With the exception of Far Cry Primal, there is hardly a game in the Stone Age – an outrage, as Alex finds! Primitive is supposed to change that – and then also in UE5!

Zombies, forest, winter … everything already seen. Survival games could do with a bit of variety in terms of setting. There would be enough suitable places and times in which one fights and struggles for survival.

One of my most desired settings is definitely the Stone Age – the prehistoric struggle between Neanderthals, Homo Sapiens and the flora and fauna still rampant at that time is virtually predestined for a survival adventure! Primitive now wants to make my dream a reality.

The first trailer has also been released in the meantime, you can watch it here:

What is Primitive about?

In Primitive, man is not yet the crowning glory of creation (if he ever was), but only one of many living beings struggling for bare survival. In the open world, the first homo sapiens not only have to fight mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, woolly rhinoceroses and all kinds of other creatures, but also Neanderthals.

Mother Earth alone is merciless enough! A pleasant 20 degrees, plenty of food and clean water are probably scarce. According to the developers, you even have to worry about your mental health.

According to the developers,

Primitive will be a single-player oriented game – for me as a survival co-op fan this is a slight setback, but actually it is also understandable. According to the Steam description, communication with other Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens will also play a role. It would somehow make less sense if I simply talked to my friends via Discord.

But thanks to the Unreal Engine 5, the game looks really great! In any case, the different climate zones and shades are absolutely impressive. The animations in the trailer, however, are still a bit bumpy, to put it gallantly. The gorilla-like animal at the end seems particularly halting, but the facial animations are also still far from the current standard. But the development is also still in its infancy, so a lot can still happen there.

But keep the anticipation in check

Early in development is also the keyword: The publisher Ultimate Games S.A. belongs to the Polish company PlayWay.

For all those who don”t know PlayWay yet, here”s the short version: The publisher follows the unusual strategy of announcing several games with screenshots and render trailers without putting many resources into development beforehand. Only when enough people put the game on their wishlist on Steam is the game actually realised. So for many projects this means the eternal release limbo to be announced.

But not all games end up like that. The Primitive developer is also responsible for the Ultimate Fishing Simulator series, which enjoys great popularity in the community. How the change from fishing simulator to stone age survival game will turn out, of course, remains to be seen.

What do I like so far? What remains unclear?

What do I like so far?

• (The Setting): Primitive feels like a Far Cry Primal with more survival elements, where we defend our tribe from attackers, go hunting and learn more communication skills over time. The Stone Age rocks!
• (Unreal Engine 5): When it comes to the environments, Epic”s engine shows what it”s made of. The open world just looks great with its different climates!

What remains unclear?

• (The animations): I”m still not convinced by the animal and facial animations. It all still seems very stiff and immature.
• (Release date unknown): Whether the title will be released at all or will be forgotten in the endless Steam cosmos is highly uncertain at the publisher PlayWay. But as we all know, hope dies last.

Editorial conclusion

In my head I can already picture it quite clearly: Together with my hunting group, I sneak up on the mammoth. Thanks to my newly learned communication skills, I instruct my colleagues to circle the mighty animal.

After a fierce battle, we have killed the mammoth, and with a wooden construction we bring the remains to the village. It”s about time, we are all on the verge of starvation. Full of food, a large part of the mammoth remains, which has not escaped the attention of the rival tribe. The following night the mammoth remains are gone, during the snowstorm they must have snuck in. So the fight against hunger begins anew.

I still have my doubts as to whether this will play out as I imagined it. The animations so far are anything but atmospheric and whether Primitive will ever be released, well, fingers crossed. But there”s a lot of potential in any case!