It's
really amazing what a good story can do for a game. Take Primal
for example, Sony's latest adventure title for the PS2. In Primal,
you play the part of Jen, an urban hipster who's just lost her
boyfriend Lewis to a demonic attack at a nightclub.
Jen's also just about dead from the attack when Scree, a living
gargoyle from a dimension known as Oblivion, rips out her soul
and takes her to his homeland. From there, she's set about on
a quest to restore the balance between the forces of Order and
Chaos in Oblivion. An obviously difficult task made more so
by the fact that she needs to find Lewis and she discovers that
hey, she's part demon! (We've all had nights like that) Sony
has turned it into an incredibly intelligent and intriguing
game. They've done this by mixing in plenty of plot twists,
puzzles and unique characters. The richness of the story so
overwhelms the relatively shallow game play that you'll find
yourself obsessed with completing levels so you can advance
the story just a little more.
Primal's game play, to be entirely honest, isn't anything new
or unique. Basically, you travel around the various worlds of
Oblivion completing quests and finding power ups. During your
quests, you'll encounter various monsters which must be slain,
puzzles which must be solved and learn a little more about Jen's
dark side. Jen, as you will learn, is part demon, and as such
learns how to shape shift into one of four demonic forms. Each
form comes with unique strengths and weaknesses, which you'll
need to utilize properly to finish the tasks you're assigned.
Along with controlling Jen and her demonic forms, you are oftentimes
required to play as Scree, her stone companion who can climb
walls, possess statues and function as a life-force fuel pump.
When Jen gets hurt, she can call on Scree to funnel energy to
her, which restores her demonic energies. Scree obtains this
energy from the corpses of Jen's kills and from magical stones
found throughout the game.
Most of the game will be spent exploring the levels and meeting
up with an assortment of creatures that will lead you into some
really great-looking cut scenes. These scenes serve to unravel
the Primal story, and are pretty awe-inspiring. Anyone who enjoys
quality storylines will enjoy watching the story unfold through
these sequences. After each sequence, you'll be given another
task to complete until you finish them all. It's a very linear
style of game play which has limited exploration value, but
it's still good fun.
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Combat is, unfortunately, a bit oversimplified
for my liking, and anyone expecting a real fighting system
or weapons combat can forget it with Primal. Whenever you
enter a fight, you'll lock onto your nearest foe automatically,
and then you just mash the L1, L2 or R2 buttons to deal out
a variety of blows.
While most of the time you'll play as Jen, there are segments
of the game where you'll take the reins as Scree, her living
gargoyle buddy. Scree's powers include possession, wall climbing
and healing, all of which will come in handy at different
points in the game. Possession allows Scree to take control
of statues, which usually work as a sort of key to doorways.
Other statues can aid Jen in combat, which you'll need to
defeat later bosses. Scree's wall climbing ability is a lot
of fun to use, you just point him to a brick wall (it has
to be brick) and he'll start climbing. The camera works quickly
and fluidly to keep up with the changing angles as Scree climbs
up, down and across the walls. Lastly, there's Scree's healing
power, which, when activated, re-energizes Jen's demonic forms.
Primal is unique in the fact that even with the admittedly
weak game play elements, the story is so engrossing that it
will keep you coming back to finish more and more levels.
Even when you hit those horrifying moments when you discover
you have to backtrack through an entire level to find one
small hint, you'll be more than happy you did once you're
greeted with another meticulously crafted CGI sequence that
sucks you right back into the story.
Primal rates pretty high on the PlayStation 2 graphical quality
scale, with good texturing and well-developed character details.
When you use the camera to focus in on Jen or Scree, you'll
find the facial details are amazingly realistic, and even
the skin tones are natural looking. When not zoomed in, you'll
still be able to notice details such as belt buckles, clasps
and even the wrinkles in Scree's skin. Many of the characters
you'll encounter, from Lords of Demons to their evil demon
wives look great, with just as much detail as the main characters.
Sadly though, the standard enemies you encounter are not nearly
as detailed and tend to have little visual appeal.
The cinematic sequences are what really make the game in Primal.
I can't think of a single time I wasn't "wowed"
by them. Character models and animation are smooth as silk
in these sequences, giving you the sensation that you're watching
a high-quality film.
If you enjoy quality voice acting, you're in for a treat with
Primal. It's obvious that professionals were used because
the voice acting is truly great. Jen, Scree and all the other
individuals have voices that reflect their character and mood,
and react to the situation at hand.
What Primal lacks in replayability, it more than makes up
for in depth, as you'll be spending hours trying to finish
the game. Don't expect Primal to be four or five hours of
game play and then you're done, as there's probably two dozen
hours worth of game play in there.
This game is far from having the depth of other adventure
titles, yet the story is so compelling, you just have to keep
playing it. There are some really frustrating bugs that crop
up, and therefore I encourage you to save your game frequently
and use multiple save files, but overall, it's a really enjoyable
title. The voice acting is top notch for almost any title
I've seen on any platform, and the graphics are top-notch
for the PlayStation 2. If you enjoy adventure titles, give
Primal a shot; it's a lot of good fun for the PS2.
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