It’s all about the demons
Jennifer Tate is an ordinary girl…or so she thinks. Her life has been tough – her parents died when she was very young, but Jen is a fighter. Now 21, Jen works as a waitress trying to scrape together enough money to get to college. Her boyfriend Lewis is the lead singer in an up and coming rock band. For the past few weeks, Lewis has been having nightmares which don’t make any sense. One night, during Lewis’ set, a mysterious figure shows up, and Lewis begins to grow worried. As Jen and Lewis leave the club, the nightmares become a reality, and the mysterious figure transforms into a giant monster. The monster chases Jen and Lewis through the streets, eventually grabbing Lewis and knocking Jen unconscious. She slips in and out of consciousness while in hospital, until one night, a stone gargoyle by the name of Scree shows up at her bedside. Scree informs her that he is the servant of Arella, Goddess of Order, and there is business in the world of Oblivion that Jen must take care of.
Shape shifting fun
After about 20 minutes of cut scenes, we’re finally allowed to touch the controller - get used to it, because the gameplay is constantly interrupted by cut scenes throughout. You control both Jen and Scree - you switch between them on the fly. Both of the characters are required to solve certain puzzles, but you will be spending most of your time with Jen, as Scree is designed to be more of a support character to Jen. Control is relatively tight though your ability to manipulate objects in the environment is rather limited. Combat is far too simplistic and results in nothing more than a button mash-fest.
As you progress through the game, Jen will gain the ability to transform into four different types of demon, each related to one of Primal’s four worlds. The first form is the Ferai from Solum which will give Jen the power to run faster and jump higher. The second form is the Undine from the Aquis realm. Jen gains the ability to swim underwater while in the Undine form. The third form is the Wrath form from the Aetha world. Wraiths have the ability to manipulate time. The final form is that of the Djinn, a fiery race who hail from the world of Volca. Jen will be given a huge boost in strength when in the Djinn form.
The flow of Primal’s gameplay is rather unnerving. Not only is the gameplay constantly interrupted by cut scenes and Jen’s fairly stupid observations (it’s like she just stepped off the set of Friends – alright for you Gen X females out there, but not the rest of us), but the game suffers from long load times. The main load for the start of the game is about a minute, and while the game flows pretty seamlessly (when not being interrupted by cut scenes) if Jen and Scree get to far apart and you attempt to switch between characters, you’re looking at another 15-20 second load time.
Primal also suffers in the longevity stakes, with its four worlds taking about 2-3 hours a piece, so expect about 8-12 hours of play just for the main game. There are sets of tarot cards scattered throughout the world which will unlock galleries of concept art should you seek them out. There is no incentive offered in terms of replaying the main quest, so once through will satisfy most people’s urges.
Glitz and glamour
While Primal’s gameplay may be below par, the visuals are amongst the best on the Playstation 2, showing that the 3 year old console still has a little bit of power left under the bonnet. The environments are highly populated and filled with high quality textures, as well as other special effects such as dynamic lighting and shadows. Environments are dark and moody, and do well to try to immerse the player in the game.
Primal’s player and enemy models are top notch, and the level of expression conveyed by the characters is awesome. Animation is very clean, though there are some collision issues, such as Jen’s pigtails cutting through her shoulders. On the downside, the frame rate isn’t entirely stable, falling flat several times throughout the game. The camera is generally well behaved, but can become problematic when you’re fighting in an enclosed area and climbing around the environment.
The musical score for Primal was performed by 16 Volt and the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The score creates a great mood to compliment the graphical styling used in Primal, but can sometimes be a little underwhelming (music in fight sequences could be better). Voice acting is impressive, but the valley girl-like dialog used by Jen will more than likely wear pretty thin after the initial cut scene. However, the other characters in Oblivion begin to make fun of her every now and then, so it evens out.
Thanks, but no thanks
It could be said that the movie-like presentation of Primal is impressive, but the problem is that the movie presentation begins to get in the way of the very simplistic gameplay. Keeping in mind that the game is short and offers little in the way of replayability, Primal’s appeal becomes very limited. If you’re still not convinced, give it a rental, but I do believe that Cambridge Studio need to rethink the direction they are taking their games in.
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