Developed by SCEE Cambridge Studios, Primal is a 3D gothic adventure that reminds reminds Soul Reaver 2 in many ways, but without the almost Shakespearean tale that made of Crystal Dynamics' work a formidable experience. Primal exhibits the kind of "Goth esthetics for the MTV masses" that has plagued the second half of the Nineties, a misinterpretation of the meaning of the true Goth culture.

The story
Jen is a twenty-one, nice looking girl; she lost her family when she was just a baby, and throughout her life she has fought to find her own place in this world. She has a boyfriend, Lewis, lead singer in an "alternative" hard rock band.

One day, during a concert, Lewis notices a strange red-eyed figure among the crowd. Scared by that man, Lewis leaves the stage with a strange feeling that something terrible is going to happen, but Jen is there to reassure him. Anyhow, as they are leaving the smoky club, the strange figure appears again, and reveals its true, monstrous form. The monster, with its tremendous strength, knocks Jen to the ground, and kidnaps Lewis.

Jen goes into a coma, but a talking stone gargoyle named Scree manages to awaken her soul, while her severely injured body rest on the hospital bed. Scree informs Jen that the reality in which her body exists is called Mortalis; another reality exists, called Oblivion, and it's there that he wants to guide Jen, restore the Order menaced by evil forces, and finally find Lewis.

It's not difficult to realize how clichéd the storyline of Primal is. It takes elements from pop-Goth movies like The Crow (the use of "alternative" music, Lewis is the lead singer of a hard rock band), Goth games like Soul Reaver (the existence of two dimensions, the destruction of the order), popular Tv series like Xena and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and even from Disney movies (Scree is really the perfect Disney sidekick). Clichéd elements don't necessarily mean a predictable storyline, but unfortunately, Primal is rarely able to truly absorb the player into its events. Jen and Scree are far from being memorable heroes, Jen being rather annoying with her invariable jockey tone and Scree being basically a petrified moron, so the game's most interesting aspect comes mainly from the good work done by the developers to create a cohesive, complex mythology. The decaying demon worlds are rich in atmosphere, and surprisingly, the few side characters are more convincing and less tedious than the main heroes.

You play as Jen and Scree; each one has specific abilities and limits, and you can switch characters at any moment by pressing the select button. The game is divided into four demon realms, each populated by a different demon race and with its own social structure. Solum is the realm of eternal night and eternal winter, populated by the violent Ferai race; Aquis is the realm of eternal autumn sunset, populated by the aquatic race of the Undine. While Solum and Aquis are allied to Arella, the goddess of Order served by Scree, the other two realms spouse the cause of chaos and destruction. Aetha, where rain never ends, is dominated by the cruel Wraith aristocracy; Volca, the most dangerous realm, lays down the pit of a gigantic volcano, and is populated by the powerful Djinn race.

Primal is strongly focused on the exploration of these realms; while we'll talk about the combat system later in this review, it's important to highlight that like and more than Soul Reaver 2, your main activity during the game will consist in finding a way to reach the next relevant spot on the map, solving puzzles which are based on the abilities of the two playable characters. The levels, while huge in size and amazingly detailed, must be explored in a linear way. There is nothing wrong with this, considering that one of the best games on the system, Ico, was exactly based on this formula; unfortunately, Primal couldn't be more distant from providing puzzles as intriguing, as intelligent as those featured in Ico.

The point is that the puzzles in Primal are always very easy, and sometimes is even difficult to call them "puzzles". And that's a shame, considering that the idea behind the game wasn't bad. In fact, the possibility to switch from one character to the other at any time could have lead to some intricate puzzle; sadly, Jen and Scree's abilities are poorly developed and roughly implemented into the overall game structure. But what are exactly these "abilities"?

The core of the game is the fact that Jen, during the adventure, will discover to have the power to change into four different "primal" forms. Each demon form, besides turning the pretty Jen into a quite horrid demon, has many strengths that are fundamental during battles and explorations. The Ferai form, for example, will let you jump higher and run faster; the Undine form will let you swim; the Wraith form lets you stop time while exploring the areas of the game; the Djinn form makes of Jen a terrifying fighter. But also Scree has a couple of important special abilities: he can climb stone walls and he can possess statues, a power mainly used to unlock doors and activate mechanisms. Great part of the puzzles consists in using Jen or Scree's abilities to open the passage for the other character. For example, if you must open a door locked from inside, you can use Scree to climb the walls of the building, enter it and unlock the door so that Jen can enter. Similarly, if you have to jump on the top of a wall to pull a lever that opens a heavy wooden gate, you must use the high jump ability of Jen's Ferai form. At this point, you might say "But didn't you say Scree could climb stone surfaces? Why can't I use him to climb the wall and reach the lever?" That's exactly the point here. Primal is designed so that you can truly use the powers of your characters only when the developers want you to. Yes, Scree can climb walls, but only walls made of "real stone": as a result, you'll keep asking yourself why on earth that boring gargoyle can't climb that wall that damn, looks made of real stone. Even more irritating is the fact that even the tiniest obstacle can stop Scree while he's climbing a "real stone" surface: a creep, a minuscule frieze are enough to stop him.

To make things even more boring, the possibility to interact with the environments is very limited, and all you need to explore the world of Primal is the multi-purpose X button, which triggers context-sensitive actions. X is used to open doors, pick up torches, pull levers, light up bracers, and even to use certain abilities, like the aforementioned high jump ability: in her Ferai form, Jen can't go around savagely jumping around like a scary dark demon (it would have been great fun) - only when she approaches a too high ledge, the high jump action will be actually available. Context-sensitive action buttons can be actually useful in some games, but in a game like Primal, where you don't have to care about stealth, where there aren't difficult puzzles, this simplified control layout is the final blow that definitely turns the experience into little more than the boring exploration sections of console RPGs like Final Fantasy X, where you go around continuously pressing the X button looking for active objects. The linear structure of the demon realms and the presence of a detailed in-game map, make the possibility to feel lost impossible (and that's good), but also hamper the feel you're really exploring the area (and that's no good).

The combat system, if possible, is even less balanced. Battles in Primal are not too frequent, and they are definitely less dramatic than those in Soul Reaver 2. The control layout is uselessly awkward, all show and no substance. The main buttons of the Dual Shock, which the tradition of Playstation adventure games has generally used for main and secondary attacks, are used in Primal to change target (X button), activate/deactivate the auto targeting function (Square), and to taunt enemies (Triangle button): don't get too excited here, since the taunt command seemed completely ineffectual during the battles. The shoulder buttons (L2 and R2) are used for left and right hand attacks; R1 is used to block, while L1 performs a spin attack useful when you're surrounded by enemies. This incontestably uncommon layout doesn't add any substance at all, and in fact, battles in Primal are little more than typical, repetitive button mashing action against lobotomized creatures. The Wraith demon form adds a cool dodge move, but this is really not enough to make things a tad more interesting.

Overall, Primal's gameplay is a disappointment. Primal lacks substance, true action, and is unquestionably a badly balanced experience. The good thing is that the game is never frustrating, since it constantly tries to help and guide the player, but honestly this is one of the most boring adventure games I've played in a long, long time.