During today’s State of Play, Capcom came through with a surprising reveal for a brand-new IP about exosuit-wearing marines fighting hordes of dinosaurs. It’s called Exoprimal, which is the most video-game name I’ve heard in a long while. More than that, though, it gives me some serious Anthem meets World War Z vibes, and it’s coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 sometime next year.
The two-minute trailer shows exofighters joining some spacefaring organization called Aibius, which seemingly goes around the cosmos to stop dinosaurs from spawning through an ominous interdimensional-looking circular gate in the sky. To thwart the dino-outbreak, you hop into an exosuit—of which four were shown—to slice and shoot the myriad reptilians threatening human communities.
So much of the game looks like Anthem, from the sci-fi particle effects to the exosuits and their abilities. For example, there’s one that dual-wields dagger-looking weapons for up-close melee, while another appears to be magic focused. Maybe that’s not a fair comparison, considering Anthem wasn’t a success by any stretch of the imagination. But as one of the few who enjoyed BioWare’s co-op shooter for what it was, I’m hoping Exoprimal fills that multiplayer void for me.
Speaking of multiplayer, Exoprimal features five-player co-op (probably online) that, according to the PlayStation Blog, is centered around team-based tactics. Because each suit fills a particular role, you’ll have to coordinate to ensure your team has the right suits to address whatever “dinosaur forecast” is incoming. You can even change your suit whenever you want, with the above trailer making it seem like it’s possible to swap exosuits while in the middle of combat.
All in all, Exoprimal looks like it’ll be a blast to play with friends. The hordes of dinosaurs are a welcome change of pace from the overuse of zombies in the horde-based shooting genre, so it’s exciting to see Capcom experimenting a bit.