Exoprimal: Looking Toward the Future

For the past few days, I’ve been grinding away at Exoprimal, working to complete the main story, unlock every exosuit, and gain access to the post-game Savage Gauntlet. And quite frankly, I’ve enjoyed every second of it. I fell away from the hero shooter genre some time ago with a disinterest in Overwatch and its lackluster sequel, and only logged into Apex Legends once every few months. That said, Exoprimal has maintained my attention for a solid week or so now, and with that I’ve played nearly 100 matches ranging from 10–15+ minutes, as well as leveled up most of the roster.

The game is a player vs environment vs player (PvEvP) 5v5 third-person shooter where players equip one of 10 different exosuits split between three classes: Assault, Tank, and Support. Each exosuit has its own individual experience bar, as well as access to items called ‘Rigs’ and ‘Modules’ that give them buffs or extra abilities. Exoprimal is also online only, so story cutscenes play between matches and players have the chance to replay missions they’ve already completed. Players queue into the Dino Survival game mode where they do as the title states — fight dinosaurs and try their best to beat them faster than the other team. While I’ve had my fun, it’s clear that the game is lacking in a handful of areas and I’d like to discuss those and my hopes for this game’s future.

All Screenshots taken by the author

Improved Matchmaking

Something that’s made fairly apparent upon logging into the game is that not everyone is at the same position in the story as you are. I was on teams playing against players who had levels that trumped mine, and the level of experience, available items, and unlocked characters made that clear. Now that I’ve gone up in levels, I’m on the opposite end of the problem. I’m in lobbies with people who are very clearly playing for the first time, teams that don’t really care about composition, and playing the same game modes over and over again because the different modes don’t unlock until you progress further through the game. While I appreciate the fact that matchmaking is so open and the game itself isn’t that difficult, I hope that Capcom fixes this so that players get into more appropriate lobbies so the general experience is more enjoyable.

Ranked

Before I explain how I believe ranked could work in Exoprimal I’ll list the different possible objectives in Dino Survival, the primary game mode. What splits objectives between PvE and PvP are whether or not players have direct contact with each other during the final mission.

• Area Defense(PvE): Players stay in a designated area and protect a device, waiting for it to charge to 100%. If the device takes too much damage, players have to stay near it for it to repair itself and continue the process before moving on to the next area.

• Data Key Security(PvP): This game’s payload escort mission. Players move alongside a Data Key across the map. The Data Key can take damage from dinosaurs and other players and will stop if it runs out of health and will have to self-repair. The first team that gets their Data Key across the map and fully uploaded wins.

• Dinosaur Culling(PvE): The basic game mode. Players move area to area on the map and fight waves of dinosaurs, progressing by defeating specific ones. The goal is to clear these waves faster than the other team.

• Dino Pursuit(PvE): Players chase after a large dinosaur while fighting off hordes of smaller dinosaurs.

• Energy Taker(PvP): Both teams battle it out and acquire energy scattered across the map. Players can also steal energy by defeating other players.

• Escort(PvE): Players defend an NPC conducting and investigation and have to fight off hordes of dinosaurs. Similar Area Defense.
• Uplink Control(PvP): This game’s control point game mode. Players try to secure uplinks A, B, and C while they transfer data. First team to 100% transfer wins.

• Vortexer Sabotage(PvE): Players have to stop a Vortexer from summoning dinosaurs. The goal is to fight them off and clear enough of a path to shut it down manually.

• VTOL Defense(PvE): Players defend a grounded airship against hordes of dinosaurs. If the airship loses all of its HP, the game mode resets.

While the PvP modes allow for direct interaction with the enemy team, the PvE modes are simply a race to the finish line. Alongside these game modes, players have access to things that can turn the tide of War Games. Dominators are player-controlled large dinosaurs that spawn after clearing certain parameters. I also encountered a device that spawns if you’re far enough behind the enemy team to make their next wave harder based on your performance in a limited time, but I’ve only encountered it once in my near 100 games.

My vision for how ranked would function isn’t too far from the current way War Games work already. Players would be placed into a 10 player lobby and compete in a best of 3 set. Initially I had tried to imagine a way for ranked to flow without Dinosaur Culling, but as I did more research I found how integral to the game it is as a preliminary mode. Games were usually around 10 minutes with a range from eight minutes to 16, and since this seems average for other competitive shooters, I would suggest that ranked be a best of 3 style with a round of PvE, a round of PvP to start. The losing team would receive the chance to interfere with the winning team by making their first wave in the second round more difficult to balance things out. In the event of a tie a random unplayed objective would be played, skipping the preliminary Dinosaur Culling.

I believe more benefits of ranked could be a slight experience boost, similarly to how random queue offers a 20% boost, more flavor text from Leviathan about collecting data under the stress of competition, and ranked exclusive cosmetic rewards, on top of helping clean up matchmaking. Another potential bonus could be independent player lobbies with a spectator ability for grassroots tournaments.

At this time, the only options available on the Wargame menu are Dino Survival and Savage Gauntlet, so having a ranked queue would at least offer a little more variety.

True Crossplay

At the time that I’m writing this, there is no way to create a crossplay lobby. While you can play with or against randoms, friends cannot play with each other unless they’re on the same console.

Small Quality of Life Changes

Amongst the major changes I’d like to see, there are some smaller ones that I think could go a long way.

• Adding a way to look at player stats like dinosaurs killed, most used exosuit, suit playtime, Win/Loss ratio, and other stats in the Database tab.
• More customization options for the player character. While the vast majority of the game has players looking at exosuits, it would be nice if the base characters had more variety, especially after the lengths Capcom went to with Street Fighter 6. They don’t need anything of this degree, but a few more hair and face options would go a long way.
• The progress bar can sometimes be harder to read since everything is the same shape and size. It would be cool if the outside edges were a different shape just to differentiate.

All things considered, I’m excited to see the direction that Exoprimal goes in the coming months. Capcom has already released a roadmap that spans from the game’s release and appears to end around next spring/summer.

I have more than enough faith in Capcom as a company and how they handle their games. If they plan to treat this game like they treat Monster Hunter then we can expect bountiful updates and content to keep players interest in feeding Leviathan more and more battle data in the War Games.