort, which is Overwatch…. Escorting a package throughout the map until a certain point where both your team and the enemy team collide, making it a mixture of fighting Dino a.i and real players, and then there’s the competitive modes, which were basically collecting nodes faster than the enemy team (with some similarities to kill confirmed), and capturing command posts through the map (similar to conquest in battlefield) and one mode where players need to recharge a hammer to break through 2 walls, fencing off dinosaurs, only for the third wall to be a full on 4v4 to see who breaks the last wall with the hammer (also super satisfying).
THEN, there’s a last type of match, which is for the story driven missions, most of those become full-on PVE, merging both enemy and friendly teams in one massive fight against Dinos and bosses (I absolutely adored those)
And, for the final boss (no story spoilers) the battle consisted in ALL THE MODES combining for one, last, bombastic finale (soooo good)

So don’t be fooled…. Reviewers may say it has no variety at quick glance….. but as the game progresses, you find out it has so much more to offer.

Now, on to the story.

Story for a multiplayer game was often a big ick for me…
Either it was Halo 4 and they were all grunts in training simulations with some narrative going on in the back.
Or it was Overwatch, with a lot of lore for each character, side, and enemy type, yet later you found widowmaker and mercy teaming up with Winston and tracer during a same match versus their evil clones.
Or it was Fortnite and Destiny, and the lore only existed during specific “Game changing” events that started the next season.
OR the game was an MMO and the story was go here, kill this, thousands of people show up to kill one boss, yet the story only shows one, and sometimes a cutscene, sometimes just a dialogue, and off to grind some more.

Yeah, not a big fan of story in multiplayer games…

I never felt like either one of them stuck the landing, and I certainly didn’t think Exoprimal would either….

Boy was I wrong…

I thought the characters would be annoying, paper cutouts of stereotypes, with annoying in-game radio chatter that would force you to like them or something…
But…
No…

The game starts out strong with a really well made cutscene that establishes the basic problem: plane go boom in Dino-infested world, kill to survive.
But as the game progresses, the mystery of the island starts to unveil, and it shows a much larger picture that slowly involves every character around you, including you, AND including all the thousand other players also fighting with you or against you…. The plot found a really smart way of making every match work with the story.
Now, with every match you play, you get two files that slowly build your database, these are not just text or poorly implemented AND voice acted extras that the player isn’t motivated to check out, no these are proper stories that slowly tell you more about the lore, the mysterious island, the conflict, and every character around you (including a particularly quirky story about a screwdriver that I absolutely loved), all of this further building your love for each of the main characters.
Then, as you play more matches, the counter for a next story driven cutscene goes down, until you finally reach it, and unlock not only the next fully animated, voiced and acted cutscene (eat a dick Redfall) but also the next batch of modes, scenarios, Dino varieties, and boss battles.
By the time the last battle hits, which has the characters rallying up you and the thousand other players across different timelines fighting one last battle to save the earth, you are fully immersed in the story, the characters, the journey, and you celebrate with them and every player you play with, that last, beautiful victory before the credits roll (and oh boy do they roll, the music is fire, capcom better release the soundtrack because IT’S GODLY)

Now, I do have some gripes with the game, and it’s my constant gripe with multiplayer-only experiences nowadays….. lack of game preservation.

The game offers no offline modes (even though the tutorial is a regular mode with friendly bots and shows that that could totally work if they added it).
Plus, while the idea behind the story mode and multiplayer being one, is done beautifully, and absolutely BETTER than any game I’ve played before, they should’ve added a map and mode selector EVEN IF only after beating the main story, because it is a bit jarring at first, especially for newcomers who have no idea what they’re getting into.

Y’know how it feels like?, it feels like the first TitanFall…. They had something EPIC there, but couldn’t fully expand on it, but hopefully, with next updates or even a sequel, they can go down in glory just like TitanFall 2 did.

Now, my rating stands even after those complaints, because really, the game is absolutely fun, ridiculously well balanced, superficially shallow, but in reality it’s packed with content, and it tells a story that I personally resonated with, and adored even to the very, last, minute.

Plus I’m a sucker for dinosaurs and destroyed cities reclaimed by nature, so, SUE ME.

Now, I actually did finish the game in 3 days after playing it non stop.
Got to level 58, I’m 70% done with the trophies, and I am still glued to this game, hoping to max out every aspect of it just because of how much I loved the experience.
Hell I even bought the battle pass, I RARELY BUY BATTLE PASSES, didn’t do it for street fighter, didn’t do it for REverse, didn’t do it for battlefield, COD, ETC…. I never get them.
But I did with this.

Not because any of the content is particularly world changing (I mean the skins are awesome, but, that’s it).
Nah
I got it, because I want to support the game, and the developers…
Because even though it’s not Dino Crisis…..
I Can still feel the love and attention that the developers put into every aspect of this game.
I mean it runs beautifully at 60 fps, hasn’t had a single bug or crash, and it’s a complete experience from start to finish that I thoroughly enjoyed and can’t wait for more ❤️
YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RARE THAT IS NOWADAYS????

If you were hesitant of playing this game, or the trailers didn’t sell it to you (like they almost didn’t to me) I hope this review helped paint a different picture of what this game really is about.

I hope capcom reads this somehow, so they see what I think could help the game improve, but so they also see, that this old, grumpy, Dino Crisis loyalist, that was 100% against this game….. ended up loving it.
And would gladly have it share shelves next to Dino Crisis 1 and 2 any day.
It was THAT good for me…. And I can’t wait to see what else it has to offer ^~^

Try it out…. You might just end up agreeing with me that, Exoprimal, is definitely, an immediate, cult classic in videogame history.

…

…

(NOW USE THIS TO RELEASE A DINO CRISIS 1 AND 2 REMAKE CAPCOM PLEEEEEAAAASEEE!!!!!)

(Thank you….)

Not for the faint of heart…

EDIT*
After I wrote this I started having some game breaking bugs, buttons stopped working, game wouldn’t launch, and the worst one, game wouldn’t save past a save file from yesterday (curiously after the game not launching bug)
So I was forced to restart my run on story mode, and my review went from 5 stars to this.
Don’t get me wrong, everything I said stands.
But it demands too much precision and difficulty, yet glitches out like crazy.
Until they fix it, this will be the final rating.
I love this game and what I makes me feel, but I hate how it was released (how typical)
Now
Do read my former review before I got glitches:


Aliens: Dark Descent was a bit of a mixed bag when initially revealed, I first thought it was gonna be a Diablo-styled dungeon crawler, then it was revealed to be a top down rts game, and that it would be kind of an indie release rather than a big budget game, with a price point of $40.
This could either be great news, or terrible news…

And now, after playing it for a while, I can safely say:

This is doing for Aliens, what Isolation did for Alien.

Every mechanic fits so well with the classic Alien mythos.

From deploying from badass transports, to slowly exploring the big, open areas you’re deployed in, quietly making your way through destroyed and desolate corridors, listening to the stress inducing motion tracker (THAT FINALLY WORKS AS IT DOES IN THE FILM) and finally, to engaging in desperate combat with xenos.

This game hits every mark of the classic Aliens film, and it FINALLY makes you feel like you’re actually in the world (Even if a part of me still wishes for another go at an immersive FPS)

Now, just like in the film, every decision counts…
Your marines and their mental health and literal health depend sorely on how YOU work as a commanding officer, meaning, depending on how you play, you can become Burke, Gorman, or in the best case possible…. Hicks.
It all depends on how you play and how you care for your marines.

Now, as the game progresses, things get tougher and tougher, some might say, relentlessly tough, but you do get a warning about this in the opening level.
The difficulty of your progress depends solely on how well you’ve managed to lead your squad in each mission, meaning, if you’re deep in shit by the first few hours, it’s on you buddy…. Not the game.

Stealth, knowing when to retreat, taking good care of your squad, and making the best possible decisions under a lot of constant stress are the best ways to push through the game.

Now, as for the story, even though the facial animations look, stiff… I’m actually quite surprised at the level of narrative this game has.

The cutscenes are a thousand times better produced than Redfall’s, being extremely well directed, voice acted, and with not visual stuttering, I was actually extremely impressed by them, and ended up being completely immersed in the story.

Now, it does have some negatives, I’ve heard of some people having lots of bugs (not xenos) however, I haven’t encountered a single one, so, I don’t know what that depends on, as said, the difficulty spike is INTENSE halfway through, and a lot of the times, the marines are often exaggeratedly voice acted, reminding me of the voice acting in Colonial Marines, and can sometimes break immersion when slowly making your way through creepy, desolate hallways.

It’s not that much actually, and I’m in fact extremely surprised at how well this genre works with Aliens when done right.

Maybe a future sequel that combines RTS with Shoulder Perspective TPS or straight up FPS would be my dream Aliens game, but, for the time being, I can only say I’m deeply surprised by this game, and it will definitely become my next, big, addiction after Aliens Fireteam Elite.

Aliens fans….. don’t sleep on this one.

It’s state of the bad ass art.