With most recent first-person shooters having guns and explosions either set during a war or an outbreak either filled with zombies or monsters, we forget that there isn't many shooters based on history. I'm aware that there has been a few good World War shooters but we don't see much else either before or after, the Far Cry series have always had a good challenge on difficulty and a giant map as well to explore and travel either on foot or by a vehicle.
Far Cry Primal is set in 10,000 BC which is set during the Stone Age and no there isn't any dinosaurs and Flintstones references. Feels more like a survival game then a shooter with it not having any guns or grenades, but instead only using simple weapons like a spears, bows and arrows to kill your enemies. Not only that back then man wasn't always on top of the list there would be more dangerous creatures out there that would kill you and eat you alive.
You play the role of a Wenja tribesman named Takkar, who is stranded in Oros with no weapons after his hunting party is ambushed when arriving in Oros you will eventually rise to power and leading his own tribe. The more you help your tribe the stronger your clan will become but like most shooters there's always a war between another lands that just wants to take away everything from what you built. So like most shooters you have to fight your way through and helping out your tribe as well at the same time.
The weapons you use are simple tools by just crafting materials together so you are scavenging most of them and collecting certain types of stones, wood and plants to craft weapons like a spear, bow and arrows, clubs and fire bombs. The more missions you do and help out your clan you can earn new weapons and items which makes things a lot easier for you for attacking enemies and getting around. Some of the tools you obtain can be really handy to have one of them is a grappling hook to reach places you can't reach or a bigger sack to stash more items when it comes to scavenging, you'll also be able to learn new skills and abilities as well for stuff like faster stamina when running or bigger health bar or better aiming when throwing spears or firing arrows with your bow.
Once you've obtained the power in taming animals you can easily command the most simple animals from dire wolves to a saber-tooth cat that will follow you were ever you go and of course sending them to attack your enemies. But in order to tame animals you'll need meat to lure them in and then you can easily tame them by just holding down Square, you don't have to tame animals you can easily kill them on the spot if you kill them you can depicting the animals to get more meat to heal yourself or your tamed animal and of course using their fur to craft more tools and building more huts around your tribe.
I found most of the missions enjoyable but the odd missions you'll encounter through side-quest missions which are all optional some of them do feel a little repetitive at times, but if you have a really strong tamed animal alongside you just easily sent them to do all of the killing while you just wait and hide or find a good places to attack your enemies above or lurking in the shadows. Using the R3 button can let you use hunter's vision to see where your enemies or certain animals are moving to or just following their tracks on where they were last at, instead of reaching a high place or a hill to see where enemies are heading to you can easily call an owl which would fly from the sky and giving a bird's eye view of your surroundings and the option for your owl to strike down to your enemies.
What really makes Far Cry Primal stand out is the graphics and visuals which really do shine, also showing you what life could have been like in 10,000 BC from the beautiful forests to the snowy mountains you can easily just get lost or side tracked with something else. There have been times where I would just explore most parts of the map or at least try capturing enemy outposts along the way, you can fast travel as well instead of walking for miles you can easily just fast travel where you need to go just remember to capture their outpost first.
It might be a little short on the main campaign it can take you at least 20 hours or more depending on how much you want to get out of Far Cry Primal and of course collecting all trophies as well. But I would say that it's worth checking out if you are a fan of the series or if you are new to the series I would recommend checking this game out or if you fancy a change of scenery instead of guns you’re only using clubs and spears. It also features PS Vita support meaning that you can play it on a smaller screen if you wanted to but I can't really see it getting a sequel or even a multiplayer online mode for this it is far better off as a single-player game but is enjoyable at the same time.