Primordia (2012)
Primordia is a 2012 point-and-click video game made by Wormwood Studios and Wadjet Eye Games.
Humanity is gone. The machines humanity built are still here, scraping out an existence in a world of rust and dry heat, having developed their own hierarchies, mythologies, and cruelties. Horatio Nullbuilt is a solitary robot whose power unit is stolen, forcing him out of isolation and into METROPOL, the city-state that controls the region's energy supply. His companion Crispin is small, loud, and opinionated. The world of Primordia is built with the craft of old-school adventure games but the thematic weight of post-apocalyptic science fiction at its most philosophical.
Quick answers
What is Primordia about?
Humanity is gone. The machines humanity built are still here, scraping out an existence in a world of rust and dry heat, having developed their own hierarchies, mythologies, and cruelties. Horatio Nullbuilt is a solitary robot whose power unit is stolen, forcing him out of isolation and into METROPOL, the city-state that controls the region's energy supply. His companion Crispin is small, loud, and opinionated. The world of Primordia is built with the craft of old-school adventure games but the thematic weight of post-apocalyptic science fiction at its most philosophical.
When was Primordia released?
Primordia was released on 5 December 2012.
Who made Primordia?
Primordia was made by Wormwood Studios and Wadjet Eye Games.
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Primordia in our writing
- Companion guide: Wadjet Eye Games: The Studio That Kept the Adventure Alive
A few thoughts on Primordia
The Peripheral asks similar questions about what structures of power survive the end of the world that made them, and how individuals navigate systems designed to grind them down. Both reward readers and players who want their genre entertainment to carry genuine ideas.
Manga epics that turn far-future myth into something philosophical
Primordia spends its energy on myth, hierarchy, and what a mind owes its makers, and this shelf works the same way. Galaxy Express 999 sends its heroes toward a promised mechanical body. Phoenix stretches one myth of life and death across whole eras. Ghost in the Shell asks what a self is once it is built rather than born, and Fullmetal Alchemist makes the cost of playing god its plot.
A journey through a ruined world with one companion who won't leave your side
Horatio's trek across Primordia works because Crispin refuses to go away, and this shelf leans on the same partnership. Portal 2 pairs Chell with Wheatley, a floating core who won't stop talking through Aperture's ruins. The Last of Us turns Joel and Ellie's trek into the whole story. Half-Life 2 gives Gordon a partner in Alyx, and The Witcher 3 sends Geralt across a continent with people he won't abandon.
Concept albums about who controls what's left to survive on
METROPOL's grip on the region's energy drives everything Horatio does, and this shelf circles the same idea. Repo! The Genetic Opera has a corporation own people's organs the way METROPOL owns the power grid. Deltron 3030 sends a cyborg bounty hunter against an empire running the future. Living With War rages at power from ground level, and Ayreon's Universal Migrator, Part 2 spins its genetic empire into a space opera.