PRIMORDIA Review: The Return of Old SChool Spirit

Genre : Adventure

Developer : Wormwood Studios

Publisher : Wadjet Eye Games

Platform : PC

Web : www.primordiagame.com




Primordia... I did't have any expectations from it when I began the game. It was an old looking adventure game. Maybe I should't have expected much from a game which has 90's graphics and game mechanics. But Primordia got me back to old times with its characters and content. So, I didn't hesitate to spend my whole weekend for it.

I don't know if there is anyone who doesn't know Machinarium. It was a flash-based adventure game which takes place in a world without humans, only robots. It also had good humor elements. It managed to make gamers like it with its designs, musics and puzzles. You can assume Primordia as a sullen, depressive brother of Machinarium. There is no human, maybe they left the planet or they just killed each other. The main character, Horatio, accepts the mankind as "utimate creator" and assumes them as God. Even it has a book which tells that humans have left this universe and gone to a divine place. Primordia is a planet which is like a robot dump. The game begins after the crystals are stolen which are the power source of Horatio's ship. You find yourself in planet with %10 energy and try to find a power source. I really want to say that there is a huge planet to explore but I can't. You will just be able to explore a few parts of this planet.

Primordia looks like a very old game. But it doesn't try to be new anyway. Although its old looking and pixel based graphics, it really manages to show you the hopelessness in the game. But I'm warning you, if graphics are important for you, it could be a big disappointment. Also there is an old school problem in this old school graphics; "pixel hunting". Some adventure games show you the objects that you can interact if you look carefully, but Primordia doesn't. It just shows you the name of the objects when you move the mouse pointer on them. There will be a robot with you during the game and it will give you some hints about puzzles but sometimes it may not be enough and you don't know what to do. But it's a feature of old style adventure games, so I don't know if I should complain about it.

By the way, Horatio has an assistant robot named Crispin who help us to reach high places and activate the mechanisms that we can't reach. It's a real madcap who always wants you to make an arm for it and makes specific comments for every situation. It helps you for most of the puzzles. Even when you get stuck and don't know what to do, you can ask for its opinion. But if you ask him constantly, you can make it grumble. Shortly, you will really enjoy with Crispin. Especially in a part, it will want you to attach an arm of a warrior robot and... Ok, no more spoilers.

As you keep playing Primordia, you will see that every robot tries to hold on to life in that planet. Even there are some robots which sell some of their own body parts for a living. At this point, there is something I like which is a negative feature for most of the reviewers; Everything in the game is actually a robotic type of humanity. It makes you feel like playing in a miserable world of humans with robot masks. Robots' egoism, personalities, characters, 7 sins, greed and some other things which are specific to humans make you feel that you play in a humans' world, not robots'. Is this a bad thing? For me, it's definitely not. It's said that humans are a reflection of God. Humans created those robots, so of course they will be a reflection of humans. Ok, all these "humanism" thoughts and feelings are too much for a robot, but it's not a reason to not to put yourself in Horatio's place.

Primordia's puzzles don't have nonsensical combinations but sometimes you really don't know what to do. It's a common feature of adventure games to combine objects and create a new one but Primordia improves this feature. If you combine an object with another one before the right time, that will trigger a sequence of events which will affect the game ending. Also game has an achievement system and it's impossible to unlock all achievements by playing the game once. Because like I said, some objects, places or events don't appear until you find them. Also I want to mention that the game has six different beautiful endings.

It changes according to your puzzle solving speed but you can finish the game in the average number of 6 hours. Short, isn't it? Yes, it's very short and when it ends, you feel like a little kid whose chocolate bar was taken from his hand. Because the storyline is going deeper and getting better as you play. The last 10 minutes of the game is full of unexpected and surprising events. I wish it was a longer game with more things to explore.

In conclusion, if you like old school point and click adventure games like me and want to listen a pessimistic story in a dystopic world, it'll be a delicious snack for you. Short game time and a gameplay that wants you to discover everything by yourself are not inviting features but it's absolutely a quality adventure game. Also missing Primordia for 10$ is a shame for adventure gamers if you consider adventure games are dying out.

Positive:

• Old school point and click adventure game style
• Game atmosphere and storyline are going deeper as you play
• Low price

Negative:

• Game is very short
• It's sometimes very hard to find what to do(pixel hunting)

SCORE :  8,5/10