Exoprimal beta is a PvPvE Overwatch but without the charisma, and I don’t like Overwatch.
I've played the game some more and I wanted to address this post. Again, like the other comparison above, it kind of is similar but it kind of isn't. I actually think there are a few things from this game that Overwatch should take inspiration from, because Exoprimal does a good job of making the player feel like they're contributing to the team rather than hindering it. Overwatch relies far too heavily on teammates' performance which ends up in everyone being angry at each other. The game is designed in tons of ways to punish you heavily and piss you off when your team isn't doing well.
+Exoprimal's first part of the match is like a race between both teams. Overwatch doesn't have this. It could. I think it would be fun for you to fight PvE enemies in Overwatch as a way to earn points and warm up for the second half as a pvp encounter. Maybe when they release PvE this can happen.
+Exoprimal's matches are shorter(for now). Overwatch matches still last way too long and because of that they can be draining experiences, especially in Cart matches in ranked that are double overtime. That's easily 40+ minutes gone for one match and if you lose at the end of it, you will feel like it's 40+ minutes wasted for nothing. This is why I played things like ranked mode less and less over time to the point where I've finally shelved the game until the PvE campaign releases.
+Exoprimal is point based instead of based on hard captures. This bring positives to the team because even your weakest member can contribute as long as they're doing something. To explain:
Overwatch relies too heavily on one central mechanic to win a match. You don't earn any meaningful points towards the match for performing well. It's either you capture the point or not, so having high kills don't count. It's either you push the cart or you don't, so having high kills don't count. It's either you capture the flag or you don't. It's either you get the final shot on an enemy in deathmatch/TDM or you don't. The last two are extremely frustrating because CTF in Overwatch ends up in stalemates until the flag moves closer and DM in Overwatch makes you feel robbed because your assists counts towards nothing(whereas in other modern DM games they count towards an overall score system).
I'm not saying Exoprimal is superior, because it has it's own issues that need to be ironed out:
-The readability of what's going on is insanely difficult, especially when the PvP starts. The enemy character models feel tiny to look at for some reason, are barely outlined, and can easily be obscured by the hundreds of dinosaurs that can be on the map at any given time. It's even worse for your friendlies, who if I recall weren't even highlighted in the match. There were multiple times where I managed to take someone out in the middle of a swarm unknowingly or I was taken out due to the swarm taking up my view. It just becomes a chaotic game of chance at that point to hope that your fancy moves connected with an enemy because your spacing is also an issue on top of all of this.
-The character voices and skill uses are not loud enough. There were times I didn't even know a friendly behind me had died because I'm too busy hearing dinosaur roars constantly, my own mech's noise, someone else's machine gun, blaring music, and the announcer who never shuts up. I'm fighting and protecting others (as a tank) and then I suddenly turn around and one or two teammates are dead(from either an enemy team flanker or a sudden surprise dinosaur with a bomb on his back).
-Speaking of readability, the colors are too muted for the main characters, their silhouettes aren't good enough, and the UI is a bit too cluttered. As much shit as people give Blizzard all the time, there's something to be said about their UI and gameplay departments spending weeks and weeks making absolutely sure that every little thing in a game like Overwatch is recognizable and readable.
You know exactly what a Mercy ult looks like and why it looks different than an Ana ult or Kiriko ult. You know exactly how they walk differently, look differently, their different heights, gun sounds, icons, silhouettes, all of it is made to be as readable as possible. When I hear 'Hammer Down' and a big boom from across the map, I know there's a high likelihood one of my teammates has been knocked down by a Rein and is about to appear on the kill feed. In Exoprimal, I don't hear the ult of the guy that freezes you in place. When it does happen, it's way too late. I don't hear the crazy ult of the guy with the sword and I just get hit by it wondering what just happened. It's the same way they don't hear my whirlwind ult and they all get caught up in it(as they're probably wondering how it happened).
-Too many things from outside of your vision have the capability to knock you back 100 feet away from your team, leaving you to try and haul back to them as fast as possible because they aren't equipped to tank a T-Rex boss fight and I'm the guy who's supposed to be tanking, but there's too many other factors outside of that T-Rex causing me to flail about, or simply, the T-Rex will do a stun grab move that throws me back itself.
In terms of what's happening on the screen, the way I feel about Exoprimal is the way casual gamers and non-gamers feel about looking at gameplay of Overwatch. You're just seeing literal chaos on screen almost at all times and that's why I've stated above, from an arcade/pick up and play aspect, it's a fun time. However, for anything else, the Exoprimal devs need to look at other games and re-do a lot of the look of the game to make it more readable. Even the Gundam OW clone does a way better job at readability and that game has bland and repeatable map environments.
tl;dr Overwatch could rely more on point systems and making your weaker teammates still contribute like Exoprimal, and Exoprimal could rely more on making literally everything on screen more readable like Overwatch.
www.exoprimal.com
Punished Miku
STARSBarry
thankfully a ton of different outlets and social media websites have all been saying they prefer to have a PvE-only mode, or they want PvP to only be the first half of the match(the two teams racing) rather than the second half. We will see what comes of it and see if the JP audience feels the same.
