On March 9, 2022, Capcom unveiled a brand-new IP during Sony’s PlayStation State of Play stream, Exoprimal. This game is a team-based action game where players are tasked with defending humanity from being hunted down by dinosaurs.
To accomplish this goal, players will pilot heavily armed Exosuits to take on the pre-historic predators in various missions that combine PvE and PvP elements. Exoprimal is scheduled to be released sometime during 2023. Before then, here is everything you need to know about this new venture from Capcom.
Exoprimal: What is Exoprimal?
Exoprimal is a third-person, online-only, multiplayer-focused action shooter where players must fight together to save the world from dinosaurs. The premise of Exoprimal is that in the year 2040, mysterious temporal vortexes have suddenly appeared across the globe and thousands upon thousands of dinosaurs are spilling out of them.
As a result, the world is thrown into chaos as the dinosaurs have brought humanity to its knees from their relentless assault. To combat this threat, the mega-corporation Aibius has developed powerful suits of armor called Exosuits to give mankind the strength and firepower it needs to fight back the dangerous dinos. In addition, Aibius has created an artificial intelligence named Leviathan to aid the Exosuit pilots (aka Exofighters) in battle by predicting where the dinosaurs will strike next and provide combat training for Exofighter candidates.
Exoprimal: How will the gameplay work?
The main gameplay of Exoprimal takes place in a game mode called "Dino Survival." This game mode pits two teams of five players against each other in a race to see who can complete a series of PvE and PvP missions first. Some of Dino Survival's missions include:
- Dinosaur Cull: Destroy specific dinosaur targets.
- VTOL Defense: Defend a damaged VTOL aircraft from being destroyed by dinosaurs.
- Data Key Security: Escort a payload containing a Data Key to its assigned destination. The payload has a health bar; if it gets destroyed, it will need to be repaired to continue its journey. The players can disrupt the enemy's team's progress by engaging them in combat directly or taking brief control of a dinosaur to invade the enemy team.
- Omega Charge: Defeat enemy dinosaurs to power up a mighty weapon called the Omega Hammer. Once fully charged, use it to destroy target objectives, crush dinosaurs, and smash down barriers to move on to the next mission.
- Energy Taker: Collect energy scattered across the area before the enemy team does. You can also defeat rival Exofighters to steal their energy for your team.
- Neo T-Rex: Both teams must put aside their differences and work together to defeat the "Neo T-Rex," a mutated variant that makes a regular T-Rex look like a harmless puppy. This mission has a respawn limit, so players must be careful to slay this fearsome foe.
Dino Survival's missions will change from match to match depending on the player's progression through the game mode. This means that no one match will feel the same, even if you get a series of similar missions.
Players can unlock segments of Exoprimal's story by playing through Dino Survival and earn experience points to upgrade their Exosuit, level up their player level, and even unlock cosmetic rewards through a battle-pass style system called Survival Pass.
After reaching enough progress in Dino Survival mode, you unlock a matchmaking option called "Final Mission Selection." This will allow you to choose whether the final mission in a Dino Survival match will be a PvP mission, a PvE mission, or be selected at random.
In addition to "Dino Survival" there is another mode called "Savage Gauntlet" added to the game in a post-launch update on July 28, 2023. This is a 5-player only mode where you and other players work together to complete objectives and kills dinosaurs as fast as possible and post your results on worldwide leaderboards. Do note that the objectives you are tasked to complete will change on a weekly basis.
Exoprimal: What kind of Exosuits can we pilot?
Exosuits are categorized into three roles: Assault, Tank, and Support. Players can swap between suits on the fly during combat to adapt to new situations and complete their missions. The Exosuits that have been announced so far are:
Assault
Assault Exosuits are damage dealers who focus on destroying their enemies as quickly as possible.
Deadeye: A jack-of-all-trades Exosuit specializing in long-range or mid-range assault rifles to mow down enemies. They are also equipped with a super-charged palm strike to push back enemies if they get too close.
Vigilant: A long-range type Exosuit that snipes targets from high vantage points using a powerful railgun.
Barrage: A grenadier Exosuit that sets the battlefield alight with a rain of incendiary and explosive grenades.
Zephyr: A martial artist Exosuit that fights up close and personal using their incredible speed and beating enemies to death using energy-powered tonfas.
Tank
Tank Exosuits protect their comrades by drawing enemy raptors' attention and using defensive skills to mitigate damage.
Roadblock: A bulky Exosuit that carries a massive shield and is covered head to toe in heavy armor. Their shield can enlarge into an energy barrier and hold back hundreds of Raptors or even the jaws of a T-Rex.
Murasame: A samurai-inspired Exosuit that protects its allies by using a massive katana to block and parry incoming enemy attacks.
Krieger: A heavily armored Exosuit which believes that the best defense is a good offensive by mowing down enemies with an excessive amount of firepower.
Support
Support Exosuits help keep their team alive by using abilities to heal damaged allies, buff their strength, or debilitate the enemies.
Witchdoctor: The Witchdoctor is a medic Exosuit that can jump across the battlefield to repair damaged friendly Exofighters and enhance their abilities, such as increasing their movement speed.
Skywave: A mage-like Exosuit that supports its allies by flying in the air and showering the enemy with status ailments to cripple their abilities.
Nimbus: The Nimbus is a nimble exosuit that can use its weapons to heal allies and damage enemy dinosaurs.
Exosuit Variants
After Exoprimal launches, there will be a future title update that will add several new Exosuit Variants to the game. These Variant suits function differently compared to their original counterparts.
For example, the Deadeye Exosuit primarily uses an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attached, whereas the Deadeye Alpha Variant uses a weapon that can switch between a shotgun mode and a burst-fire rifle mode.
Exoprimal: What kind of dinosaurs will we fight?
The dinosaurs emerging from the time-warping vortexes come in two flavors: regular dinosaurs and Neosaurs.
The regular dinosaurs are your standard ancient lizards from the Jurassic age but their strength and aggressive behavior have been heightened due to the reality-bending nature of the vortexes. These include swarms of Raptors and Pteranodons, the Ankylosaurus, the Triceratops, and the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Neosaurs, on the other hand, are horrifically mutated dinosaurs that have gained special powers thanks to their disfiguring transformations. The Neosaurs that have been shown off so far are:
Gas Neosaur: A Raptor that has developed an explosive growth on its back, which will detonate a huge blast when damaged. Gas Neosaurs will try to rush the player and blow themselves up to slaughter their prey.
Sniper Neosaur: Sniper Neosaurs are Raptors that have gained psionic powers thanks to the purple growth on their backs. They stand back at long distances to shoot their prey with energy blasts. If Sniper Neosaurs sense an enemy is closing in on them, they will teleport away to escape from harm.
Neo Ankylosaurus: The Neo Ankylosaurus is an Ankylosaurus that has transformed into a monster comprised of molten rock. It can also use telekinesis to fire explosive rocks from its body or form a shield of stone to block incoming attacks.
Pyro Neosaur: The Pyro Neosaur is a Pteranodon variant that is permanently lit aflame thanks to its mutations. They attack their prey by flying in the air and peppering them with fireballs.
Evoker Neosaur: The Evoker Neosaur is a mutated Pteranodon that has the power to summon temporal vortexes and spawn regular Pteranodons. While the Evoker Neosaur has no special attacks, it can command the Pteranodons it summons to attack instead.
Cryo Neosaur: The Cryo Neosaur is a mutated sinornithosaurus that has become so cold-blooded, it has the ability to produce from its body. These frosty foes will support their allies by attacking players at long-range by firing icicle projectiles. If a player manages to get close to them, the Cryo Neosaur will produce ice clones of itself to fend off attackers.
Stealth Neosaur: The Stealth Neosaur is another mutated sinornithosaurus species but this one has gained the power to turn invisible and bypass Exosuit shielding to directly damage the pilot. If these sneaky monsters manage to grab onto a player, they will administer an electric shock and paralyze them for a few seconds.
Exoprimal: Will this game have an offline singleplayer mode?
No, Exoprimal is purely an online-only, multiplayer game.
Exoprimal: What are the PC specs?
The PC specs for Exoprimal have been announced on the game's Steam page and they are as follows:
| Minimum requirements |
|---|
| Operating System: Windows 10 Version 20H2 (64bit) |
| Processor: Intel Core i5-7500 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 |
| Memory: 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB VRAM or AMD Radeon RX 560 with 4GB VRAM |
| DirectX: Version 12 |
| Storage: 50GB available space |
| Network: Broadband Internet connection |
| Additional Notes: Estimated performance when graphics are set to minimum settings — 1080p with 30fps. Be warned that the framerate may drop during graphics-intensive scenes. |
| Recommended requirements |
|---|
| Operating System: Windows 10 Version 20H2 (64bit) or Windows 11 |
| Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X |
| Memory: 16GB RAM |
| Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX 590 |
| DirectX: Version 12 |
| Storage: 50GB available space |
| Network: Broadband internet connection |
| Additional Notes: Estimated performance when graphics are set to medium settings — 1080p with 60fps. Be warned that the framerate may drop during graphics-intensive scenes. |
Exoprimal: Will the Xbox version come to Xbox Game Pass?
It has been confirmed that the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S versions of Exoprimal will join Xbox Game Pass on the day of the game launches.
Exoprimal: Are there any pre-order bonuses or special editions?
The pre-order bonus for Exoprimal will be three cosmetic skins for the Deadeye, Witchdoctor, and Roadblock Exosuits.
There will be a deluxe edition that includes the base game, a "Head Start" kit containing tickets to unlock the Vigilant, Murasame, and Nimbus Exosuits, and cosmetic skins for them. In addition, there is a limited timed-offer where purchasing the Deluxe Edition will net you the Premium Tier of Exoprimal's Survival Pass Season 1.
Exoprimal: What platforms will it release on?
Exoprimal will be released on Xbox X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam.
Exoprimal: Will there be cross-play support?
There will be cross-play matchmaking support but only within a console family's ecosystem. This means that there will be no crossplay between the Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam versions.
Xbox players will only be able to play with other Xbox players on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC. While PlayStation players will only be able to play with other PlayStation players on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.
There will also be no cross-play support between the Windows PC and Steam versions.
Exoprimal: How much will it cost?
The base version of Exoprimal will cost $59.99 and the Deluxe Edition will cost $69.99.
Exoprimal: What is the release date?
Exoprimal is set to launch on July 14, 2023.
