Primal Carnage might not appease all of those enthusiasts as it shuns the taught atmosphere of an entirely realistic depiction of its primary subject matter, but after talking with Lukewarm Media developers Ashton Anderson and Aaron Pollack at Gamescom this year, it’s a safe bet to say that addressing the quality of dino-based shooters is absolutely on the agenda. Indeed such seems to be the focus on honing and refining their arena-based shooter that - even without any hands-on time as of yet - we can pretty much guarantee that Primal Carnage will hatch as a smooth experience and a ravenous appetite for all-out carnage.
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| Unigine is out, UE3 now provides the slick visuals |
The template is that of a multiplayer (scalable down to 1v1 if necessary) dinosaurs vs humans arena-based shooter, with quick matches that form around bursts of 5-10 minutes of gameplay that you can dip into for small sessions or extended periods if you’re twisting in the wind on a Sunday afternoon. The human squad always play from a standard first-person perspective and can be mixed-and-matched from five very different class roles, whilst taking up the challenge as a dinosaur (and let’s face it, that’s where we’re all headed first) shifts the action to a third-person camera so players are able to get a good feel for the beasts as they lumber, pounce and glide their way around forest-based research facilities and outposts that form the basis of the Primal Carnage level repertoire.
And indeed, the dinosaurs are the real stars of the show here. Despite being set in an adrenaline-soaked fictional battle between mercenaries and their predatory enemy, Primal Carnage nevertheless bestows its reptilian protagonists with a real sense of menace and personality - largely thanks to a suite of animation culled from both movie and palaeontological influences. What that means is that you’ll instantly recognise their movement (even where tweaked for artistic reasons) and you’ll recognise their danger too. Although the human opposition is absolutely capable of taking down a T-Rex, Raptor, Compsognathus, Pteranodon, Dilophosaurus on their own, it won’t be easy. Working as a team is an absolute necessity if you’re wielding a gun, whilst solo play is totally viable if you’re on the team with green skin.
Of course, balance is going to be the clear make-or-break issue in that equation, and lead developer Anderson is quick to explain that their gameplay doesn’t just boil down to a rock-paper-scissors-giant lizard minefield. Even if you are one marine verses two T-Rex players or two Raptors, clever use of the level geometry and standard shooter skills will ensure that every battle is a fair one. Variety will be key in that respect, so stocking your entire team with one class of soldier or a single type of dinosaur isn’t the best idea. Hitting the enemy squad from all angles with as many different types of attack should ensure victory, but even then, Anderson is clear when he states that almost any combination of players and dinosaurs will work in the right hands.
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| It still looks largely the same however |
As for those mercenary classes, each comes equipped with the sorts of weaponry and field roles that you might expect, and each has a counter-measure that’ll prove useful in your fight against all creatures great and small. Assault rifles, snipers, pistols and grenade launchers are joined by secondary attacks that might take the form of a cattle prod to halt an onrushing enemy, a tranquillizer dart to disorient their vision, a flare to offer up a blinding temporary optical shield, a net gun to immobilise a dino for a short period of time, a dog to detect enemy movement, chainsaws, grenades... the list continues.
As such, the matches that we’re shown offer up a real dose of mayhem, with both sides constantly changing tactics and reacting on the fly to different situations. That’s something that was very much in the forefront of Lukewarm’s agenda, with a remit to produce pockets of action that constantly change in scope and tactics at any given moment. As an example, heading up to a roof might enable you to drop that annoying T-Rex in its tracks, but then you might draw the attention of a Pteranodon circling above that’ll swoop down and carry off one of your party members to a gravity-induced death. Dropping down into the adjacent building draws a precious few seconds of respite, but you might find that you’ll land in the jaws of a skulking Dilophosaurus, shortly before a group of Raptors rushes into the melee to finish their meal.
Make a different decision or a smart use of a counter-measure at any of those stages and the game plays out entirely differently, much like fellow beast-mode competitors such as Left 4 Dead or Gears of War 3. Indeed when the signature multiplayer modes from those titles are brought up in conversation, Anderson explains that the team has experimented with all sorts of ideas for Left 4 Dead-style point-to-point missions or wave-based alternatives, and those may well be ideas that end up in a future expansion or a different title. For now though, the focus is on basic multiplayer, and making that the absolute best it can be.
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| Here's a clue: it isn’t friendly |
Continuing on the theme of balance, it’s also worth noting that Primal Carnage will offer little in the way of persistence, again shunning the trend in modern shooter design. There are no levels to be gained or equipment to unlock here, and customisation options will be strictly limited to the aesthetic - skins, hats or anything in-between. What that ensures is that everybody drops into the game as an absolute equal, and it also means that the game should see a relatively low price point when it hits Steam later this year. When probed into the lack of persistence and upgrade features that some gamers might see as a necessity in this day and age, both Anderson and Pollack are quick to state that Carnage is in many ways the antidote to the likes of Call of Duty. Drop in, have fun, drop out. Rinse. Repeat.
And you know what? That’s the sort of experience that a lot of folk are yearning for. For many of us, the reason why multiplayer shooters are unappealing at present is because they’ve started to require a level of commitment previously unseen outside of the MMO genre, and so the chance to simply jump into a few rounds and be guaranteed an even-handed skill-based dose of carnage is a concept that really shouldn’t sound as alien as it does. That the game revolves around a fiction as ridiculous and playful as dinosaurs vs humans is a bonus, and that it’ll likely be out in the next few months and keenly balanced is the final draw. Primal Carnage is definitely one to watch.
