“Takkar and his people are at the very bottom of the food chain, threatened by man and beast alike,” the narrator says. “To overcome his many foes, Takkar has powerful weaponry at his disposal.”
Glimpses of the clubs and spears Takkar can use have been shown in past gameplay demonstrations and trailers, but it’s the bow that’s the star of the show this time around. An upgrade allows for you to fire two arrows from the bow at once in a similar fashion to Rise of the Tomb Raider. And like the berserk darts found in several of the Assassin’s Creed games, “berserker bombs” cause enemies to fight each other. It’s not clear, however, if the latter is limited to only human enemies, or if it can be used to cause packs of animals to launch into a civil war.
Primal is putting considerable emphasis on Takkar’s “Beast Master” abilities, which allow him to tame animals to do his bidding, and the developers couldn’t resist putting the most annoying animal from Far Cry 4 in the game: the badger. The fearless creature is shown scaring away a bear in the trailer. If badgers can actually do that, I never want to go outside again. And that’s during the day — the world of Far Cry Primal will be even more dangerous at night, when beasts roam the landscape looking for fresh meat.
Far Cry Primal will do everything in its power to kill you on February 23, provided you have an Xbox One or PlayStation 4. If you have a PC, you’ll have to wait until March 1.