Ages have passed since legendary Man walked the planet. Now, in the wastelands beyond the city of Metropol, a solitary robot named Horatio jealously guards his freedom and independence. All that is taken from him when a marauding foe steals his power core, forcing Horatio to leave the safety of his home and set out on a perilous journey into the wastes ... and his own mysterious past.
Primordia is a point-and-click adventure game that combines the challenge and depth of the classics with a streamlined interface and a player-friendly design: puzzles emphasize logical thinking and exploration, rather than trial and error or endless backtracking. The game features over fifty hand-drawn rooms, dozens of distinctive characters, and gorgeous painted cutscenes.
Primordia was the first partnership of the Wormwood Studios founders, Victor Pflug (concept and art), Mark Yohalem (story and design), and James Spanos (coding).
Primordia has enjoyed overwhelming fan support and modest critical acclaim. It was Greenlit on Steam faster than any prior game, it is among the highest rated adventure games on GOG.com, and it has 97% positive reviews on Steam (with thousands of reviews). Adventure Gamers and Adventure Classic Gaming both gave Primordia 4/5 stars, with Adventure Gamers also awarding it Best Setting of 2012. Independent and foreign reviewers likewise gave quite favorable assessments of the game:
- “the first graphic adventure game of recent memory to be truly worthy of being compared to the triumphs of the glory days”
- “the most stimulating and unique science fiction I’ve read or played or watched in the last year”
- “more engaging than any science fiction movie, game or novel I have experienced in the past couple years”
- “one of the one deepest sci-fi stories that’s been told in years, whether in film or in a game”
- “an evolution of the genre . . . leaps and bounds more interesting because its ideas are more complex and intricate”
- “a gorgeous, clever, and melancholy science-fiction parable . . . beautiful, surrealistic retro graphics [that] drip with atmosphere”
Primordia is accompanied by “Fallen,” a spin-off short story written by Mark Yohalem, available as an illustrated PDF or ePub (smaller resolution here), or as an animated audiobook. Although the story takes place after the game, it contains no spoilers, and thus can be read to get a taste of the game’s setting and themes. A demo of Primordia is available for download.
We are grateful for the fans who have translated Primordia into French, Spanish, German, Italian, Hungarian, Turkish, and Russian.
