Primal the Awakening

Huge beasts, lots of plastic, and an oversized box that my cat could live in. I invite you to my review of Primal the Awakening which is a big game, for a lot of money and with large minis.

In Primal the Awakening, 1 to 4 players will battle big monsters to make themselves necklaces and comfortable clothing. We can carry out our adventure in the form of a campaign, in which we will defeat newer and newer monsters and discover the mystery of the world of beasts. During our adventure we will forge new weapons, brew numerous potions and develop our deck of cards. When we don’t feel like a longer commitment then we can play a single clash with a selected monster in expedition mode.

The most important feature of Primal the Awakening is the combat, and that’s what I will focus on in this review.

Quick turns and combo attacks

Primal has an interesting combat system, which involves playing a sequence of attacks and doing lots of little combos. Some of the attacks are free, and the rest will be paid for by discarding cards from our hand. At the bottom of each card is information on how much stamina it will give us, which will be the currency for moving and launching attacks. Seemingly it’s simple but the order in which we play the cards or what we discard will make a huge difference.

Because I played a red card, but earlier in my sequence I put a yellow card then I will draw an additional card. Later I’ll spice it up with a green one but because I discarded a blue one to pay for it I’ll do extra damage. It’s so satisfying how many combinations of punches we can do. It’s like playing Tekken and actually knowing what I’m doing here, not just mashing buttons left and right. We can also support team members with our cards, and I literally love that kind of thing in co-op games.

Loose reactions

The structure of the round is clearly defined by the rules. But what happens in our turn and how the monster reacts depends mainly on our actions. Because the beasts do not strictly have their turns but they react to our moves all the time. The monsters have lined up cards on their board and when we do something specific they reveal that card and put its effect into life. The best part is that we know what will cause the reaction so we can plan our action not to do it. Although I’ll honestly admit that sometimes it will be unavoidable.

What’s also cool is that the reaction cards rotate frequently which means we can’t play by memory. Especially since our maneuver can reveal several cards at once. This makes me feel like this huge plastic mini is really alive and try to destroy me. The whole battle is further diversified by the fact that the monsters have several stages, which activate after inflicting a sufficient number of wounds. Then they change their behavior and become even more aggressive.

Jumping in a small arena

As for the clash itself, it’s just so exciting and quite tight. Because we jump around the beast in a small arena consisting of only 4 fields but we have to position ourselves well to deliver a blow or to avoid its attacks. Each turn we take small steps but our position matters a lot. Because sometimes we can only hit the monster from behind, and sometimes we have to switch to hitting from the side. I like the fact that we are constantly on the move, and even though the fighting arena looks quite poor, it makes for a challenging jog.

It’s also cool that we have different terrain elements available that affect our movements and the monster’s attacks. Because a rock allows you to hide from fatigue, water reduces our combos, sand limits our movement, and different vegetation tempts you with new options.

Campaign

The Primal the Awakening campaign consists of 11 scenarios in which we will battle various monsters. Each chapter greets us with a short wall of text with a rather atmospheric illustration. Then we choose what quest we want to do and we can already prepare the battle arena. The plot is not thick and it boils down to just beating the chosen monster. Although our choices will affect what we can craft. As our expedition progresses, we will develop our action deck, level up our forge and potion brewing. You can feel the progress here and my wife and I are really enjoying our adventure together. We will definitely play again as soon as I manage to paint all the figures.

A level of customization that X-Zibit will be satisfied

We will start our adventure with a basic iron and a deck of attacks. However, already after defeating the first dragon we can move on to crafting. After hunting another beast, we will gain new options and even additional paths of development.

We literally have so many options that our head hurts. We will be able to forge weapons, armor, helmets, gauntlets and other interesting things. The best part is that each type of equipment has its own separate ability and combos with other items and our attacks. We can also upgrade items up to level 3 to make them even more powerful.

The same is true of a character’s attack deck. Because each character has several of its own mechanics, which we can further develop. On top of all this we add a mastery card that increases combos and modifies our play style. This is a min/maxer’s paradise. That’s something for me.

In the beginning I created a berserker with a fire sword that wounded itself to hit harder. It was a real damage machine and worked well during the campaign. However, halfway through the game I decided to change my aggressive behavior a bit and switched to comboing with cheap attacks to deal extra damage. It’s this freedom to build a character and the ability to customize it at any time that’s the best thing about this game.

Then there are potions that provide us with interesting one-time effects in addition to healing. Sometimes it’s a simple card draw, but other effects allow us to hurt ourselves to increase our fury of blows. We just have to remember that we can only gulp one vial per round, and only at the beginning of the round. You have to plan it well so that it’s not too late to heal ourselves. As we have already learned many times.

Monsters, Inc.

In Primal we can fight 13 beasts. Each monster behaves differently and has its own mechanics. The fire dragon breathes fire and makes it harder for us to play cards. The electric beetle summons little helpers. The crab catches us in its pincers, and the lizard has armor that is hard to pierce. The monsters have 4 difficulty levels, which further modify their actions. Overall, there is plenty to choose from, and expansions add even more monsters.

Number of players

The game allows gameplay from 1 to 4 players. We played the campaign with my wife so my impressions in this review are mainly about that squad. Everything works very well and most importantly we had several ways to support each other in our actions. Although our last single expedition with our friends showed me that a full lineup is even better for comboing each other’s attacks. Because different characters can distribute multiple statuses that will affect the beast and help us with our position. However, I doubt they would want to go through the whole campaign given that there are “so many games to play”. My favorite text at each of our meetings.

I also played a few solo games where we operate 2 characters at once. It may not have been hard to figure out but sometimes I had to remember all those abilities I can use in someone else’s round. I don’t know if I would want to run a solo campaign.
Game time

With the game set up, one session takes like 2 hours. Of course, I’m counting in this the time for crafting and adjusting cards to the deck. For a game like this, it’s pretty good. Considering that the set up is quite fast. Most importantly, there was a syndrome of one more fight. Because of which we often beat 2 bosses at once.

Graphics and components

Have you seen the figures? I’ll try to contain my enthusiasm at the sight of this phenomenal plastic. Although I’m mainly talking about those huge creatures. Because the heroes in terms of details are only ok. In the box we still get more than 1000 cards, 100 tokens and 30 terrain components. That’s a lot and that’s why the box is so big.

The insert was designed to store everything and overall I’m happy with it. Although I wish the space for the hero and monster boards was better protected. Because unfortunately they are quite thin and easily bend and rub on the sides. Here, however, I would expect a thicker and more durable version.

Are you even magic bro?

I bragged that I know how the stack works in Magic The Gathering. In Primal, it can be so dense because many things can happen at once.

Because supposedly we play one card, and here suddenly a monster reaction comes in, then the ability of our armor fires up, by the fact that we discarded a specific color card then we can use something else. There is a lot going on here and sometimes it’s hard to control it. Because of this, it’s easy to overlook something or forget what to trigger. You just have to be alert and engaged all the time.

More than 100 pages

The manual for Primal the Awakening is quite a thick book. One that is over 100 pages long. However, it’s very well written. It has a lot of graphic examples and links to individual skills. Although we downloaded a couple of pdfs from BGG anyway with a summary of the round, terrain skills and preparation for the game. It’s just easier to refer to something than paging through this book all the time.

Summary

When I started my adventure with modern board games at the beginning I didn’t know what games I liked and practically everything was a mega-discovery for me. I also remember that I swore “that I would never buy any game from a crowdfunding”.

That’s why I’m glad that Primal has changed my mind and, most importantly, is not a blow-up full of plastic with glued-on gameplay. Because Primal the Awakening bought me with a fantastic system of playing cards, making hundreds of combos, crafting, developing our character, an addictive campaign and, most importantly, the joy of beating huge monsters.

Final verdict: This is the perfect game for me.

What is the perfect game for you?

Pros

• Phenomenal combat system
• Comboing our attacks
• A lot of character customization
• Challenging fights
• Awesome minis
• Diverse beasts
• Addictive campaign

Cons

• Sometimes there is a little too much going on
• I pay, I demand better player boards

BONUS:

The final w fight in the campaign is just awesome(will be spoiler-free). We fight a big lizard that presses us pretty hard and still has a few health bars. On top of that, the trigger problem grows in double. It’s been a long time since I worked so hard, got tired and was still satisfied with the victory. My wife and I thought about our every move and every card played. There was no room for mistakes and rash decisions here. However, thanks to a well-timed strategy, I dpsed that reptile. Vulnerable and GG. Best fight ever.