Far Cry Primal - Xbox One

The Far Cry series started life as a vibrant sandbox game in which the player gained special abilities to overcome increasingly tough opponents. That used to be something of a unique selling point, but games like Saints Row, Rocksteady's Batman games and Ubisoft's own Assassin's Creed titles have crept in that territory. So it begs the question, where does Ubisoft take the Far Cry series now that it's visited a host of different locations? The answer's quite unconventional - the stone age.

You play as Takar, a hunter from the Wenja tribe who, having spent a long time hunting the wastelands, returns to his tribe to find them scattered and hunted by other human tribes. This nasty lot include the cannabalistic Udam and the pyromaniacal Izila. Needless to say, life is not good for your people and you decide to do something about it. What follows is a game that is at once quite different and very recognisably a Far Cry game (albeit with a dash of the Tomb Raider reboot games).

You'll hunt mammoths, be hunted by bears and clash with the tribes who are out to get you. Gone, of course, are automatic weapons. Instead the bow plays a large part, as do spears and clubs. You might have a more primitive arsenal, but that makes the action all the more immediate and visceral.

Helping you will be animals you've tamed, ranging from dogs to sabretooth tigers and even badgers. There's also, in true Far Cry style, a robust crafting system.

This might not look like the games from the series that we're used to, but it's Far Cry to its bones. more