Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 298 sampled Steam reviews (268 positive / 30 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- Story & writing13% mention it
- World & exploration9% mention it
- Visuals & art7% mention it
- Grind & repetition5% mention it
- Difficulty & balance4% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Story & writing17% mention it
- Combat17% mention it
- Grind & repetition13% mention it
- World & exploration10% mention it
- Controls & UI10% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
71%
41 reviews
5-15h
93%
75 reviews
15-40h
92%
120 reviews
40-100h
98%
48 reviews
100h+
86%
14 reviews
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 77 | 30 |
| Creator reviews (3 tracked) | – | 93 | 1 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 86% | 80 | 1000 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 70 | 83 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 93% | 87 | 116 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 300 reviews sampled · 331 total reviews in window · weighted 241 up / 18 down · computed 4h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (154)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 85
“While other venerable franchises like Call of Duty are afraid to challenge themselves and make only halfhearted gestures toward invention, Primal plots a course through uncharted waters with a battle-tested vessel and actually commits to making its new ideas more than vapid window dressing.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“For the series, this is a confident step toward something much more disciplined and understatedly profound.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“For fans of the franchise, Far Cry Primal still offers a solid experience, with competent gameplay and an intriguing setting. It's a game that delivers what it promises: a Far Cry set in the Stone Age. But precisely because it's so committed to the reality of the time, it sacrifices some of the fun and variety that made the previous games so memorable. Perhaps if it had been released as a cheaper expansion or spin-off, as was the case with Blood Dragon, it would have been more warmly received. Still, it's a curious addition to the franchise and a good choice for those looking for something different, even if it doesn't have any major surprises.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“Far Cry Primal might be the most retrograde addition to a franchise known for vast open spaces and guns galore, but it's also one of the most refined entries as well. It's not something anyone asked for, but it's welcome all the same.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Designed as "Ubisoft: A sandbox game", Primal fails to reach the bar set by its predecessors. The game world is vast and rich with details, but the game never actually motivates you to push the story mode to its conclusion.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Far Cry: Primal stands out as a game with an original, really well crafted world but in the end leaves quite a bit to be desired. Using primitive weapons, taming wild animals and observing interactions between all the inhabitants of Oros can be really fun. It's a pity that the game has a very weak storyline and copies gameplay mechanisms from previous installments. As a result, your view of Primal will depend on your feelings towards older Far Cry games.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“A wonderful trip to the Stone Age. Far Cry Primal is a wild and visceral video game, and that makes its attractive. It has all the typical formulas of the sandbox games, but it also shows new good ideas and mechanics. The animals and the magic make it so that you don't want to put down your console controller. It's addictive and realistic.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Despite nothing new or innovative, since this basically recycles past titles and just covers everything with a wild boar's hide, [i]Far Cry Primal/i] can be very entertaining, and the repetitive/simplistic task of crafting, upgrading, collecting, and capturing, can be very addictive and even cathartic. To put it another way, this is just a casual experience, but a very good one at that. It's all about having fun and getting engulfed in the magnificent primeval landscape while at it… as long as you can stomach the lack of any gameplay depth, the zero challenge, the generic, placeholder plot, the current price… and the need to use the very problematic Uplay client.”
read full review ↗ - 78
“Far Cry Primal is a fascinating experiment with a frustrating execution, Ubisoft deserves credit for daring to make an AAA game without firearms, but the familiar open-world formula keeps it from being the revolution it could have been.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“A decent game, but nothing more. Far Cry Primal tries to differentiate itself from past Far Cry games with mixed success, managing some clever new tricks, but losing a lot of what made Far Cry feel special in the process.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Despite some new additions, and a brand new setting in a largely untapped historical era, if you dig under the surface of Far Cry Primal, you'll find a remarkably well preserved edition of Far Cry 4 entombed within. As a result, if you were hoping for more of a revolution to the formula, or didn't particularly enjoy the hunting mechanics in past games, then you're best off steering clear of this title. Of course, if you're merely looking to jump back into the familiar Far Cry gameplay loop in a captivating open world, then there's still plenty of fun to be had. And at the end of the day, who on Earth doesn't want to ride around on a bear?”
read full review ↗ - 75
The Jimquisition
Slant Magazine
GameFM
Gadgets 360
PLAY Zine
GRYOnline.pl
Cubed3
gamefinity
PC Invasion
Push Square
GameWatcher…and 142 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Connect installer updateMar 16, 2022
- Far Cry Primal - Patch 1.3.0 Notes (Introducing Survivor Mode!)Apr 12, 2016significant · resets scoring window
- Far Cry Primal - Patch 1.3.0 Notes (Introducing Survivor Mode!)Apr 12, 2016significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes - Patch 1.2.0Mar 15, 2016significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes - Patch 1.2.0Mar 15, 2016significant · resets scoring window