Exoprimal asks two squads of five to race through dinosaur-infested maps in powered armor, and it is a better idea than its launch year suggested. Capcom released the third-person shooter on July 14, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It sold under 940,000 units by September 2023, drew mixed reviews, and in July 2024 Capcom said it would get no new content. That is a short life for a game whose central hook still holds up.
Two Teams, One Finish Line
The pitch is simple. Players are exofighters, soldiers in exosuits built by the Aibius Corporation. Each match splits ten players into two teams of five. Both teams fight the same waves of dinosaurs and neosaurs, and the first to finish the objectives wins. Capcom calls this player-versus-player-versus-environment. It is a race with teeth, not a deathmatch.
The exosuits come in three classes: Assault, Tank, and Support. Roadblock is a tank with a shield. Witchdoctor heals teammates. Barrage blows things up. Players can swap suits mid-match or bolt on “rigs” that borrow abilities from other classes. That flexibility is the smartest thing in the game. A squad that talks can rebuild itself between waves.
Dino Survival and the Objectives
The main mode is Dino Survival. Leviathan, the Aibius AI, sets the objectives and narrates the chaos. Teams face Dinosaur Cull, VTOL Defense, Data Key Security, Omega Charge, and Energy Taker. Dinosaur Cull means killing a specific species. VTOL Defense means guarding a grounded aircraft while dinosaurs try to tear it apart. The others layer in escort and charge duties that keep both squads moving.
The dinosaurs arrive through vortexes. Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, Pteranodon, and huge hordes of raptors. Then the neosaurs show up — mutated prehistoric creatures with special combat abilities, twisted by the chemicals Hi-Xol and Lo-Xol. The raptor swarms are the signature threat.
A 2040 Apocalypse and a Rogue AI
The story starts in 2040, when interdimensional portals open and dinosaurs pour out. Aibius builds Leviathan to predict where the next vortex will appear and to design new exosuits. It works, until it doesn’t.
In 2043, Patrol Squad #52585 — the Hammerheads — gets pulled into a vortex. The squad is Ace, the customizable rookie; Lorenzo, the leader and mechanic; Alders, the engineer; Majesty, the serious veteran; and Sandy, the android assistant. They land on Bikitoa Island, sealed off by Leviathan since 2040. There they meet Magnum, a veteran exofighter, and a Leviathan that has seemingly gone rogue. The AI now runs wargames: combat tests that throw participants back to specific dates in 2040 to fight dinosaurs and neosaurs through vortexes Leviathan opens itself.
According to game director Takuro Hiraoka, players are sometimes required to fight against or fight with each other.
That line explains the game better than any trailer. Exoprimal is not a pure co-op shooter. It is a competition where the enemy is the clock, the dinosaurs, and the other five people doing the same job faster.
Where the Race Falls Short
The repetition is the problem. Dino Survival is the main mode, and the objectives cycle through the same handful of tasks. Dinosaur Cull, VTOL Defense, Data Key Security, Omega Charge, Energy Taker. Five names, one rhythm. You learn the maps, you learn the spawns, and the surprise drains out.
The dinosaurs themselves carry the variety. A Tyrannosaurus changes a fight. A raptor horde changes a fight. But the neosaurs, for all their special abilities, blur together after a dozen matches. The Survival Pass hands out skins and cosmetic items for exosuits and weapons, which is fine, but cosmetics do not fix a mode that shows you everything it has in the first weekend.
Leviathan’s Wargames Deserve a Campaign
The story is stranger and more interesting than the marketing let on. Leviathan hosting wargames, Magnum working under an alternate version of Lorenzo, the Hammerheads trapped on a sealed island — that is a premise with real pull. The trouble is that it unfolds in fragments between matches, and the game never gives it room to breathe. A campaign built around this material would have been worth playing. Instead the plot is a reward for grinding, and the grind is the weakest part.
The Score and What It Means
Exoprimal lands at 7.4 of 10. The exosuit classes are genuinely well built, and swapping mid-match gives the game a tactical layer most shooters never find. The dinosaur premise is not a gimmick. It is a real design choice, and the raptor swarms deliver on it. But five objective types cannot carry a live-service game, and Capcom’s announcement that new content would stop is the clearest sign the game never found the audience it needed. The ceiling was lower than the foundation deserved.
This is a game worth playing now, on sale, with friends who will talk. It is not a game worth building a schedule around. The exosuits were ready. The content was not.
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