Primal

"Stress Free Tomb Raider"

First and foremost I have to say I really enjoyed this game, it ‘s by no means perfect, it has glitches, it’s not particularly challenging and the core gameplay idea could have been better implemented (more on all this later) but that all pales into insignificance when you actually get into it, somehow the story, the near photo realistic as I’ve seen on PS2 graphics, the incredible detailed, atmospheric environments and the well paced mix of puzzles and combat make for an extremely entertaining experience, it’s one of the few games of recent times that has made me laugh out loud in pure joy (just wait till you see Scree climb up a wall in the rain and you’ll know what I mean, Hideo who?).

Most of you who have expressed some interest in this game will know the story so I won’t dwell on it, basically you control two characters Jen, a young rock chick and Scree a small stone gargoyle, the goal of the game is to save the realm of Oblivion from, well, oblivion.
There’s obviously more to it than that, in fact the game has four different stories running alongside the main one, one for each game world, they all have similar themes but with slightly different slants, one is quite dark and grim, whilst another is quite uplifting, a good balance with plenty of atmosphere.
The decent voice acting helps carry the story along, I loved Scree’s character, and the audio in general is excellent, the same sort of spooky atmospheric ambience found in some of the Tomb Raider games (in fact Jen’s grunts and groans are very Laraesqe), I could have done without the combat rock music though (and I did indeed do without it, you can adjust the levels of all music and sound effects in the game, a pretty essential feature me thinks).
There are four massive levels, again one for each game world (with brilliantly disguised loading times) and you work your way around them using the different abilities of the two characters to solve puzzles that enable you to progress further.
There is nothing new in the “solving puzzles to progress further” idea, it’s pretty much the core gameplay concept of almost every third person action adventure ever written, but what’s so cleverly done here is how you use the two characters in tandem to get past a certain point, usually one won’t continue without the other.
You’re often in a position where one character can reach an area quite easily (Scree can climb stone walls for instance, whilst Jen can squeeze through small gaps) but the other character is unable to proceed, how you overcome this is what makes the game so enjoyable.
Then there’s the combat, basically it’s pretty, well basic, but a lot of fun, button bashing will get you through most of it but there is a simple combo system which is surprisingly satisfying to play with for those that want to inject a bit of panache into the proceedings (there’s no Devil May Cry points system for this though).
The combat is actually well paced throughout the game and is often a welcome contrast to the slower more cerebral nature of the puzzles and exploration.
Along the way Jen will acquire the ability to transform into demons, each demon has different abilities that aid in both combat (each demon has different weapons) and puzzle solving (each demon has different physical skills).
Once she has acquired a new form she can transform any time she wants which again makes for some great puzzles where you have to make full use of every form to progress.
I would have liked to have seen this idea developed further, in Ratchet and Clank you acquire better weapons and equipment which enables you to gain access to new areas, similar in concept to Jens demonic forms, the difference is that in Ratchet and Clank you can go back to previously completed levels with your new skills, wipe the floor with the baddies and get to secret areas, you are unable to do this in Primal which is a shame because that would have made this very good game great as it stands there is no real replay value other than to experience it all again, oh well, Primal 2 maybe.
I get the impression that the developers of this game made a constant decision to make it as stress free as possible and despite taking away some of the challenge and tension I feel it’s all the better for it.
For instance you can save anytime you want (except during boss battles), why don’t all games let you do this?
There are no tricky platform jumps either, the few jumps in the game are done automatically and it’s impossible to fall to your death at any point so you can admire the breathtaking scenery whilst traversing that tricky mountain ledge with no worries, again a refreshing change, the graphics in this game are something else, you really won’t want to be concentrating on pixel perfect movement during moments like these. In fact the only time I actually died in this game was during boss battles, you tend to just get stuck.
Controlling the characters is dead easy too, I quite like the context sensitive system employed here (ie push the stick against a wall and if it can be climbed your character will climb it) because again it means you can just enjoy the exploration rather than having to worry about the right button combo needed to get your character to jump and grab etc.
Finally if you get really stuck you can ask Scree for a clue, more often than not he provides just enough information to point you in the right direction and prevent you from backtracking across half the level only to discover that you needed to push a hidden switch in some dark corner of the room you got stuck it.(can you see why I call this a stress free Tomb Raider?)
Oh! and you can control the camera too, which is always nice in a game like this.

Unfortunately it’s not all sweetness and light the games does have a few glitches,
There were a few instances where my character slipped through the scenery into a black void outside of the games “official” zone and got stuck, not a big problem cos I was saving a lot but still annoying and anybody who has a distaste for bodies disappearing into walls will hate this with a passion because it happens all the time (although to the games credit the bodies do actually stay there and don’t magically disappear into thin air, what is that all about by the way?)
I found the audio stuttered a few times in the cut scenes which could be a problem as you could miss bits of the story, but this was quite rare.
I don’t want really to dwell too much on the games glitches as they didn’t spoil it that much and I feel the real technical and creative achievement lies in the stunning graphics and level design, but they do prevent a very good game from being great.
Finally I found there was a gameplay flaw on the final boss, I won’t spoil it but basically I was unable to finish him off several times because of the way the game locks you onto enemies in combat mode, you have to undergo a huge battle before you reach him and you are unable to save at this point arrrrggghh!, but this was probably the only point that frustration reared it’s ugly head during the whole time I played so I guess that’s not so bad.

Overall I would recommend this game to anyone that likes atmospheric 3rd person action games and maybe fancies a break from the tough challenges of Tomb Raider et al, but still wants a good dose of exploration and puzzle solving.
Anybody that wants to see just how good graphics on the PS2 can be should check this too.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/17/03, Updated 06/17/03