PRIM – Adventures in the Afterlife as the Daughter of Death

“Still, this whole grim reaper thing should have come with a manual. Or a diagram of some kind. A flowchart would have been nice.” – Darynda Jones

Overview

PRIM is a cute but creepy point-and-click adventure game set in the Underworld. Players take on the role of Prim, who, after a family tragedy, discovers she is the daughter of the Grim Reaper!

Narrative

PRIM follows its titular character following the death of her mother Morwen. She soon discovers that her father is the Grim Reaper when he retrieves her from the mortal realm and takes her to the underworld where she is forced to live by his restrictive rules and trapped in her room on her 16th birthday. During a brief escape to visit an old friend, she causes a fatal mishap with her new and previously undiscovered powers and must work with her understanding but forgetful Aunt Keres to rectify her mistake. Her Aunt also gifts Prim a pet, an eyeball with spider legs that takes up residence in her own eye socket. This cute and creepy creature can be utilised to explore hard-to-reach areas and solve puzzles.

The game’s narrative takes the player on an engaging adventure through a variety of curious locations and introduces a plentiful cast of wacky NPCs. Prim encounters a host of eclectic characters, some prominent in Greek mythology, including Hades’ kidnapped wife Persephone and the three-headed hellhound Cerberus, to name a few. The dialogue is original and interesting, filled with silly, but slightly morbid humour and dark jokes.

Gameplay

PRIM plays like a classic point-and-click and uses simple mouse-only controls, it can also be played with a controller but the former set-up feels more appropriate and intuitive. Players will explore a selection of locations, such as the river Styx, or the home of the Fates in search of different required objects. Along the way, Prim will be faced with a wide range of highly satisfying puzzles, such as inventory-based tasks, tactical and strategic conundrums, and problems requiring deduction and logic. There is also a selection of mini-games such as Game of Gnomes and the Top-Trumps-esque Casketball. The latter is a prominent card game and players must collect cards and challenge different NPCs to progress the main narrative.

Prim is equipped with a pocket-scythe, a map, and her eyeball companion and can collect many other items throughout her adventures to help solve the different puzzles. The map enables fast travel between key locations and some fireflies that Prim liberates early in the game can be viewed at will, indicating which objects in a given area can be interacted with to inspected. Prim also keeps a diary in which objectives can be tracked. A hint system is also accessible via the dairy and this will provide clues in a staggered fashion if the player chooses to use it.

Styling

PRIM uses a cartoon-like, hand-drawn art style in a limited black-and-white colour palette that perfectly suits its dark themes and storyline. The characters and scenery all have a good level of detail and use varying line widths and gradients to create texture and depth.

The soundtrack offers jaunty, jolly tunes with a slightly creepy undertone using instruments appropriate to the style and narrative such as a harpsichord. The tone of the music does vary slightly to reflect different points in the storyline, it never feels domineering or overbearing but simply adds to the overall ambience. As an added musical aspect, Death owns an interesting record collection featuring songs from The Gore-illaz and AC-Deceased that can be enjoyed towards the start of the game!

PRIM also boasts some excellent voice acting, the characters all have distinct voices that suit their personalities and convey their dialogue with a subtle punchiness.

Summary

PRIM is an excellent example of a point-and-click game, making the most out of the genre’s usual features and executing them with a unique flair. The aesthetics are suitably stylised and quite original, the assorted puzzles are highly engaging and satisfying, and the narrative is comprehensive, boasting both humorous and emotional moments, often combined to wonderful effect. The game will take anywhere from 7 – 11 hours to complete depending on how thoroughly the locations and characters are explored and how many achievements are earned. PRIM’s price tag is more than fair for the quality and duration of the game and I had a lot of fun playing, as such I would happily recommend it to fans of the point-and-click or puzzle genres, or simply anyone looking for a casually creepy narrative experience.

Looking for more spooky point-and-click games? You may enjoy these reviews:
Children of Silentown – A Sweet and Spooky Point-and-Click Adventure – Birth – A Delightfully Gruesome Point-and-Click Puzzle Game – The Sweet and Sinister Adventures of Fran Bow

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