'''Primal''' is an action
PlayStation 2 video game developed by
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe aka
SCE Studio Cambridge. It tells the story of Jennifer Tate, an orphan teenage girl searching for her boyfriend in a dimension of demons. As the story develops we discover more about Jen's past and her link to her boyfriend and the demon worlds.
Characters
★ 'Jen' (Jennifer Tate), the main playable character, that later in the game can trasnform herself into various forms of demons.
★ 'Lewis', Jen's boyfriend.
★ 'Chronos', part of a machine known as the Oracle, helps maintaining order in Oblivion.
Allied with Order
★ 'Arella', the embodied force of Order; the good. She's supported by the demons of the Solum and Aquis realms.
★ 'Scree', a gargoyle. He's the second playable character in the game, can climb certain types of walls and can turn himself into stone to help Jen through the course of the game.
★ 'Abdizur', Arella's defender and General of the armies of the Order. Following an encounter with Abaddon, has vanished without a trace.
Allied with Chaos
★ 'Abaddon', the embodied force of Chaos; the evil. He's supported by the demons of Aetha and Volca realms.
★ 'Belahzur', Abaddon's right-hand man and General of the Chaos armies.
History
The battle to save the outside world starts within as Jen Tate -a modern day girl- faces the demons of an immortal world and discovers her own supernatural origin. In Oblivion, there are four distant realms each occupied by a demon race. Two are aligned with order and two with chaos. But the scales of balance are thrown, and chaos is engulfing Oblivion.
Mortalis
The place where Jen and Lewis are from, the "real" world. Belahzur used his power to abduct Lewis from Mortalis.
Nexus
The place where it all comes together. It's here that Chronos with the machine Oracle tries do maintain the order of Oblivion. All the realms can be entered through the Nexus.
Oblivion
----
The name given to all the four next realms:
Solum
A harsh realm where the sun never shines and an eternal winter blankets the ground and freezes the soul. This ia a world reminiscent of the mortal
Ancient Rome with columns high enough to reach the gods, and arenas to honour the brave and strong.
[1] The occupants of this realm are the 'Ferai'. Although fierce and rugged in appearance, the Ferai are fundamentally a good race, aligned with the forces of Order.
In this realm Jen "learns" her first demon from, based on the Ferai race.
Aquis
Deep beneath an endless, poisonous ocean lies the sub-aquatic realm of Aquis. The deadly waters are home to vast sea monsters, but the occupants of this realm, the Undine have built their own safe-havens where they can live their lives free from the leviathans and polluted waters of the deep.
The 'Undine' are able to communicate telepathically and only prosper bacause of the complex water purification machines they rely on. This humanoid race is perfectly adapted to life underwater with efficient gills and fins that power them through the shadowy depths.
Jen's second demon form is based on the Undine race.
Aetha
Set in the cloud-draped peaks is the far from heavenly Aetha. The sheer mountains and treacherous rocks mean the inhabitants have to make their precarious homes on the plateus and peaks above the clouds. The gloom and drizzle hides Tudor-like architecture with foreboding towers, heavy black beams and crumbling white walls. Overhanging balconies seek to steal what little light the street laterns cast.
The occupants of Aetha are the 'Wraith' race. These fearsome and cadaverous beings have created a warped aristocratic society, with the ruling Wraith class living a life of opulense and excess while the peasants live in filth and squalor. Unsurprisingly the ruling class are selfish and evil, throwing lavish masked balls within sight of the starving masses.
Jen's third demon form is based on the Wraith race.
Volca
A wasted landscape of sand and rock form Volca, the fourth realm. An endless scorched desert, the burning horizon dominated by a vast volcano. Volca is very similar to that of Aztec and/or ancient Egyptian architecture.
This realm occupants are the 'Djinn' race. The Djinn are quite possibly the strongest of Oblivion's inhabitants. Their bodies are formed from a living metal
[2], resemble animals that would usually be portrayed as Egyptian gods and their physiognomy is linked directly to the rhythms of the volcano; when it is dormant they are at their weakest and as it builds towards the violent eruption this is where the Djinn feel at their most empowered.
Jen's fourth and final demon form is based on the Djinn race.
Music
Primal features music by electronic rock band
16 Volt. Some of the tracks presented in the game are:
★ Suffering You
★ Alkali
★ Happy Pill
★ Blessed
★ At The End (during credits)
The combat tracks from Primal feature on the album
SuperCoolNothing V2.0 from 16 Volt, and the band had a cameo appearance in Primal, where they played in a club in the opening cut scene.
The "cinematic tracks" were composed by Andrew Barnabas and performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. A suite dedicated to its music was performed at the historic Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig 2003.
Tagline
★ Civilization is only skin deep.
Trivia
★ The four demon realms of Oblivion (and their occupants) are based around the
four classical elements:
Earth (Solum/Ferai),
Water (Aquis/Undine),
Air (Aetha/Wraith) and
Fire (Volca/Djinn).
★ Just before battling a major guard early on in Aetha, Jen taunts her by saying (in the English version) "Hold it, Xena!" Jen is voiced (in the English version at least) by
Hudson Leick, best known for playing the role of
Xena's arch-nemesis
Callisto on the TV show .
★ When Jen gains her
Wraith form, she destroys a nearby
headstone, inscribed
Lara Croft 2003.(The main character in the popular
Tomb Raider videogame series)
References
1. http://www.primalgame.com/solum/solum_en.html
2. http://www.primalgame.com/volca/volca_en.html
External links
;Official sites
★
Official Primal website.
★
Official US Primal website.
★
Primal at US Sony's Playstation official website.
★
Primal art - Portrait of the artist as a video gamer.
;Game resources
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;Others
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A French Primal fan-site.