Primordia (video game)

Primordia
Developer(s)	Wormwood Studios
Publisher(s)	Wadjet Eye Games
Designer(s)	Mark Yohalem
Programmer(s)	James Spanos
Artist(s)	Victor Pflug
Writer(s)	Mark Yohalem
Composer(s)	Nathaniel Chambers
Engine	Adventure Game Studio
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X
Release date(s)	December 5, 2012
Genre(s)	Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player
Distribution	Steam GOG.com

Primordia is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Wormwood Studios and published by Wadjet Eye Games. It was released on December 5, 2012 and is available via streaming service Steam and DRM free on GOG.com.

Plot

Set in a post-apocalyptic setting, the game follows the story of the robot Horatio Nullbuilt (voiced by Logan Cunningham) and his droid companion Crispin Horatiobuilt (voiced by Abe Goldfarb). They inhabit the UNNIIC, a derelict airship stranded in a vast desert.

When an unknown, outsider robot assaults the UNNIIC and robs their only power source, Horatio and Crispin are forced to depart on a quest for energy that brings them to legendary city of Metropol.

Gameplay

Unlike in many adventure games, Primordia's puzzles are generally grounded in real-world logic^[1] and offer multiple solutions,^[2]^[3] a direct reflection of the game's writer and designer, Mark Yolahem's Harvard Law education and career as US prosector.^[4] How the player solves the puzzles—and what choices the player makes—determines which of the game's many endings takes place.^[5]

Primordia has a typical point-and-click interface: a left mouse click to interact with objects, a right click to examine them. Every function needed is always available from a drop-down control panel that appears when you move the pointer to the top of the screen. Inventory items can be combined in the inventory UI and may be used on every hotspot and character. Crispin can be told to interact with objects, too. Crispin also serves as a hint-system blended in appropriately within the game in order to avoid breaking the 4th wall. As Horatio and Crispin wander about, a datapad automatically stores codes, passwords and information about the world. The datapad also contains a map which allows fast travel (whenever that's available) with one click to every known location. Conversations with other robots are handled in a multiple choice fashion. There is both a manual and an automatic save system to make sure your progress is saved.^[6]

Critical reception

Primordia received positive reviews from independent and genre websites, and mixed reviews from larger sites. AdventureGamers described Primordia as "a gorgeous, clever, and melancholy science-fiction parable" with "beautiful, surrealistic retro graphics [that] drip with atmosphere."^[7] The site also awarded it Setting of the Year for its "haunted world, one that oozes history far more detailed than the events laid out by the game’s exposition, and one that stuck with us long after we left it behind."^[8]

Hardcore Gaming 101 praised Primordia as "the first graphic adventure game of recent memory to be truly worthy of being compared to the triumphs of the glory days,"^[9] and Pop Matters called it "an evolution of the genre . . . leaps and bounds more interesting because its ideas are more complex and intricate."^[10] Other sites praised its story as one of the best science fiction stories in any medium for years.^[11]^[12]^[13] Primordia also enjoys high user ratings: 8.8/10 on Metacritic,^[14] 4.5/5 on GOG.com,^[15] and "overwhelmingly positive" (97%) reviews on Steam.^[16]

By contrast, larger sites such as IGN and GameSpy complained that the puzzles were too numerous and too difficult, that the game's low resolution did a disservice to its graphics, and that the game's humor could be jarring.^[17]^[18]

On Metacritic it holds a score of 72/100.^[19]

"Fallen"

In June 2013, Wormwood Studios released "Fallen," a spoiler-free spin-off story set after the game's ending,^[20] which was praised for its writing and art.^[21] "Fallen" is available for free as a PDF, ePUB, or animated audiobook.^[22]

References