It is so hard to discuss Primal Carnage, mostly because it can be summed up in seven words: multiplayer deathmatch with one team as dinosaurs.
Right off of the bat some people know whether or not they are going to buy this game and no amount of criticism will sway them otherwise.
For instance, the classes of the game are very well-done. Despite the game essentially splitting the teams into experiencing two different playing styles, every class feels balanced and there is no team which automatically has the upper hand. On the human team, players choose between their five classes; the scientist, the commando, the pathfinder, the trapper, and the pyromaniac. While serving as a standard array of first-person shooter tropes (the sniper, the heavy, the scout, the infantry, and the pyro respectively), each class has a unique twist relating to their title. The scientist has darts which obscure an opposing dinosaur’s vision upon impact, the commando also serves as the demolitions class by wielding the only RPG-esque weapon in the game, the pathfinder can throw flares which blind dinosaurs, the trapper can immobilize or hinder dinosaurs with his net gun, and the pyromaniac also has a chainsaw along with his flamethrower and grenades.
Everything about these human classes feel right; weapon recoil is just perfect, the damage per second ratio of each class is balanced, and the special aspects of each class (along with different main weapons) really mesh into team tactics and can, used successfully, turn any match around.
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The Dinosaur classes fair the same treatment as the human classes have; each class feels tweaked to completely balanced and had at one point or another been honed under a microscope of perfection. The tyrannosaurus is a slow yet powerful human-killing beast, novaraptors are quick and pouncing animals that can immobilize players for a defenseless kill, dilophosaurus are quick and weak but can completely obscure a human player’s vision with their spit, pteranodons can grab players and drop them from hundreds of feet in the air while also outing the position of other human players to their teammates, and the carnotaurus is a more mobile and potentially more dangerous version of the tyrannosaurus. Every dinosaur feels as powerful and as mobile as they should be, especially when the opposing team has projectile weapons.
The large areas along with the structures allow for dinosaurs to be at the height of their mobility while sacrificing the luxury of remaining out-of-sight of human players, specifically snipers. Another great addition to map design is the health and ammo refill stations. While engaged in either of these stations (the dinosaurs only get a health station), the player is completely unable to move their chosen class or their camera, leaving them wide open for attack. This means that in order to guarantee surviving while refilling health and/or ammo, teamwork is essential.
All of these aspects, the human classes to the dinosaur classes to the map design, all intertwine to make an almost masterful experience which few game come close to achieving, let alone those with a focus on multiplayer. Primal Carnage is easily one of the most meticulously structured games in terms of mechanic-balancing for both fun and fairness I have ever seen. If you do not mind the small amount of content within Primal Carnage, I cannot recommend the game enough.
– V8Ninja
I "played" the Beta for this. By "played", I mean I was able to hop on the servers one night and run around the maps…but nobody else was around. I like the idea behind it a lot, and I hope the game does well enough, but for some reason when I was playing it I kept on thinking it would have done better as a console "exclusive" for one of the systems, instead of going to the PC market first.
I am always weary of any multiplayer – only games – especially for niche groups of players. You' likely to only get a few months of value out of most of them before the community dries up completely.