Without E3 this year, gaming companies have stepped in to ensure that the video game community receives its usual wealth of news, reveals, and updates in early summer. Recently, Capcom held its 2022 Showcase, sharing some trailers and gameplay footage for its latest titles, including a closer look at the Resident Evil 4 remake. Among plenty of other reveals, Capcom gave some more news on its upcoming team-based horde shooter, Exoprimal, which has a unique combination of mech suits and dinosaurs seeking to destroy one another.
While the concept of suiting up in a robotic exoskeleton and blasting giant dinosaurs might be enough to sell Exoprimal to a lot of gamers, it seems that Capcom has also given players a reason for their dino destruction. A new Exoprimal trailer introduces viewers to the artificial intelligence Leviathan, which acts as a narrator throughout the trailer. It outlines that the reason the player or players have decided to fight against hordes of prehistoric predators is due to them being a "suitable specimen" for an experiment that Leviathan is running.
The player is transported to Bikitoa Island, a place where the mysterious Aibus Corps conducts its research in Exoprimal. These experiments also explain how Exoprimal excuses two teams of Exosuited humans fighting against dinosaurs and each other. Through different assignments like "Dinosaur Cull" and "VTOL Defense," players will be in a race to complete their task before the other team does, giving Exoprimal a competitive edge. With each class in Exoprimal having its own Exosuit, it seems that the game will rely on team composition as well as skill, similar to games like Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch.
While some high-action gameplay runs in the foreground of the trailer, in the background Leviathan informs players of its analysis of human history. From the way the AI speaks on humanity and its flaws, it appears that Leviathan will be the main antagonist of Exoprimal's story, further proven by a line later on in the trailer where it asks humans to "fight and die" for them. It seems that Leviathan, like many AI from movies, TV shows, and games, has gone rogue. It seems that these story beats have been somewhat borrowed from Dino Crisis, as Exoprimal also has recurring outbreaks of dinosaurs, except these are summoned by the AI Leviathan rather than created by an evil scientist. Still, for those who wished for another Dino Crisis game instead of Exoprimal, the latter's similarities to the former may make it all the more controversial.
There are a few other similarities between Dino Crisis and Exoprimal, but the newer game also seems to have taken inspiration from plenty of other titles. Fans in the comments of the new trailer have stated that Exoprimal shows a clear influence from Anthem and a host of other games.
Exoprimal releases in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.