Primal (video game)

Primal
European cover art
Developer(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)	Rob Parkin
Producer(s)	Jean-Baptiste Bolcato Mark Green
Designer(s)	Katie Lea
Programmer(s)	James Busby
Artist(s)	Mark Gibbons
Writer(s)	Jonathan Ashley
Composer(s)	Paul Arnold Andrew Barnabas 16Volt
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release	NA: 25 March 2003 EU: 11 April 2003
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Primal is a 2003 action-adventure video game published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 2, with development being handled by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

The game follows Jen, who has to restore balance to a group of troubled realms using demonic transformations, alongside her gargoyle companion, Scree. Described as ambitious but flawed, the game received mixed reviews from critics. While it’s story, atmosphere, characters, voice acting and high production value were praised, the combat, puzzles, and controls were seen as lacking. Marketed as one of Sony's potential new cornerstone franchises, it failed to meet sales expectations and a sequel was shelved early in development. Despite failing to make a lasting impact, the game is seen as a cult classic of its era.

Synopsis

Setting and characters

The game is mainly set in Oblivion, a plane between the worlds, in which a careful balance between the forces of Order and Chaos is kept. Both are presented as primordial beings vying for control, with the female Arella personifying Order and the male Abaddon Chaos, respectively. Should one of the two become too dominant, the multiple worlds connected to Oblivion would perish, which is why a third power known as Chronos is tasked with maintaining balance. To do so, it resides in the Nexus, the place where the life energy of all worlds intertwines. Prior to the game, Abbadon has tipped the balance in his favor by corrupting other realms.

While multiple worlds are implied to be connected to Oblivion, only five appear in the game. Earth, known as Mortalis to the other worlds, is a neutral world inhabited by humans, from which the game's protagonist, Jennifer "Jen" Tate, hails. The other worlds, whose creatures are referred to as demons, either align with Order or Chaos and their inhabitants are portrayed as good or evil, respectively. Solum is a world cast into darkness, yet its inhabitants, the Ferai, humanoid ovis, align with Order, as do the water-dwelling Undine, who reside in the aquatic world of Aquis. Wraith dominate the world of Aetha, vampire-like creatures that live in an aristocratic society, where the high-born feed of the enslaved. The volcanic world of Volca is inhabited by the Djinn, proud and malevolent spirits of great power.

The game's protagonist Jen, a rebellious young woman, discovers that she possesses mystical powers that allow her to assume the forms of the creatures inhabiting other worlds. While chosen by Arella to restore balance between Order and Chaos, she at first shuns her new responsibility, as she has not sought such fate. Jen is searching for her boyfriend Lewis, who is presumed to be somewhere in Oblivion. She is assisted on her journey by Scree, the primary servant of Arella. A powerful demon originally known as Abdizur, he was reduced to the form of a gargoyle after losing a fight with his nemesis, Abaddon's chief henchman Belahzur, prior to the events of the game.

Plot

Jennifer "Jen" Tate has just attended a rock concert of her boyfriend Lewis's band, when both of them are attacked by a demonic creature outside the venue. She is reduced to a comatose state and has an out-of-body experience after she is touched by a gargoyle, Scree. He transports her to the Nexus, where he and his master Arella inform her that she is caught between life and death and can only save her life if she restores balance to the realms of Oblivion. He hands her a set of bracelets that allows her to channel the energy of the worlds she visits and absorb the powers of its demonic inhabitants. Despite being unwilling to accept such a huge task, Jen reluctantly agrees to save her boyfriend, who she learns has gone missing and is somewhere in Oblivion.

Accompanied by Scree, she visits the world of Solum, where the realm's king, Herne, has refused to commit the ritualistic suicide expected of him to restore his world, throwing it into chaos and disarray. They find out that Herne is unable to kill himself, as his son and successor, Jared, was abducted. Herne grants Jen her first demonic transformation, allowing her to find Jared, who reveals that the king's wife is actually a shapeshifting alien imposter who has killed the real queen. After revealing the imposter by burning the real queen's body, Herne kills both himself and the imposter by jumping of a cliff, restoring Order to the world.

In the sub-aquatic realm of Aquis, Abaddon's henchmen have sabotaged the world's water purification system, poisoning the sophisticated Undine, including their ruler, Adaro. His mind clouded by the poison, he plans to sacrifice his wife Aino to restore the waters. The latter grants Jen the ability to transform into an Undine hybrid, allowing her to freely roam the waters and restore the purification system. Adaro, driven further into madness, claims only a sacrifice will ensure his people's survival and forces her to fight and kill him in order to restart the system, after which Order is restored.

Meanwhile, Jen is attacked by a mysterious person that seems to have powers similar to hers, while Scree has to escape Belahzur. Noticing that balance has still not been restored, Scree and Arella task the unwilling Jen to further investigate the realms that align with Chaos and weaken them.

In Aetha, Scree and Jen notice that the world has drifted further into evil, as its cruel rulers, Count Raum and his wife Countess Empusa, have created a Blood Machine, a device that kills and harvests the blood of peasants they sacrifice, boosting their own power. After escaping capture and retrieving her bracelets, Jen notices that their new-found power is too strong for her to overcome, even after obtaining her Wraith form. Realizing that their Blood Machine against can be used against them, the duo taint it with Jen's hybrid blood, which weakens Raum and Empusa. In the ensuing fight, Jen kills them both, ending their diabolical rule and weakening the world's Chaos.

However, when they return, the mysterious attacker strikes again and kills Chronos, thus seemingly dooming Oblivion, as balance can no longer be kept. The attacker is revealed to be Lewis, leaving Jen distraught. When Scree has to admit he knew about Lewis being aligned to Chaos all along, she angrily declares their friendship over and refuses to help him. However, Scree reveals the truth: Jen and Lewis – both orphaned at a young age – were kidnapped by Abbadon as infants. He experimented on them and turned them into human-demon hybrids in order to finally defeat Arella and rule supreme. When Arella discovered this, she sent Scree, then known as the powerful Abdizur, to save them. At the cost of his own freedom, Abdizur saved them, with the ensuing torture reducing him to his current gargoyle form. On Earth, Lewis and Jen found each other again because their fates are connected. Moved by this, Jen decides to help Scree in a last-ditch attempt to restore balance.

In the final world of Volca, they encounter the realm's evil king, the immortal Iblis, who gives Jen access to her Djinn-form seemingly out of morbid curiosity. However, when Jen masters her powers, he reveals his ruse and enslaves her, as he can control her through the corrupted essence he provided her. However, Scree manages to free her mind with the help of Queen Malikel, who secretly wishes death upon her husband and tells the duo how to defeat him. After a final confrontation, Iblis is killed by Malikel, who has realized that the death of Chronos would ultimately lead to the death of her world as well. She breaks the stone that granted Iblis immortality in half and succeeds him as ruler, with the other half being used to revive Chronos.

Back in the Nexus, Jen and Scree, who uses his remaining energy to transform back into Abdizur, have to fight Lewis and Belahzur in a final confrontation. While Belazhur is presumably killed by Abdizur, Jen tries to talk sense into Lewis, who has fully succumbed to Chaos. As he won't relent, she is forced to kill him, devastating her. Abdizur and Arella console her and explain that now that Chronos is revived, there is a small chance for Lewis to return to his mortal body, if his soul finds his way through the Nexus. They transport Jen back to her world, where she is seen reading to a comatose Lewis in a post-credits scene.

Gameplay

The game is played from a third person perspective. Most of the time, control can be freely switched between Jen and Scree. When in control of one, the other will be operated by an artificial intelligence (AI). During play, the characters can interact with one another, performing actions such as asking questions, or siphoning energy.

When in control of Jen, the player may transform into one of four demonic forms that are unlocked over the course of the story, all of which boost her attack and defense and give access to various abilities. For instance, the Undine transformation allows Jen to breathe underwater, while the Wraith form provides the ability to slow time. She can replenish health by absorbing demonic energy, which Scree can also store.

When in control of Scree, the player is invulnerable, as Scree is made out of stone. This allows him to traverse areas Jen cannot, such as lava or poisonous water. Aside from storing energy for Jen, he can also revive her should her energy meter reach zero. Additionally, Scree can possess statues for various purposes.

Development

According to Creative Director Chris Sorrell, the development team had total freedom in how they created the game. He said core influences were supernatural TV shows of the time, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Dark Angel, whose protagonists and visual style the game emulated while incorporating own artistic visions. The voice actors for the protagonists Jen and Scree, Hudson Leick and Andreas Katsulas, respectively, were specifically chosen because of their previous work in supernatural and science fiction series. Lead Artist Mark Gibbons further noted the game being heavily influenced by the tarot deck during development, which was later scaled back but prevalent in structures such as every world having a king and a queen and hidden collectable tarot cards.

Lead Character Animator Mitch Philips noted the game's ambitiousness. As the protagonist was to switch forms mid-combat in seamless animation, the 30 fps the PlayStation 2 could muster proved insuffienct to support every combat animation. Specifically recalling the underwater and whip combat as challenging, Philips noted that later games, such as Bayonetta, have build on this more successfully. This was echoed by Gibbons, who noted: "Primal was Sony Cambridge’s first game for PS2 and I recall our team experimenting a great deal with what the console could handle graphically. We had grand ambitions for the world and really pushed against the PS2 boundaries at the time."

Marketing

The game had a marketing budget of $8.7 million. Multiple trailers as well as a game demo were released. In the PAL region, a limited collector's edition with a shiny cover, a soundtrack CD with exclusive remixes, as well as a numbered VIP card that gave access to a special website was available. To further promote the game, a tie-in comic book was published by Com.X. Serving as an introduction to the setting and premise of the game, it was written by Russell Uttley with art by Ben Oliver and Joshua Middleton, from a story by Chris Sorrell.

Music

Primal features music by electronic rock band 16Volt, after Sorrell wrote them a chance e-mail, as they were his favorite band. The game's combat tracks feature on their album SuperCoolNothing V2.0, and the band had a cameo appearance in Primal, where they played in a club in the opening cut scene. The "cinematic tracks" were composed by Andrew Barnabas and performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. A suite dedicated to its music was performed at the historic Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig 2003.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	73/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Edge	4/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	7/10
Eurogamer	5/10
Game Informer	6.75/10
GamePro
GameRevolution	C+
GameSpot	7.9/10
GameSpy
GameZone	8/10
IGN	8/10
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Primal received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. While most critics lauded the graphics, atmosphere, story, soundtrack, voice acting, and characters, they were more critical of the combat system, level design, puzzles and general gameplay.

Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) noted that it was one of the few newer games that compete with the more powerful XBox in terms of graphics, while the voice acting and sound were also noted to be "impressive". Matt Helgeson of Game Informer went as far as to claim that, "Primal is a visual masterpiece. The texturing and lighting effects are some of the best that you’ll see on PS2, and the character models (especially during the real-time cutscenes) rival some of Square’s best work." However, he noted that, "Primal is a technical marvel; but, like so many games, falls short in the design and gameplay." Greg Kasavin of GameSpot also lauded the game's "excellent production values, between its outstanding graphics and first-rate voice acting, and it also has some clever twists and original ideas", while noting that the game had "some of the sharpest textures and special effects to date on the PS2. The game's big environments stream seamlessly together, and being able to run from one end of these imaginative areas to the other is pretty impressive."

EGM felt the combat to be "mindlessly repetitive, its puzzles aren't very inventive, and there are often long, boring stretches between the action." Kristan Reed of Eurogamer was critical of the poor AI, where most opponents would just wait to be killed instead of attacking, rendering the combat dull and repetitive. Reed also noted poor and glitchy camera and the overabundance of puzzles but was especially critical of the level strucutre, which required constant backtracking and checking the map, claiming that otherwise the game would "degenerate into a frustrating aimless wandering farce in no-time." Conversly, Kasavin noted that the help and Scree's directional advice were made the game good to manoveur. Dan Elektro of GamePro also pointed out how slow the constant backtracking and dull combat made the game feel, additionally pointing out that this was increased by the slow and cumbersome walking pace of both protagonists. Helgeson also echoed this feeling, musing that the entire puzzle gameplay came down to constantly switching between Jen and Scree, leading to a dull and repititve experience. IGN said that the game was "Limited by an inconsequential combat system and basic wander-puzzles. What it does manage to do though is overwhelm us with high-quality production values, wow us with an excellent graphical presentation, and move us with one hell of a killer soundtrack."

Positive aspects of reviews centered around the characters and story. Jen was positively described as a mixture of Lara Croft and Dante by Reed, while Kasavin felt that "Jen and Scree are likable even from the start, and despite the dark subject matter of Primal, the two are often amusing." Another review declared Scree to be, "the most downright likeable videogame character since Vivi in Final Fantasy IX" Multiple reviews pointed out Jen's physical attractiveness: Chris Baker, writing for Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (OPM), went as far as professing to being attracted to her, musing: "I really dig her. She's smart, funny, hot...my kind of girl. I'd ask her out if.... Oh, wait. She's a game character.", which he felt pointed to how engaging the story is. In the article "Overrated/Underrated" in their September 2004 issue, OPM cited the game's protagonist as an underrated "hot chick" in comparison to Croft, stating "She's smart. She's funny. She hangs out in biker bars. She's good in a fight. And she's got a really nice butt." In the same article, Scree was likewise cited as an underrated sidekick, stating "This is the way to make a memorable sidekick: Make him dignified, make him funny looking, and make him useful."

Legacy

In a 2012 blog post for PlayStation.Blog that commemorated the game's 10 year anniversary and its inclusion to PSN, lead artist Mark Gibbons noted that preliminary work on a sequel was begun that would have featured Lewis as the protagonist. Primal II would’ve told the story of his journey through hell, back to the real world. Answering fan questions, Chris Sorrell further added that another idea was having the demons enter the real world, with Jen being tasked with fighting them alsongside allies from the first entry. However, as the game did not sell well, the sequel was shelved in favor of 24: The Game based on the TV show of the same name.

In the same post, Sorrell asserted that "in some regards our ambition exceeded our reach, and that the path we took with Primal was at odds with the larger directions the gaming world was headed", especially in regards to open world games and social play, but noted that this contributes to the notion that Primal is a unique piece of gaming history. On the other hand, Gibbons stated that he either gets enthusiastic or indifferent responses to the game as well as regularly meeting people sporting Jen's signature tattoo, which he claims prove its status as a cult classic.

Conversly, Ivy Taylor, writing for Eurogamer, noted that a lot of the game has aged badly, singling out the opening sequence as "cringe-inducing", as – according to the author – nothing about the 2000s goth subculture Primal has heavily leaned into has aged well. Taylor also pointed to the outdated and laborious gameplay, but noted that "the developers clearly set their sights beyond what they could ever achieve, but the sheer attempted scope of Primal is unmatched by most modern games", further claiming that the game flew "too close to the sun, failing at almost everything it set out to do", yet lauding its scope and ambitiousness. Closing with the notion, that in all his years as a gamer, he has never played another game quite like it, Taylor sumised: "It's not a game I will ever enjoy again, but for all its flaws, I love it dearly."

GameRant included Primal on its list of the best PlayStation 2 horror games as well as a list of underrated PS2 games. It was also included in a similar list by Den of Geek.

The game has also attracted scholarly attention. In a 2005 article, video game scholar Tanya Krzywinska, she researched how the game draws from shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer to create mass appeal and how it constructs its protagonist after the show's eponymous title character.

A large amount of development artwork from the game is held in the archive of The Centre for Computing History, and is in the process of being made available to view online as part of their video game preservation initiative.

In February 2012, the game was made available for the PlayStation 3 through the PlayStation Network (PSN) with slightly improved graphics and trophy support. In May 2016, the port was made available for the PlayStation 4 through PSN.

External links

• Primal at MobyGames