Exoprimal Open Beta: Live Service Dino Shooter is Familiar Fun

Releasing on July 14th, Capcom’s Exoprimal has a very simple premise: the year is 2040, dinosaurs are coming out of portals, and only teams of exosuit operators can save the day. As far as multiplayer shooter concepts go, this has a lot of potential so long as it can surpass its singular gimmick, and the new Open Beta proves that despite its derivative combat mechanics, Exoprimal is a lot of fun for what it has to offer. Here’s what to expect before the Beta goes public on all platforms tomorrow, March 16th.

The Exosuits

All ten exosuits are available in the Exoprimal Open Beta, spanning the three classes of Assault, Tank and Support. Assault exosuits are all-purpose killing machines and are reasonably well balanced for new players to jump in and have a great time, utilising Deadeye’s machine gun or Vigilant’s burst sniper rifle to effectively take down foes. These units are fairly nimble and can dash around the battlefield avoiding most incoming damage while using secondary abilities such as a grenade launcher to inflict widespread damage. Useful for when fifty velociraptors are hurtling toward you at breakneck speed.

Tank exosuits are slower but can take more damage, and act as support units which can absorb incoming fire and counterattack with powerful heavy weapons. Roadblock has a large energy shield and a melee attack to push foes back, while Krieger has an enormous minigun for suppressing fire and Murasame sports a large blade which can counter enemy attacks. The third and final category, Support, is largely focused on healing allies and hampering enemy movement. Anyone who has played online multiplayer games before will see nothing out of the ordinary here, but the inclusion of swappable Rigs with different abilities does increase the versatility of each exosuit.

Dino Survival

Only one game mode is available in the Exoprimal Open Beta, and it’s a fairly solid foundation to be built upon at launch. In Dino Survival mode, players join one of two teams and must compete alongside each other to complete objectives and reach the end first to win the match. Each event is usually just a couple waves of dinosaurs, occasionally spicing things up with larger boss enemies and the ability to interfere with the opposing team’s progress to slow them down. After five or six repetitions of this gameplay loop, the final area can be reached which involves carrying a large hammer through waves of enemies to break barriers.

Exoprimal promises a different experience with each match of Dino Survival, and while this is not completely apparent from the Open Beta that is mostly due to its small scope. As a test of basic game mechanics and the core gameplay loop of fighting hordes of dinosaurs, the Open Beta is good fun, though not having progression carry over to the full game is somewhat of a missed opportunity. There is a exciting sense of tension in each multiplayer match as teams race to the finish line, only receiving updates on their progress once each objective is completed.

The icing on the dinosaur-shaped cake here is the ability to occasionally summon playable dinosaurs via special items. This is by far the most entertaining part of the Exoprimal experience, as leashing control of a Triceratops or another equally large creature to smash and crush waves of velociraptors is extremely satisfying. The dinosaurs are what elevate Exoprimal above other third-person multiplayer shooters of a similar kind, as otherwise its exosuits are designed near identically to a lot of other games and its mission structure is prone to repetition. Still, only time will tell what the full release has to offer on July 14th, as with enough dinosaur and game mode variety this could live up to a lot of potential.

Registration and Monetisation

The most irritating part of Exoprimal is its insistence on having an active Capcom ID linked to your console ID, which the majority of players will likely not have unless they are familiar with Capcom games. This is an arduous process that thankfully only has to be done once, but will likely annoy players who do not wish to share their personal information with Capcom simply to be able to log in to the game and have fun killing dinosaurs.

Finally, one critical aspect which is not explored whatsoever in the Open Beta for obvious reasons is the game’s inevitable monetisation scheme. This can make or break any live service online multiplayer game, and Exoprimal is no exception. A recent Battle Pass trailer (called the Survival Pass) depicts various in-game rewards for its free and paid premium tiers of unlockable content, including many cosmetic items and, worryingly, a “war chest” which looks suspiciously like a random loot box. This is not expanded upon in the trailer, so we shall have to wait and see what this means in-game.

Having a paid Battle Pass system in a full-price online multiplayer game is a risky move, especially with the live service model slowly starting to become less favourable to players after other live service multiplayer games such as Babylon’s Fall and Anthem released to mixed critical reception and subsequently stopped being supported. With a premise as absurd as dinosaurs falling out of the sky and a core gameplay loop with interesting elements, Exoprimal would do well to avoid the pitfalls of the live service monetisation model if it wishes to succeed months after release.