Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Primal

Written by Chris Reiter on February 10, 2003

Hands-On Preview: Ooga booga! Ooga tooga lamuga...er, I mean Jen's so hot! Want to touch the heinie.

Prime. Primary. Primeval. Primatial. PRIMAL. What does it mean to be the essence of origin -- the fundamental capacitor that hasn't yet evolved? This question is answered only for an ironic twist of truth, where the direction of one adventure will take you from being born into one world and into the morphing stages of demon genealogy in another. Primal is just one of Sony's next steps into bringing gamers closer to a fully innovative gaming experience, and next month you too will be able to find out why.

You've heard tales about "the chosen one" before: Jennifer Tate is one of them. Up until Jen's fateful meeting with Scree -- a moving, talking, loadstone nabbing gargoyle -- Jen was just like you or me. But all that is about to change. Beckoning Jen to the realm of demons, it is here that an age-old struggle between order (Arella) and chaos (Abaddon) is about to awaken again from its slumber. Once aware of being but a human, Jen must now wake up to call upon her untapped abilities in order to rescue an unsettled world from an absolute disarray of evil.

More and more, it seems as though duo single player gameplay experiences are becoming a huge norm. Out of Sony's stable we saw the antics from Jak and Daxter, we felt the adventure with Ratchet and Clank, and we sensed the illusion in Ico and Yorda's fantasy. Now it's Jen and Scree's turn. Jen, like any person/animal/warped figment of your imagination before her is the star of the show. She's average height; fit as a fiddle with a hand-to-hand combination combat style, and she'll have the power of transforming into one of many demon forms. While pleasing on the eyes (only when in a mutated state...or so Scree thinks anyway) and capable of beating up demon bullies, she's not exactly up to par in her history of a world she's never been to. That's why Scree, the talking gargoyle, will be her telltale guide. Scree isn't just going to cling onto Jen's back most of the way through the game either. He walks. He talks. He even tells jokes. And Scree is also the one who will be able to pick up loadstones as well as suck in a fallen enemy's Feral energy so that he can do the extraordinary -- such as possess stone statues to open doorways or to fuel Jen's demon gauge when down to zero.

As there will be two main roles in the game, in effect come two main operations of gameplay: the puzzles and the fighting. So far the thought challenge being processed is coming along well. Where picking up a sufficient amount of loadstones let Scree synch with a statue to position its light beam at a doorway wasn't too tough, attempting to raise a downed gate was. In this particular riddle, I was able to sneak Jen through a narrow passage in between two walls where I could access a lever inside a small room, as the doorway into it was locked. Scree, having a few too many jelly sandwiches, was forced to wait outside until I was able to figure out that releasing the door of the board blocking the inside up would let Scree in. From there I was finally able to put the two's strength together as one so that the heavy lever would be immobilized no longer.

Interestingly, the game won't always focus on Jen alone as Scree, her gargoyle companion, plays a significant part to seep through into the other end of any level. Often at times there's switching between the two characters to maintain a balance of gameplay. Jen is the fighter and Scree is the collector of sorts. Jen can jot down the names as she tears into the enemies, and Scree can grab the goods. See, Jen is incapable of picking up objects. Scree on the other hand can pick up loadstones and absorb them as well as the Feral energy from fallen foes, which in turn powers Jen's demon personality. Without either or, the game probably wouldn't work as well. It's always good to see that game developers are willing to acknowledge that two heads are indeed better than one.

Not entirely difficult either is the battle system at hand. Made up of various combinations, the fighting style presented from what I've noticed is purely melee on Jen's part. By pressing either of the L buttons along with R2, I was able to knock down enemies with Jen twisting her body around, punching, and kicking. Once an enemy's visible gauge dissipates, Jen could also finish with a final blow by rapidly hacking away into the enemy's body in her changed state, or in human form gracefully stab the enemy upright. Blocking was prepared with the R1 button, and changing from human, to demon, to human, and back again originates in a tap of the left directional key. Pressing the triangle button was useful by activating tips from Scree for use in gameplay, where the X button operates a myriad of things, from the opening of doors to busting open barrels. The only fault in the game's control scheme might actually turn out to be the slightly awkward camera angle. While traversing through the level, it's simple getting around by way of the left analog stick. The game's camera is free roaming though, and when I got into a situation where I was able to crawl up a wall with Scree (yes, he can do that; he's a gargoyle) the camera lost sight of him somewhere, making it difficult to return to the full third person perspective. Hopefully, this issue will be touched on by the time of the game's release.

Gamers these days are more demanding on visuals: Bigger this, and better that. Luckily Primal doesn't fall too short on what the people really want to see. In the story's setting, Primal is depicted as being very dark and brooding, which it handles well. Covering stone and concrete structures in ruin, the architecture is finely built with a hauntingly realistic appearance everywhere I looked. Mounds of snow lied dormant across the outside tilling, while flakes lightly descended from the air rich with gloom. Shadows too would smoothly apprehend the sides, fronts, and backs of the figure they were sewn onto as they moved about. Even the game's lighting is well done, where sources of candles lie flickering in certain reaches and especially when Scree would grab a load stone up off the ground and demolish it through his chest, the lighting would affect ground, wall, and himself.

Full of detail and livelihood, character models take on a whole new meaning of the word "wow." Really, Jen for instance, absorbed with a Goth-like or monstrous demeanor, has a shapely body, flowing hair, sparkling eyes, and an attire on to die for, which enemies will. Scree's whole gargoyle posture is soaked with texturing that brings out the whole elaborate effect. And not just one, but also both of them move about flawlessly as though they were alive. While Scree lugs around on all fours like a monkey with wings, Jen is freely moving and always battling enemies with arms and legs that pivot just right. During the cut scenes especially you can catch a glimpse of Scree's worrying and tempered face with realistic precision on an emotional level. Jen too expresses an assortment of looks that bring out a lot in what computer technology can accomplish. More astonishing than anything before it though is the transition from Jen's mortal into monster mutation. Pausing in midair, bent backwards, and the camera spinning around Jen as a flow of blurred lines rattle across the screen, she then drops with a whole new appetizing bearing to put into motion.

It's been done before and it'll be done again: Dolby Digital Surround Sound is making its way into Primal's own adventure. With that said, you could probably expect to hear a lot of worthwhile sounds. That all depends on what you'd expect though. Some good but not all great is the mess of sounds Primal has to offer. Each step, each swing of the arm, each time the characters pull an action you'll find a noise to follow. When it comes to the battling the big bad beasts however, the audio becomes a bit too repetitive with a blend of slashes and gurgles that could get better with improvement. Then again, it may or not be the end result in the game's final product.

Every morbid tale calls for a theme to suit its despair ridden explorative insides. Exposed in this tale will be a set of ominous tones decent enough to dig into. But as far as the goodness goes, the best of the bunch is looking to be the voice acting. It's a difficult task in the gaming business to appoint a job to the right person in order to match the character as you might picture them to sound. I think that so far Sony has found their Jen and their Scree. Being the wise gargoyle that he is, Scree has a charming personality in an elderly way -- full of knowledge and even a bit of sarcasm when countering one of Jen's juvenile mockeries. On the other hand, Jen is not just a person anymore; she now becomes a demon. Through both sides of this sparkling nickel there's a charismatic human speech and a voice crackling demonic one. The effect in either is quite cool to say the least.