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Exclusive Primal Q&A Feature
Chris Leyton
13/01/2003
Move over Lara, there's a new girl in town!!!
Taking time off during the hectic last moments of developing Primal; Chris Sorrell, Creative Director at Cambridge Studios, kindly answered our questions on the awesome PS2 title due for release on February 14th.
1) Can you please give us a brief outline of what the game is all about?
It starts in the real world. Jen is an ordinary twenty something girl, her boyfriend the lead singer in an up and coming rock band. One night they are violently attacked by a hideous, brutal monster. The huge demon lifts Lewis away, leaving Jen behind, grievously injured. The game begins with Jen lying comatose in hospital where a mysterious figure â“ a gargoyle named Scree âawakensâ her and leads her off into a realm called Oblivion. Jen clings to the hope of finding Lewis as she gets caught up in a conflict between Order and Chaos. Scree becomes her companion and guide as she travels deep into the demon realms and comes to realise that she is herself part demon.
2) The first thing that grabbed our attention when we saw Primal in action was the fantastic visuals, which quite easily match the standards weâre seeing on Xbox titles; how have you managed to achieve such startling results?
Ambition, a talented team, hard work and high standards! A large portion of Primalâs development time was dedicated towards creating a flexible, PS2 exclusive game engine. This encompasses areas like render code â“ where we have powerful lighting features, multi-texturing, texture management, special effect systems, etc. Animation â“ we have a powerful system providing features like soft-skinned skeletal animation, mesh morphing, facial animation. Resource handling â“ a fully dynamic system that loads all data in the background as youâre playing and means we have no artifical level breaks. â¦Basically lots of cool technology, all of which is really there to enable our artists and designers to really go to town and create some really special stuff â“ and weâre fortunate to have some extremely talented and dedicated people who have put a huge amount of effort into bringing the game to life.
3) Could you briefly elaborate on the partnership system between Jennifer and Scree?
Throughout the game, the player is able to play as either Jen or Scree. Whichever character you arenât playing will automatically âfollowâ and thus be available for play at any time. A little like in classic games like the SNES game âLost Vikingsâ or way back in the Spectrum days âHead over Heelsâ, Jen and Scree have different, complimentary abilities. Youâll need to apply all of these different skills effectively to progress through the game. In general terms, Jen is the fighter â“ at least she is once she discovers her demon heritage and acquires the ability to shift into demon form. Scree is no fighter, but makes up for this with his ability to climb any brickwork surface, to temporarily shift his soul into the forms of certain statues the pair encounter, and with his knowledge of the game world.
From a storyline perspective, the pairing of Jen and Scree is an interesting one: Jenâs perspective is that of a sassy 21 year old, initially quite cynical and dismissive of the fantastical events she finds herself caught up in. Scree meanwhile is an eternal, noble being, dedicated to serving Arella, goddess of Order, to trying to guide and motivate Jen into helping his cause.
4) Can you elaborate on the different forms that Jen takes and what influence they have on the game?
Jen has five different forms. First, thereâs obviously her human form. She is weak and vulnerable initially, a little less so once she gains a dagger. Pretty soon however she is introduced to her demon side as she aquires the Ferai form. The Ferai are a strong and fearsome warrior race of demons. In this form Jen fights with energy claws that, like all her weapons are generated by the armlets that she is given right at the start of the game. In the underwater realm of the Undine, she is able to swim to communicate telepathically, and to fight with energy âtentaclesâ. In the third realm, the first of the realms of Chaos, she takes on the powers of the Wraith, a cruel and evil race who prey, vampire-like upon a peasant underclass and possess the power to warp time. In this form Jen can fight using an energy whip. Finally in the last realm, that of the powerful Djinn, she takes on their living metal form, becoming impervious to fire, and able to fight with dual fire swords. By this stage in the game, the changes Jen has undergone leave her teetering on the very brink of Chaos herself.
So⦠Each form has its own strengths and abilities in keeping with the race and location in which Jen gains it. Jen may morph to and from any of the forms she has acquired at any time; the different abilities of each are very relevant to the challenges she must face.
5) Primal is a very distinctive game, what sources of information did you take when developing the game?
In terms of inspiration we wanted to capture the feel of TV series like Buffy, Angel, Dark Angel: to make our central character someone that you can instantly relate to (and hopefully like!), to give the game a very real, and believable core quite distinct from the more fantastical, demonic themes that the plot and other characters are built around.
The structure for the whole game â“ four realms, each associated with a season, time-of-day, element, race of people, etc, was influenced by Tarot and the mythology that this incorporates. To make the realms consistent and believable places, each took inspiration from certain historical civilisations, cultures, or art-styles. For example the Ferai kingdom is quite inspired by Roman civilisation, whereas the Wraith are styled after the opulence of French Regency and the Napoleonic era.
All told, the game really has quite an eclectic mix of inspirations, all of which adds to its distinctiveness.
6) Combat appears to be a primary focus in the game, using a great system that we havenât seen before; why did you choose to use the shoulder buttons and what advantages does this give?
We knew combat was going to be a big part of the game for Jen, so we wanted to create a system as comprehensive and fully-featured as we could. In terms of âfeelâ, we took inspiration from the classic beat-em ups, most notably âSoul Caliburâ. When it came to the controls (and as a general design ethos for the game), we didnât want to just go with convention, and so after trying out a few options, we decided to use the shoulder buttons to control combat. Advantages are that these controls fit very neatly with the non-combat controls, and also work very well with the left/right nature of the attack moves Jen possesses. We also use button press sensitivity to differentiate between weak, fast attacks and slower, stronger ones, and pressing both left and right buttons at once can launch âsuperâ attacks and finishing moves.
This is an unusual system, but one that I think feels pretty natural after only a few moments.
7) From our look at both titles, Primal appears to be hands and shoulders above the latest Lara Croft title; both games are due to be released around the same time and will draw obvious comparisons, who do you think will win?
Iâm glad we compare favourably since Laraâs heritage is sure to win her plenty of sales! Honestly though I think that Primal is a very different game to âAngel of Darknessâ, and the only way in which weâve really been influenced by Tomb Raider is to try and make Jen as distinct as possible from Lara! Iâm definitely a fan of the Tomb Raider series, but I do think Lara has a slight tendency to come across as more caricature than character⦠We always wanted Jen to be physically appealing, but to be memorable for her personality as much as her curves.
Now if it came to who would win in a fight between Jen and Lara then with her four demon forms and Scree to back her up, I think itâd definitely be Jen!
8) Developers seem to finally be getting to grips with PS2 development; do you think weâve seen the best of the machine or is there more to come?
Yes, there are definitely some awesome looking games on PS2 these days, but Iâm certain thereâs more in the black box yet⦠Speaking personally, thereâs plenty weâve learnt during Primal thatâll enable us to make still better use of the system next time round.
9) How long can an average gamer expect Primal to last, and is there any scope for replaying the game?
Our best QA guys have got through it in about 13 hours, for first timers itâll definitely be considerably longer than that! In terms of replay, we have hidden features that you may want to track down if you donât find them all first time through.
10) What next for Team Cambridge; perhaps you could give us a few details on your future titles (Ghost Hunter)???
Gotta be careful - Marketing and PR might flog us for so much as mentioning the name GhostHunter⦠But between you and me, yes, GhostHunter is our next project, targeted for the end of 2003. Itâs based on the same technology as Primal and is pretty well summed up by its name!
We would like to thank Chris for taking the time to answer our questions and wish Team Cambridge all the best for the future; canât wait to see Primal on the shelves guysâ¦
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