PS2 GAME – PRIMAL (PRE OWNED)

Primal may be just the game to jump in and grab Lara’s 3-D adventuring crown while the latest Tomb Raider game is again delayed. Even at a relatively early stage in its development Primal is already looking like something special, with its super-detailed, moodily lit graphics and huge sprawling game world. Perhaps closest to Soul Reaver in terms of overall mood, the game begins with heroine Jen getting dragged into the Nexus–a conduit to one of four netherworlds that she must bring back into balance between the forces of good and evil etc, etc. Relatively uninteresting as the story is, it does at least provide two main characters– Jen the sword-wielding messiah and Scree the dwarfish gargoyle who can crawl up stone walls and possess statues. You can switch control between either character at any time with the other following behind in your wake, although there are plenty of puzzles that force you to split up and use Jen and Scree’s various abilities separately. At the time of this preview there are some months to go before Primal is released, but it is already looking impressively polished, with a fun combat system that’s neither too shallow nor too complex, and even a non-annoying 3D camera. Indeed, the only problem–arguably–is the dodgy rawk music that starts up whenever you pick a fight with a bad guy. This is definitely a game to look out for.