Living Dead Girl: PRIM

Teenage rebellion meets point-and-click gothic fun.

Oct 09, 2024

‣ PRIM
From: Common Colors, Application Systems Heidelberg
Platforms: PC
Release: 24 October 2024
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site

Irreverent and cheeky—that’s PRIM in a nutshell.

Like most precocious teenagers, Prim does not like being stuck in her room and wants to visit the land of the living, where she senses someone needing her help. But her dad, Death (yes, THAT Death), warns that doing so is dangerous, so he locks her in her room.

This is where we enter the game, helping Prim plot her escape in PRIM, a cute, gothic point-and-click adventure about a teenage girl's adventure in the realm of the dead and land of the living!

You direct the main character, Prim, and her sidekick, a strange eyeball spider, with your mouse to explore scenes towards solving puzzles that help progress the story. The scenes in point-and-click adventures are often static with the characters walk around them like a stage, interacting with different objects that they might be able to pick up and put in their inventory.

An inventory item is valuable—it will play a role in solving a future obstacle or puzzle, thus advancing the story. Their uses are rarely straightforward, encouraging players to try inventive combinations and hunt down every hot spot in a scene in hopes of a clue or another object. For example, who knew vampire deterrent worked on eyeball spiders?

The goal is exploration, egged on by good writing and vibrant scenes full of fun art and quirky animations. Point-and-clicks might represent the biggest concentration of well-written games. Each of the genre’s classics and cult hits feature charismatic characters in a grounded world, excellent art, and interesting writing that is often irreverent and cheeky.

📽 Demo Snapshot: Hey, that’s my eyeball!

This is PRIM in a nutshell, starting with the title character. Prim has a cheeky charm, and her looks and quips help establish her personality. The demo is quite limited, so Prim only interacts with objects in two rooms and her eyeball-spider pet, and there is a setpiece involving her dad, though he never speaks. But these pieces are enough to demonstrate the characters and writing.

Genre fans know to always look at something before trying to interact with it. Otherwise, they miss out on 50 per cent of the good lines! PRIM understands this rule, and the demo's bedroom provides a range of hotspots to discover and click on, soliciting comments from the main character. The adjacent room, where her father sits, is sparser but still entertaining.

PRIM also has interesting puzzles, following the genre's love for lateral thinking and combining items. All of these elements come to life through the art. The monochromatic colours are an inspired choice, sitting well with an illustrative gothic art style that delivers distinct-looking characters and scenes. Point-and-click adventure is all about the journey, and PRIM delivers great scenery for the ride.

The game includes modern touches, notably hint and hotspot detection features. But at its heart, this is a classic adventure. It would have been easy for PRIM to cut corners, phone it in, and deliver an average adventure experience. But Prim and her entertainingly grim adventure is much better than that, and if the full game delivers on the demo’s promise, PRIM could earn a spot among point-and-click adventure’s classics.