Primal

Primal is an action-adventure video game developed by SCE Cambridge Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 2

## Plot

Jennifer Tate is a 21-year-old woman searching for her boyfriend through a series of demonic realms. As the story develops, more is revealed about Jen's past and her relationship with her boyfriend, as well as the nature of the demon worlds.

## Bad Qualities

1. Mediocre voice acting with Hudson Leick being the worst offender since she is downright awful as Jen.
2. The lip synching is terrible.
3. Very basic combat that gives Dead to Rights a run for its money since all you do is a heavy and light attack and then sometimes do a finisher. Jen's demonic forms also have virtually the same moveset.
4. The movement isn't good. You don't have full 360 movement since you have to do a 180 turn similar to the Resident Evil games, an animation plays when stepping down or climbing up as oppose to jumping, and worst of all, the speed is slow as Jen does a light jog instead of running and you can't sprint, which makes getting around more tedious than it needs to be.
	* Fortunately, Jen's demon forms do make you move faster, but this movement speed should've been the default.
5. The game isn't difficult since the enemies are pretty weak and Jen has two health bars as she doesn't die while in demon form but rather return back to human form. What doesn't help is that as long as Scree has energy he can heal Jen whenever.
6. The design of some areas don't make it clear as to where you're suppose to go.
7. The pacing is also slow, which along with the combat and movement makes for a really boring experience.
8. A lot of the characters are two dimensional with no depth or intrigue with Jennifer being the worst offender since she's just another generic, wise-cracking protagonist that's very reckless like Delsin from Infamous: Second Sun.
9. The Aquis realm suffers from a similar problem with the water temples from Ocarina of Time. You have to switch to Undine form every time you need to go in the water and you have to switch to another form because Jen can't breathe on the surface as an Undine, meaning you have to constantly switch back and forth between two forms leading you to see the same transformation animation every time.
10. The story is also really bland and not interesting in the slightest. On that note, the stories that are told in each realm is virtually the same with each telling of how a high authority figure abuses their power and Jen and Scree have to put a stop to it.
11. The combat music is pretty generic since it just sounds like generic rock music and doesn't really fit the game.
12. There's a notable bug, the "falling out of the world" bug. Either Jen or Scree can fall out of the world and get stuck. If this happens to you, the options are:
	* If it is Scree, then find a summoning stone if possible and pull him back.
	* If it is Jen, or there is no summoning stone, then you must reload the game or use scene select.

## Good Qualities

1. Great graphics for its time.
2. Jen has four different demonic forms.
	* Ferai - Offers increased stamina, strength, agility, and focuses on melee punches and kicks, for close range combat, as well as claw-like energy weapons. This form boosts her speed, which makes it ideal for travelling through the world. It also allows her to jump much higher than her human form, allowing her to overcome obstacles in the game.
	* Undine - The Undine form is useless above water, prolonged use of which will reduce Jen's demonic health to one, where she can be killed in a single strike. While underwater, her health replenishes automatically, and she gains energy tentacles to strike enemies from a distance. This is the only form which regenerates instantly, as a majority of the realm's journey is spent underwater, and Scree is unavailable. The Undine form also offers instant telepathy, allowing the player to interact with Scree instantly.
	* Wraith - The Wraith form offers melee combat from afar, utilizing an energy whip and main-gauche to inflict damage on the vampiric Wraith. While in this form, Jen can also utilize the Time-Shift ability, which allows her to briefly stop time, and slip past enemies when combat is not desired.
	* Djinn - The Djinn form gives Jen incredible power with two energy blades, which can be fused together to create a single blade of immense power.
3. The game is 11 hours long, although it would be shorter if it wasn't for the movement and environment size.
4. Within a realm you can find rift gates, which works like a fast travel system making getting around less of a drag.
5. Aside from the combat music, the soundtrack is decent.

## Reception

Primal received mixed to positive reviews.

On Metacritic it has a Metascore of 73 out of 100 as a "mixed or average" review based on 36 reviews. Both IGN and GameZone gave it an 8 out of 10, as IGN said that the game was "Limited by an inconsequential combat system and basic wander-puzzles. What it does manage to do though is overwhelm us with high-quality production values, wow us with an excellent graphical presentation, and move us with one hell of a killer soundtrack." GameSpot gave a 'good' score of 7.9 out of 10, GameSpot's Greg Kasavin stated "Primal's gameplay isn't quite as engaging as the game's presentation, but overall, Primal is still easily recommended to those who enjoy exploring their games and not just plowing through them." Both GameSpy and GamePro have it a 3 out of 5, Game Informer on the other hand gave it a 6.75 out of 10, It gave the game 7.5 out of 10 on Electronic Gaming Monthly, The Cincinnatti Enquirer gave it a 4 out of 4, GameRevolution gave it a C+, and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine gave it a 4 out of 5.

In the article "Overrated/Underrated" in their September 2004 issue a year after its release, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine cited the game's protagonist as an underrated "hot chick" in comparison to Lara Croft, stating "She's smart. She's funny. She hangs out in biker bars. She's good in a fight. And she's got a really nice butt." In the same article, Scree was likewise cited as an underrated sidekick, stating "This is the way to make a memorable sidekick: Make him dignified, make him funny looking, and make him useful."

## Legacy

A large amount of development artwork from the game is held in the archive of The Centre for Computing History, and is in the process of being made available to view online as part of their video game preservation initiative.