While I wouldn't say Im taking a break from Far Cry Primal, I will admit Ive drifted away from it, having not played in a week.
While it was initially exciting to master this more primitive battlescape I have to admit the criticisms were not without merit. It lacks both in story and atmosphere.
Firstly theres not much of a sense of progression or urgency to the game. You start the game being impressed upon to help a failing tribe overcome a larger more menacing tribe, but the pace is more CIV than FEAR, with you ponderously exploring the map, overtaking territory. Theres no back and forth, no fear of losing ground. At this point in the game its starting to feel like a chore really.
More problematically, the antagonists are not really villains deserving my righteous fury.
At least to the point Im at one tribe is neanderthal cannibals. For some strange reason the game chooses to tell you its not by choice but by necessity, so it doesn't even feel good killing them the way killing mongols feels in Ghost of Tsushima. Its just like "I guess I gotta kill these guys who are struggling in their own way". The other villains are, I think, proto aztecs. They worship the sun, do sacrifice, that sort of thing. Same problem though, I just don't really care that much.
The other problem is that everything can and will try to kill you, day or night. Unlike other Far Cry games where an odd thing may stroll up to murder you here and there, in this game, albeit possibly realistically, the forest is teaming with critters who only dream of murder. You MUST keep an alpha pet around at all times, never more than 5ft away to scare off predators or you will be accosted every 5 seconds. Even then if your pet so much as blinks while you're gathering logs a cave lion will be on your back in a heartbeat. Its ok when you're just roaming around but they don't pause for missions Ive literally died during ingame cut scenes. Its funny the first 50 times you die literally just standing there looking at your map, but after that it gets old real quick. It only helps to add colour to that feeling of "chore".
The game is very pretty. It definitely feels pre-procedurally generated environment era Ubisoft is now infamous for. The landscape feels hand crafted and looks beautiful on the 57" Oddesessy which is fully supported in super ultra widescreen.
Unfortunately though being pretty can only take you so far. The game lacks the cunning of a Yugoslavian model turned foreign bride to a real estate mogul, but holds the same depth of character.
If a game existed that symbolized 7/10 its Far Cry Primal.