t seems that when Earth was in its infancy, foresightful space travelers dipped into its primordial ooze and rescued a cross section of dinosaurs, Noah's Ark-style, fetching them home to their native planet. Recognizing that the reptiles possessed a terrific capacity for learning, the aliens crossbred the beasts into humanoid smart guys who retained the more intimidating outward vestiges of their cold-blooded ancestors. Now these Primortals are returning to Earth, driven in part by a rebellion that their ancient alien overlords can't seem to quell.
This CD-ROM, based on the comic books series created by Leonard Nimoy, serves as a Primortals crash course, logically divided into three informative sections: Evolution details Nimoy's nurturing of the idea, along with co-conceptualist Isaac Asimov. Apparently the pair began extrapolating on the fate of the dinosaurs and intended to produce a short story. Just how it ended up in comic form is not revealed.
Tekno serves up loads of interactive back story on various protagonists and hardware, accompanied by numerous diagrams and stats on each.
Play is the interactive comic itself. Participants are asked to choose one of four characters, following each through the ensuing story. Splashy color and techno-chase music bridge what are largely overlapping comic book panels which wipe, dissolve or explode into succeeding scenes. The designer's hope is, naturally, that by journey's end, even the novice ROM reader will emerge a Primortals expert, able to reel off the comic's most esoteric techno-babble and character data.
Hue can make a difference
In viewing the Primortals CD-ROM, it's easy to see how important color has become to comic art, a production crutch all too heavily leaned on by today's artists. Stripped of their glorious computer color, many of the images would be left incoherent jumbles. Even though skillfully colored, many of the larger set pieces depicting fights and floods remain largely indecipherable. Lots of bulging muscles and scratchy lines, but no depth at all, let alone palpable drama. The work of young comic craftsmen like Scot Eaton and Hoang Nguyen is in evidence, rescued in many an instance by the flash of colorists like Jung Choi.
The interface itself is intuitive for the most part, its only real failing being a somewhat lifeless opening screen. This initial image should be the grabber, but it is the succeeding pages that pack Primortals' colorful punch. There are plenty of schematics and diagrams, as well as scads of interactive viewscreens. While invigorating to the novice, Sega-bred computer speedsters will find little to challenge them.
Primortals' true highlight is the ream of previously unpublished design sketches interactively on view in its Evolution section. Penciled model sheets showcasing the development of various characters are a welcome respite from the high-gloss computer imagery, which comprises the rest of the product.
All told, this disk is no doubt indispensable to the established Primortals fan, but as far as newcomers to the series are concerned, bright candy colors and Nimoy's name may not be enough.
