The first reveal of the March 9 State of Play event was Exoprimal, a new sci-fi shooter from Capcom. Those with knowledge of obscure game series will recognize that this game serves as a spiritual successor of sorts to Dino Crisis, an old dinosaur-ridden survival horror series from Capcom.
In the reveal trailer for Exoprimal, we see a squad of five soldiers in high-tech, Anthem-like armor fight hordes of dinosaurs rushing out of portals. They all team up to take on a giant T. Rex at the end of the trailer.
A press release following its announcement revealed a lot more about the game. Exoprimal is set in the year 2040, when dinosaurs are appearing in portals around the world and destroying major cities. In response, a tech company called Aibius Corporation is deploying “Exofighters” to quell these incursions. There are a variety of Exosuit classes that fill traditional RPG roles like the tank or healer.
Exoprimal’s flagship game mode is Dino Survival, where two teams of five fight to complete objectives before the other. Of course, various dinosaurs will try their best to impede each team’s progress. Capcom describes Exoprimal as “purely focused around multiplayer,” but is still promising to interweave an engaging narrative throughout the experience.
Despite its similarities to Dino Crisis, Capcom did not mention that series in this announcement. It’s possible Dino Crisis was too obscure for Capcom to connect this new game to that franchise. Alternatively, Exoprimal might just be different enough with its cooperative sci-fi shooter gameplay that Capcom was more comfortable leaving it in spiritual successor territory.
Despite appearing in a PlayStation presentation, it isn’t exclusive to those consoles. Exoprimal will be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2023.
