Even though I know I’ll never see a real dinosaur, interacting with them through media still excites me. It's fun to ponder what engaging with them would be like, and crushingly disappointing at times when someone does a bad job with the idea (Orion: Dino Beatdown, anyone?). Would they really be covered in feathers? Would they survive in our modern jungles? What if someone recreated dinosaurs and they got loose in San Diego...err...wait someone already made that movie. It was terrible.
How would we live alongside dinosaurs, though? Well, if life was like Lukewarm Media's upcoming asymmetrical multiplayer game Primal Carnage, we wouldn’t. We’d simply shoot first and ask questions later, lest we became the next meal for our planetary ancestors. Humans play from the first person perspective, working together to live as long as possible against a dinosaur onslaught. The dinosaurs play from a third-person perspective (giving them more tactical awareness), using their special skills in conjunction with one another to get close enough to rend the squishy humans.
If you want to defend humanity you can take up arms as a number of different archetypal classes. Each of the five classes fulfills a specific role, and has some sort of secondary weapon to make them especially useful against the dinosaur packs. For instance the sniper class can fire normal rounds out of her rifle, or she can switch to tranquilizer darts, using them to slow and disorientate dinosaurs for short periods of time. Or there's the shotgun-wielding Pathfinder class, whose secondary flare weapon won't cause any direct damage, but whose light appears blindingly bright to incoming dinosaurs.The rest of the classes round out the human team, giving them access to heavy machine guns, flamethrowers, net guns and even a chainsaw. Of course the humans are all designed to be vulnerable to particular types of dinosaurs on the other side, so a good team will have a mixture of all the classes so they can counteract whatever the dino team throws at them.
For the dinosaur team -- and really the entire game -- Primal Carnage draws inspiration from Valve Software's Left 4 Dead's infected. All dinosaurs can do a basic attack, but they're best used for their specialized roles. The pteranodon can fly, ambushing humans and then pulling them up into the air before dropping them to their deaths. The raptors can use their incredible agility to jump and climb about the environment, pouncing on any humans who stray too far from their allies. The dilophosaurus can spit venom at the humans, sowing confusion by blinding them and damaging them over time. The carnotaurus can soak up a bit of damage, but he excels at charging into a group of humans and knocking them about. And finally, there's the T-rex -- the most badass of all dinosaurs. Because he's so adept at taking damage and unnerving the humans, he's currently the only class limited to two players at a time.
Each dinosaur's specialized role allows for a skilled team to set up a nasty ambush and to make sure that they can counter a variety of points the humans may try and defend. Several levels involve rooms that the humans could try and barricade themselves in, for instance. If this were to happen, the dinosaur team could use a dilophosaur to coat the room in poisonous venom or blind the enemy so the others could get inside. Or if the humans are trying to hold the high ground on top of a catwalk you could have pteranodons swoop in and draw their attention, giving the raptors a chance to push them into the hungry maw of a waiting T-rex. In the case of the T-rex, he can use a roar to give a damage buff to his teammates regardless of whether or not he can actually get into a room. The other dinosaur classes also have roars, but with the exception of the pteranodon, who uses his roar to spot enemies for the team, they generally only buff their own abilities.
Lukewarm Media has already done a lot with what one member described as a "virtual basement team" of around 15 people. I haven't played it myself, but since asymmetrical multiplayer is tough to balance, I'm hopeful the team will use their upcoming beta to ensure the game plays as well as it looks. The team seems to know its limitations - the game is launching with five maps and deathmatch only. If Primal Carnage performs well, the plan is to add more modes and perhaps even more dinosaurs. Interested gamers should be sure to keep an eye on Primal Carnage -- without your support it'll likely go extinct.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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