Regulars here will know that I’m always happy to look at games that don’t fit a more traditional mould, and one such game crossed my path last week: Primordio. It’s an incremental bullet heaven hybrid in theory, a fairly simple-looking one at that, but it comes with some really interesting ideas.
For starters, the pitch email spoke to my soul. As someone who absolutely adores the visual spectacle of chain lightning in video games, the idea of a game built around this one mechanic was instantly appealing to me. It’s all too often that I see games over-extended, so I don’t mind it when a developer tries to do something more focused.
The other gameplay twist that caught my attention was the shift to drag-and-drop gameplay. Instead of pushing your wisp around the place, you click on it to pick it up, and then let go to drop it. During this little pinch move, your attacks pause, and if you drag the wisp through an enemy, you’ll take damage. It’s a simple and effective system, and it works really nicely in this abstract context.
The enemies themselves are also quite abstract. I get that we’re floating around in some sort of primordial soup, but I’m hoping to see just a smidge more character brought to these designs, if the game continues to evolve and get support.
The sections in between the action are also quite functional, with simplistic icons to guide you through your options. I think this is the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to potential future updates and upgrades for the game.
Primordio has been out for a couple of months at the time of writing. The game’s developer Philocypher has spent that time cooking up a new seasonal setup that leans into its roguelite structure, in this instance via a resource called Qualia that you collect over repeated attempts. It’s yet another interesting twist in an already thoughtful little game, and while the stripped-back visuals may dissuade some, if you like chain lightning as much as I do, it’s worth a closer look at the very least.
