Primal Light

Developer: Fat Gem | Publisher: Fat Gem | Release Date: 2020 | Genre: Action / Platformer / Indie | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Primal Light opens with some menacing ancient god appearing and laying waste to a peaceful village. Apparently, this god has cursed the village’s inhabitants, including the protagonist, Krog. Armed with only his red loincloth and a slash attack, Krog must traverse ten levels filled with vicious enemies and deadly traps to save his people. It’s not a terribly original or especially captivating story, but then again, it doesn’t really matter, as after the brief intro, there are no more explanations or revelations. Instead, Primal Light is all about the good old-fashioned brutally hard platforming fun.

Primal Light is a 16-bit style platformer through and through, which can be good or bad depending on how fondly you remember the era of limited lives, checkpoints, bottomless pits, and continues that put you right back at the start of the level. If you remember these things fondly, you’ll feel right at home playing Primal Light. If not, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise, as this game is one of the most challenging titles we’ve played in a while. However, the most amazing thing about Primal Light is that two people made it with no game dev experience. They completed the game in their free time over three years, and the result looks like it was made for a Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo back in the day.

The visuals of Primal Light immediately caught our eye as it features some scrumptious 2D pixel art. From the parallax scrolling in the backgrounds to the imposing boss battles, Primal Light absolutely nails the 16-bit style. It even has a CRT filter that you can enable if you want to go really old school. The designs for the bosses are a highlight, but the regular enemies look pretty decent, too. Each level also introduces a couple of new ones, so you never know what to expect next as you slash your way through skeletons, zombies, flying insects, slimes, and all kinds of other critters. There’s a feeling of anything goes when it comes to the enemy designs, which is similar to what titles such as Altered Beast, Castlevania, and Gods had to offer. Although the game is linear, each of the ten levels has a unique theme, and you constantly have to be on the lookout for new tricks and traps that can ruin your day. We also noticed a couple of references to other classic games, which is a nice touch.

The game has a strange, twisted vibe, which is captured quite well by the eerie soundtrack. The music isn’t exactly catchy but can become quite hypnotic as you concentrate on staying alive. The sound effects are decent, too, and there’s even a 16-bit-sounding speech snippet for the sole friendly merchant you encounter on each level.

As with all platform games, we played Primal Light using a controller and encountered no issues. Jumping and attacking feel responsive, and some additional moves are introduced as you play, such as the obligatory double jump and dashing. Krog can only attack forward or upwards, and any other contact with enemies results in damage, so you won’t be jumping on any heads.

The area that is going to divide most players is the difficulty, as Primal Light is not afraid to be punishing. There are three settings, “Easy,” “Normal,” and “Hard,” but these only seem to influence the number of lives you get per level. In addition to the limited lives, Primal Light also features checkpoints, so you won’t be able to save when and where you want. To make matters even worse, if you lose all your lives, you can continue, but doing so will send you right back to the start of the level. This can be immensely frustrating to players who are used to modern conveniences and ensures that you won’t be breezing through the game on your first try. Instead, Primal Light requires you to become very familiar with every enemy and trap you encounter so that you know exactly how to deal with them. Trying to rush things almost always ends in disaster, thanks to Krog getting knocked back when taking damage and the abundance of instant death pits in the game.

As hard as the game is, it is not impossible, but you will need patience and perseverance to get through all the levels. Krog can only take about three hits from enemies, but his health can be replenished by the limited healing items he carries. Your health bar and the number of healing items can be increased if you take a few risks and thoroughly explore the levels. Wandering off the beaten path increases your odds of meeting a gruesome end, but finding the runes that are hidden about makes it worthwhile. You can only equip two runes at a time and only while standing at the bonfires that serve as checkpoints. However, these runes can bestow advantages such as being able to see enemy health bars or allowing Krog to hit harder when at low health. There are also some destructible objects scattered about that can reward you with either coins or bombs if smashed. The coins can be used to buy up to two extra lives per level from the merchant, but the bombs will explode and must be avoided. This is sometimes easier said than done, especially when standing on tiny platforms over bottomless pits, but you will need every life you can get to complete the game.

Overall, Primal Light is a tricky game to recommend, as everything that makes it appealing to certain players will scare away many others. We liked the fact that defeating bosses requires some actual pattern recognition instead of simply walking up to them and slashing away while chugging health potions. On the other hand, it’s very frustrating to redo irritating platforming sections over and over because a projectile knocked you down a chasm right before you reached the checkpoint. At least doors you opened during a previous life will stay open when you continue from a checkpoint, but enemies respawn as soon as you return to a room. Primal Light is somewhat of a novelty in an era where virtually all platformers have opted for the rogue-like or Metroidvania style, but unless you put in the effort, it will punish you severely. If this sounds like fun, chances are you’ll love Primal Light, but there are better options if you are looking for something a little more casual and forgiving. Since the text version of this review was published, Primal Light received a substantial update, which included new art assets, a “New Game Plus” mode, and some quality-of-life improvements. The developers have also changed the easy mode to make the game more accessible to newcomers. These changes include less health for bosses and not having to restart the entire stage when receiving a game over screen.