Thanks to Panic Button, we have recently got hold of a Primal Carnage: Extinction Steam copy to take a look. This title holds Panic Button Games as the developer, while Circle 5 Studios is the publisher. Just recently the game was also launched for the PS4 platform and we have made an announcement at that specific date in the news section of the MadShrimps website.

 

 

About Panic Button:

 

"When all is said and done, we like to do great work with great partners. This creates tremendous opportunities in the diversity and flexibility of projects we do as a studio.

 

Founded in 2007 by industry veterans, Panic Button is a video game studio doing a bunch of diverse work (console through mobile), and we're growing. At our core, we're a reputation-based studio that takes on challenging work, and we deliver on our commitments.

 

We have a solid history as an agile game developer specializing in co-development, ports, full game production, and original IP.

 

We have great relationships with the massive talent pool available locally and around the world, and that lets us grow quickly to meet project needs.

 

In our previous lives, we've worked on multiple titles (from Turok to Disney Epic Mickey) on multiple platforms (including current consoles, mobile platforms, and the next generation).

 

We are registered developers for Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. We work with several partners, including Microsoft Studios, BioWare, and Twisted Pixel.

 

We use a wide range of internal tech solutions and licensed middleware packages, tailored to suit the needs of our partners, budgets, and projects.

 

Panic Button is located in Austin, Texas."

 

This game tries to bring something new to the table for people which are terribly bored with the zombie-killing titles, too many to count; the two factions available now are humans and dinosaurs and after choosing one of the available game modes, we are free to select the desired character. But let’s get into more detail…

 

The game loads up quite quickly between stages and takes up only 4.32GB of space on our drive; even people with older configurations should not be afraid of performance issues because this game was built on DirectX9. After bypassing the intro sequences, we will get to the animated intro screen, which presents us with the offline and online game modes, the customization option, settings area and also the credits section:

 

 

First, we should go to the options area for customizing the graphics options as resolution, FOV, Vsync, Particle Detail levels and so on:

 

 

We do also have some gameplay specific options available from the next tab:

 

 

Audio volume levels are next and here we can also enable or disable audio for footsteps:

 

 

Controls can be customized for both keyboard and gamepad, if we have one connected:

 

 

In the customization area, we can add certain cosmetic features to our preferred characters, including dinos:

 

 

The full inventory can be checked out in the last tab:

 

 

Extra skins and items can be purchased from the store:

 

 

Coming back to the Solo play area, we have two modes of play available, which are Free Roam and Survival:

 

 

Free Roam mode was designed in order for the gamer to admire the chosen maps and not being attacked as in other modes; the graphics of the surroundings are quite great:

 

 

Free Roam also allows us to choose from one of the available classes:

 

 

Despite the fact that no one attacks us in Free Roam, we still have our weapons available:

 

 

While we have mentioned that the environment graphics are pretty good, we do not feel the same thing for the weapons and hands of the player in the 1st person shooter view; they feel a bit dated and with a lower number of polygons than on other titles:

 

 

Survival mode, is a bit different and reminds us of the solo play from Killing Floor, when zombies were coming out in waves, only now we have to deal with dinosaurs. Before the battle, we can choose the class we are going to play with:

 

 

A wait timer is put in place before each round, while the number of waves is displayed on top, along with the number of dinos left to kill and sum of money we have earned for killing them. The money is necessary for buying ammo and health packs during stages:

 

 

The maps have multiple entry points through which dinos can come so you must be very agile and look on all sides since some species are quite speedy:

 

 

When killing a dino, the corresponding value in $ will show on the screen:

 

 

If you are not fast enough, you will get eaten; when killed, the camera will show different scenes, which practically depict the dinos victory over the humans in that particular stage:

 

 

Between rounds, we will also have a waiting timer, for resupply and replenishing our health:

 

 

Here is an example on how a resupply area would look:

 

 

During fight, if we shoot a large dino in the head, it would show as its head has blown up, which is not too realistic in our book:

 

 

Dead dino between stages says hello ?

 

 

As we advance through stages, more and more difficult to kill dinos will show up. In wave 5, some semi-transparent dinos with special collars will try to get rid of us:

 

 

Also, when we do get killed, we will be redirected to the score screen:

 

 

What we did not like at this particular stage is the fact that we need to quit it and re-enter instead of being able to restart it when killed:

 

 

The Multiplayer section comes with a server browser in order to join games which are already created, or host our own game; multiple game types are available like Free Roam, Team Deathmatch, Get to the Chopper, Survival and more:

 

 

Loading screens will show some interesting info about the available dinos in-game:

 

 

In Free Roam, after the game has loaded we can choose the preferred faction:

 

 

Here are the available dinos we can play with along with their stats:

 

 

 

Dinos offer a different, interesting perspective versus humans and each has unique attack types:

 

 

We have seen that collision detection is not stellar in some areas:

 

 

In Team Deathmatch, it is all about dinos vs humans; dinos are much faster, but have no weapons and in some cases they need to get really close to humans in order to cause damage:

 

 

Dino players will often try to trick you and hide before provoking and attack:

 

 

If you are not attacked by a dino from the back, you can get to the nearest health pack in order to bandage yourself:

 

 

A human dino player was really keen on killing our human team and here we can see another example of the collision detection issue:

 

 

We have succeeded to kill it in the end, but a lot firepower was needed:

 

 

Again, when playing a dino you have advantages and also some disadvantages; some human classes can also can also capture smaller dinos without killing them:

 

 

Going for the kill with our small dino:

 

 

When getting damage, the interface will also show the area from which we are being shot at:

 

 

Free Roam in multiplayer is another way to get social with different users, without the need to attack:

 

 

We would certainly leave the other game modes in multiplayer for the curious types to discover! The game is currently on huge discount when shopping on the Steam platform so the game can be picked up for just about 11 Euros until 1st of December.

 

 

 

As a final conclusion the game needs to be checked out by people which are already bored of zombie games and really want to try something different. The graphics feel a bit dated, but if you like this type of game which is quite fast-paced, it won’t really matter this much; also, by using the older DirectX9 platform, even people with slower systems would be able to enjoy the game at maximum settings, without the need to upgrade.

 

 

At the price which the game is selling until 1st of December, we could say that we have a very nice deal on our hands!

 

Primal Carnage: Extinction is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Panic Button for making this review possible!