The beginning Primal Carnage straightforward: on a distant island, dinosaurs escape from local scientific laboratories. To regain control over the lands, groups of trained mercenaries are sent there. They will have to conquer secret objects and get out alive. This is where the plot ends, because the game is focused on multiplayer, and therefore does not even have a single-player campaign. What follows is only distilled competitive gameplay.

Primal Carnage offers 3 online modes to choose from:

• Team fight. Groups of several players compete against each other. Some take on the role of dinosaurs, others – people. The goal is simple – score more points from kills in the allotted time.
• Get to the helicopter. Once again there is a confrontation between teams, but now people must not just kill, but consistently capture points. You need this to get to the helicopter and fly away from the island.
• Egg capture. In this mode, mercenaries must steal predator eggs and deliver them to their base while they are defending. A variation on the classic capture the flag theme.

Both sides of the conflict can choose from several classes during matches. For the human side, it's commando, scientist, ranger, hunter and pyromaniac. Animals include Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, Novaraptor, Dilophosaurus, Pteradon and Carnotaurus. Classes determine equipment for humans and abilities for predators. So a pyromaniac walks around with a flamethrower, and a tyrannosaurus can withstand a lot of damage and swallow the enemy whole. However, the game does not provide any leveling.