Primordia Review: Becoming Human

A Primordia review? At this time of the day? You know, it is perfectly ok to review a game that isn’t just out – we can’t have played them all, and this game from Wormwood Studios has been on my to-do list for longer than necessary.

Fresh off the back of the superb Strangeland, I’ve been very fortunate to have had the chance to play this early game from the same team, and adventure publishers, Wadjet Eye Games.

Based on the Strangeland commentaries, where the former was Mark’s passion project, Primordia, I think I understood right, was Victor’s baby – a tale of identity and origins.

Primordia Review – PC via Steam

You play Horatio, a scavenger-like character in a very barren, rusty-looking environment, accompanied by a robot they designed and built named Crispin. Strangeland was more reminiscent of Dark Seed, but Primordia was very much like Dave Gibbons’ style in Beneath A Steel Sky.

Stand around to gather your thoughts on where to go or what to do next, and he’ll interject with a quip or hint towards your next objective.

You’re thrown into the deep end early on, and Primordia reminded me of getting stuck into a book when slightly distracted. That’s no slur on the game, but while you’re involved from the get-go, there’s no time to know who you are or what’s going on. 

To unravel the plot and mythology, you have to play through the game and concepts are slowly introduced and based on the rhythm, these pieces all fit into place, often giving that odd vocal ah, that’s why.

Scav

Horatio’s mission is to reclaim what’s his. The power core that is powering his home, along with the required energy for himself and Crispin, has been stolen. You have to help him create a make-do power source, then travel to the mega-city, MetroPol, to retrieve it.

But MetroPol is shrouded in corruption and the justice system, while balanced as it should be, has its hands tied when it is being run by MetroMind – a former transportation management system that has since taken control.

Cue concepts about humans and machine co-existing, ideas about identity and clues that pinpoint the lore of Primordia and the myth that is ‘Man’, and you have yet another intelligent adventure game that has a lot more under the hood when revisiting.

It might be a bit bizarre to compare a game almost a decade old to the more recent game by Wormwood Studios, but both this and Strangeland are very similar – notably, the fascinating commentary tracks that give insight and behind-the-scenes to the concepts of the game. Again, I highly recommend you switch them on after your first playthrough.

An Origin Story

Primordia explores new beginnings, and it’s a theme that is often covered in the game and gives meaning to the term. Without going too much into it, where the more recent game discusses Norse mythology, Primorida has a connection with ancient Egyptian.

The connection between man and machine gets lost through time, and ignoring a few mentions of war, the game doesn’t bombard you with so many facts that you get overwhelmed. If anything, the gameplay can be more challenging – especially when it comes to numbers.

While there isn’t a defined hint system or a highlighting interactive points option, you can enable auto-hints, which Crispin will drop into conversation. Sometimes these can be a little too soon and ruin your thought process; other times, you’d hope he’ll point out more troublesome objectives.

Interacting Can Be A B’sod

For my crude, childish mind, B’sod was a variant of bastard that the characters use, but apparently, it’s another way of saying blue screen of death. There’s an interesting commentary from Mark that explains this further.

Also, Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders weekly reference; Mark refers to a scene, inspired by the game. Fishbowl, fellow fans. Fishbowl.

But, using the term in frustration, something I didn’t realise early on was using Crispin as if a standalone inventory item. As a hovering bot, he can reach areas you can’t, but speaking to them isn’t going to solve your problem. However, at the top of the screen (blatantly obvious) and next to the datapad and map is an icon for Crispin.

There’s also a fast travel option which is helpful as you will need to do a bit of backtracking, but nothing excessive. I just wish that Horatio would run when double-clicking to exit a scene. It’s incredibly minor, but when you’re going back and forth, it helps.

Visually, it’s stunning. Playing Primordia on a 4K screen is fruitless, but that doesn’t stop you from appreciating the art once more. It’s very rusty, with sepia tones throughout and despite not being a fan of robots, the character designs were great too.

Primordia Review Summary

I spent a fair deal of time on this Primordia review, notably through the commentaries and unlocking the multiple endings. Because Strangeland is fresh in my mind, that’s my preference of the two – simply because of the themes, but Primorida is a really interesting game that, yet again, has plenty of denotative values that warrant repeat plays to understand and appreciate more.