''Primal Prey'' is a

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

developed by

Sunstorm Interactive Sunstorm Interactive was an American video game developer founded in 1995 by Anthony Campiti, which specialized in hunting simulators and first-person shooters. The majority of their titles were small-scale "value titles", priced between $20 and ...

for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It was published by

Arush Entertainment Arush Entertainment was a video game publisher and developer based in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. It published interactive entertainment software for personal computers and advanced entertainment consoles. As a division of World Enterta ...

as a downloadable game on May 22, 2001, while

ValuSoft Cosmi Corporation (COSMI) was an American computer software company based in Carson, California. It sold low-cost software directly to consumers in large retail outlets, computer stores, and drug, hardware, and grocery stores. It had two major imp ...

published a physical version later that year.

Gameplay

In ''Primal Prey'', the player must hunt dinosaurs across five episodes. Each episode contains several missions that allows the player to either hunt or trap eight

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

species and one

pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

: *

Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It lived througho ...

Utahraptor ''Utahraptor'' (meaning "Utah's predator") is a genus of large dromaeosaurid (a group of feathered carnivorous theropods) dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period from around 139 to 135 million years ago in what is now the United ...

Troodon ''Troodon'' ( ; ''Troödon'' in older sources) is a controversial genus of relatively small, bird-like theropod dinosaurs definitively known from the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous period (about 77 million years ago). It includes at l ...

* Gastonia *

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of Chasmosaurinae, chasmosaurine Ceratopsia, ceratopsian dinosaur that lived during the late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period, about 68 to 66 million years ago on the island ...

Styracosaurus ''Styracosaurus'' ( ; meaning "spiked lizard" from the Ancient Greek / "spike at the butt-end of a spear-shaft" and / "lizard") is an extinct genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian stage) of North America. ...

Iguanodon ''Iguanodon'' ( ; meaning 'iguana-tooth'), named in 1825, is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur. While many species found worldwide have been classified in the genus ''Iguanodon'', dating from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, Taxonomy (bi ...

Lambeosaurus ''Lambeosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period of western North America. The first skull of ''Lambeosaurus'' found was used by palaeontologist Lawrence M. Lambe to justify the creation of ...

Quetzalcoatlus ''Quetzalcoatlus'' () is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous in North America. The Type (biology), type specimen, recovered in 1971 from the Javelina Formation of Texas, United States, ...

A few of the missions allow the player to hunt dinosaurs for trophies. Each mission has its own storyline, and the player has to capture or kill a certain dinosaur, which they can bring back with them for a reward.

Critical reception

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

rated ''Primal Prey'' 3.9 out of 10, criticising the single map for being too small to allow the "tracking" game mechanics to be effective, the strange behaviour of the dinosaur's AI, and excessive fog which renders some equipment pointless (such as the sniper scope and night vision goggles). It was also considered graphically inferior to the similar ''

Carnivores A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

'' series. However, the shrink ray weapon was viewed as the game's one original idea. Eric Cook of

AllGame RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the Alternative Investment Market, ...

rated it one and a half stars out of five, criticizing various aspects of the game and calling it a "low-budget copy" of ''Carnivores''. Scott Osborne of

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

rated it 55 out of 100, praising the variety of dinosaurs and weapons, while criticizing the "aimless, boring wandering" and "general lack of tension or excitement." He found the presentation "above average, but only by a little, and certainly not enough to really grab you or immerse you in the experience."

References

External links

*{{official website, https://web.archive.org/web/20010306183255/http://www.arushgames.com/games/primalprey/index.htm (archived) 2001 video games First-person shooters Hunting video games Single-player video games Sunstorm Interactive games Video games about dinosaurs Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games ValuSoft games