Primal

"Goodbye Lara"

Introduction
The wait for a decent tomb raider style game on PS2 was unbearable with tomb raider being delayed the closest we could get was to put on Tomb Raider 5 and squint a bit. Then primal came along and it didn't disappoint.

Storyline
You play as Jen a girl who isn't very courageous whose boyfriend has been taken into the realm of oblivion. The realm of oblivion is made up of 4 worlds each with their own characteristics. These four worlds are connected by the nexus which controls the power of chaos and order between the realms if this balance is broken towards chaos the whole world could end.......guess what just happened. In each of these worlds Jen finds out about her once dormant demonic powers and unlocks a new demon form to fight with. The forms are well balanced with each having their strengths and weaknesses. Jen is backed up by scree a gargoyle who is Jens advisor through the four worlds who also adds some comic relief throughout the game.

Graphics
One word. Amazing. Although the graphics look a bit dull in the first world they really start to shine in aquis with the sunlight reflecting off the lake.

Gameplay
The thing that surprised me is that despite it being an adventure game there are no annoying sudden death parts to the game as the game automatically does all jumping for you. Also when you push triangle you ask scree what you should be doing next and where you should be going which eliminates a lot of frustration.

Perhaps one of primal's greatest strengths and biggest weaknesses is combat. the combat is controlled by the four shoulder buttons with two of them being pressure sensitive you can unleash strong and weak attacks easily. The problem is that combat can sometimes end in button bashing to get combos.

Sound
From the orchestral sounds to the thumping rock music when you get into battle primal's sound is excellent. Although Jens grunts and groans when climbing up or jumping down get a bit annoying. The characters voices are excellently done in fact they are so well done you don't need the subtitles to be on to understand what they are saying

Good Points
-Gameplay
-Graphics
-Sound

Bad Points
-Combat sometimes ends in button bashing
-Animation when changing demon form can get a bit boring after a while
-?????

Final thoughts
With tomb raider finally being released recently primal has a hard job competing with it even with the bad reviews tomb raider still sells. So it looks like primal will fall in to the flood of other misjudged classics only for everyone to want it if the sequel comes out

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/03, Updated 07/25/03