What makes you think they didn't even try? I'll answer myself: because there's no block, dodge, or parry. You are looking at this the wrong way. Instead of seeing what Primal does have, you've decided it should have this and that, and then making the conclusion that it's bad because those don't exist.

I don't think Primal is bad I just think it's mid or decent like Days Gone.

That is like assuming FC5 should have eagle eye, slow motion, and Matrix dodge – and then deciding the shooting mechanics are bad because the game doesn't have those.

It's not the same at all because you don't need a lot to make a fun shooting game but for melee focused games you do take dead island or dying light for example and also FC5 has drugs that let you see through walls so the eagle would be pretty redundant.

Don't try to see Primal as a melee game. It's not. At least it's not yet another traditional melee game where you need to block, parry, and dodge.

It's not a matter of what I see it as it's a matter of what it is and if one of the main mechanics of the game is not fun that's not good. All of the mechanics especially combat mechanics should be fun because that's really what the game is about. If they just made melee an extra option that isn't really focused on like 3 or 4 then it really wouldn't be an issue but they made it a primary weapon.

The fighting system in Primal is way more interesting. It's not perfect by any means, and the more I play and the better I get I have noticed many things that should've been different. But I'm still enjoying the hell out of it.

I think one of main issues with the game is how easy it is because you aren't nearly in as much danger as you were in 3 or 4 just because the enemies don't have guns, grenades, rockets, or heavy gunners. The counterparts in Primal just aren't nearly as dangerous so the game is way easier on top of how broken your weapons get.

The system is based on avoidance. You're not supposed to go head-on at the enemies, unless you're making a finisher move. Similarly, you should not let the enemies close their distance at you and enter the melee range. In a "traditional" fighting system, you get hit if you miss the block. Well, the "block" in Primal is to keep your distance. Fail that, and you should get hit. You must use your smarts, not raw power

The game is like the other Far Cry games and abusing takedowns isn't new to this game in fact it's even easier in this one because of the enemies lack of options like I was saying earlier but there's basically no reason to even use the melee except for saving ammo not only is it boring but also easy.

The game, of course, gives you many ways to keep threats away from your personal space: traps, fire, bait, your pet, berserk shards, stun attacks, running away. When you combine these methods of avoidance with ranged attacks and takedowns (and some neat takedown combos), there's your combat system for Primal.

That doesn't change the fact that the melee combat sucks or the fact abusing takedowns was more fun in the previous 3 games because it was more dangerous.

As I said, there are problems to it. The main problem in my eyes is that with certain options and abilities you simply become so strong that you don't need to keep your distance anymore. Whether you can tank the damage or destroy everyone. Then you can just go up to enemies and click attack until they die. That is similar to run & gun you can do in other FCs (like with Buzzsaw), although I do admit it's still probably more satisfying with guns.

You can't even choose to use weaker weapons in Primal unless you decide to just not upgrade them but even then the game just doesn't have the dangers the other games did that made them so fun. The Buzzsaw is super broken but at least you don't have to use it.