Not just another Tomb Raider clone

By Martin Kingsley

Jen relaxes at the quaint 'Lake of Lacerations'

In the world of console gaming, there exists a specific genre of game, based in turn upon another genre of game.

The former is third person shooters; the latter is Tomb Raider clones (TRC). Primal, despite showing all the obvious signs of TRC syndrome, manages to be original enough to avoid being labelled a shameless copy.

Jen (your character) isn't the usual female lead, working as a waitress in a trendy coffee bar to pay her way through college, living in a cheap rented apartment with her somewhat strange rocker boyfriend, Lewis.

While I consider some of her back-story slightly unlikely, it definitely makes a change from the "tough Indiana Jones-rip-off" type of character that seems to pop up so often in this kind of game.

One night, the pair are ambushed outside a nightclub, after one of Lewis' gigs, by a trench-coat wearing monster who knocks poor old Jen for six while playing chew toy with her boyfriend, before carting his sorry carcass off into the night.

Jen wakes up in a hospital…sort of. Actually, the whole thing has left her looking like she's been worked over by someone with a crowbar, and her soul has been separated from her body by a small stone gargoyle apparently called Scree.

As weird as that last sentence seems, that's really how it goes, but it makes more sense visually than it does on paper, so I will not hesitate to fail utterly in my chosen task of explaining the plot set up.

She slices, she dices. She probably even curses...

Suffice to say things get very odd very fast, and Jen finds herself appointed Ms. Fix-it for the Four Realms of Oblivion. Oblivion can be considered the centre of Time, and there the forces of Order and Chaos are balanced by a cyborg called Chronos.

When Jen first meets Chronos, she finds that he is permanently plugged up to a whole lot of delicate machinery and is having a bad day, what with the forces of Chaos (lead by a right painful entity known only as Abbadon) screwing up the delicate balance and making a metaphysical mess of things. And so Jen finds herself having to solve the problems of Oblivion before she can go back to her own body.

Despite having no corporeal form, being a spirit has a truckload of advantages, like the ability to take advantage of the half-devil background that hitherto Jen didn't even know she had, but more on that a little later...

Accompanying Jen on her journeys throughout the Four Realms is dear old Scree who, it must be said, looks like a cross between a quarry scrap heap and a malevolent cat.

Despite his somewhat unwieldy design, Scree can be considered the "puzzle" side to Jen's "combat" abilities, and will spend the majority of his time either explaining things to a rather puzzled Jen or pulling off neat little tricks, like scrabbling up walls, possessing statues and slinging around Torches of Longevity +12.

The thing that differentiates Primal from Tomb Raider is that it actually bothers to develop its characters, giving them voice and soul and personality, unlike Lara Croft, who (besides the inevitable bouncing) has all the characteristics of a very lively cardboard cut-out.

The special effects are particularly suave

Jen makes a convincing female lead, and Scree makes me think of a mentor-type figure, providing useful information, hints and occasional comic relief. Sony Cambridge have designed a lot of the levels so that both characters are needed at any given time, due to their differing abilities, and the puzzles are always well-thought out, moving away from your usual "lock-and-key" set ups and settling more with environment-based puzzles.

For example: There is a large stone tower, with no door at the base, so Scree must climb up the side of the tower and look for a rope to drop over the side, allowing Jen to clamber up.

The demonic abilities available to Jen vary depending on which of the Four Realms she happens to inhabit, with each Realm having different elemental properties and themes. It is these very themes that define the skills and weapons at her disposal.

For instance, the last Realm is Volca, and is fire-based, as can be deduced from looking at the name. As such, Jen's form while there is based around Fire, and her abilities change to represent that, with flaming claws and a burning sword in evidence.

The combat system would have to rest somewhere around the level of the one featured in Halo-developer Bungie's 1999 sleeper hit Oni, with multiple targets engaging you in melee combat, although I think a tiny bit more work could have been done on the combo linkups, which sometimes get a bit repetitive.

In a nod to Mortal Kombat, fatalities rear their ugly heads, so you can now watch as Jen stabs a lizard-thing in the face with a charged up kebab knife before kicking 'im in the goolies. Let's see Lara Croft do that, eh?

Evil goat-man cops a poison boot+3 to the jugular

One of the most notable things about Primal is the visuals, which, for a PS2 game, are stunning. Heavy use of fractals is the order of the day, with shimmering, warped heat effects and reactive water physics, while dynamic shadows, lip synch, crisp texturing, nice particle FX and excellent animation play a significant role, alongside some very nice camera work and self-proclaimed "bounce" physics, although what they are is anybody's guess.

It's definitely one of the nicest looking games I've seen in a long while, and best of all it supports Progressive Scan Mode TVs, a feature I've only seen in one other PS2 game to boot (Tekken 4) and not in too many Xbox games either.

Sound should also get a mention, with decent actors providing the main voiceover work, perfect examples being Hudson Leick of Xena fame (Jen) and Andreas Katsulas, better known for his work as D'Jakar in Babylon 5 (Scree). The other actors sort of fall into place, but those two are the standouts.

Musically, we've got some death-metal and hard rock provided by American band '16 Volt' and orchestral pieces performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, composed by Sony Cambridge composers Paul Arnold and Andrew Barnabus, whose names you might remember from Medieval 1 and 2, since it was the Sony Cambridge team who were responsible for that BAFTA award winning duo.

All in all, a solidly enjoyable 3rd-person fantasy action adventure with a mature storyline and a cute stone gargoyle. Two thumbs up, just watch out for the bounce physics, they can be tricky this time of year.

Game: Primal
System: PS2
Players: 1
Memory Card: Yes
Developer: Sony Cambridge
Distributor: Sony

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explantion)

Primal is on the shelves now.