Review: PRIM is a point-and-click adventure you’ll be dying to have on your shelf

PRIM is a point-and-click adventure game about a girl named Prim whose father is the Grim Reaper. Due to the tragic loss of her mother, Prim has to navigate being a teenager in the Underworld. Explore places and meet people while trying to help Prim return to her life above.

PRIM is a standard point-and-click game where you explore your surroundings to find objects, and either use or combine them to solve puzzles.

I was pretty interested in PRIM at first glance. I’m usually the first person to ask for color, but the greyscale world holds enough detail that I never felt like it was missing anything.

PRIM: The tale of adventures through the Underworld; standard teenage girl stuff

In PRIM, you play a 15-year-old girl who is about to have her 16th birthday. Unfortunately, the story starts at a tumultuous time. Prim’s mother died weeks earlier and she doesn’t know who her father is, so she’s been living with her best friend and neighbor, Tristan. 

While exploring the attic of Prim’s home, she finds a hidden compartment under the floorboard that not only holds her mother’s beloved camera, but the secret to her origins.

We go on the adventure of a moody, dissatisfied teen as she’s dragged into the Underworld after learning her father is none other than the Grim Reaper. You’ll explore interesting locations and talk with familiar people as you try to find a way to return to the surface to see Tristan.

Of course, not all plans made by a 16-year-old are best laid and some things go awry that you’ll have to try and fix. As you help Prim solve her problems, you just might see a shift for the better in her outlook on life. 

Like with all point-and-click games, you’ll explore every nook and cranny to find items that will help you advance in the story. In my experience, as much as I love these types of games, they very rarely make sense. So, I’m delighted to say that PRIM breaks from the mold and that might have something to do with the two-layer hint system.

One of the first items you pick up is a jar of fireflies that Prim sets free. While you can’t see the fireflies constantly, you can hit the space bar to see them sparkling on objects that you can interact with. This is invaluable for when you might have missed something.

On top of that, if you are stumped, you can get hints on very specific tasks to help you move forward. I’ll be super for real with you guys and admit that I’m usually having to hit guides to figure out puzzles. But, I didn’t need any help to figure out the obstacles in this one.

Finally, puzzles that all make perfect sense!

I won’t say that I didn’t get stumped, but this is one of the rare games where I was able to figure it out without needing hints or help. To be honest, it might be the first point-and-click game that I was able to do completely on my own.

PRIM thrives on making straightforward puzzles and isn’t trying to hide solutions in asinine object combinations.

Also, I really appreciated that the devs thought about the controls. The only time I had to use the keyboard was to see fireflies. Otherwise, opening up your inventory was as simple as using the mouse scroll button. Being able to play with just the mouse definitely made it feel far more comfortable.

As you explore the Underworld, you’ll find some cards lying around called “casketball” cards. Once you get at least 8 of them, you can build a deck and battle the people around you. Not every person will want to play, but if you can beat the ones that do, you’ll earn a good card to put in your deck.

Here is where I have my first bit of qualms. While the game does tell you how to play, I feel like it didn’t do quite as well. There are four attributes to every card like how high the intelligence is or how much weight they can hold.

The game simply tells you that you want the better aspect, but doesn’t mention that sometimes these aspects need to be higher or lower than your opponent depending on what it is. The values in the top right and bottom left need to be higher whereas the top left and bottom right need to be lower than your adversary.

Even knowing this, there’s a lot of luck involved. Early on, if the other player gets the advantage, it can be hard to win. You’ll have a hell of a time beating the Grim Reaper and I’ll just go ahead and warn you that you need to be prepared to play several times until you win.

Casketball is out here testing if people can die twice in the Underworld. I was feeling a little murdery…

The second qualm I had was soundbites. There are two particular scenes where something will loop their audio until you figure out the solution. One of them just talks constantly which is a touch annoying, but the other one is literally screaming. Thankfully, the puzzle didn’t take too long, but nothing keys up my nerves quicker than loud noises on repeat.

The only other thing I really wanna mention is that there is a second mini-game other than Casketball which you’ll find out in the garden at The Fates’ house. You’re playing on a checkerboard and have to evade something. You can only move one tile at a time and defend with the gnome on the “board” while the other thing can advance two spaces.

You will not be able to win this until you get a second gnome on the board. So, just keep that in mind to spare your sanity.

All in all, I really enjoyed the story and vibes of PRIM. I was charmed and couldn’t put the game down. I really appreciated that the devs focused on atmosphere and puzzles that had proper breadcrumb trails to figure them out.

I’d recommend PRIM to anyone, especially for those who enjoy a good point-and-click game. If you want to give PRIM a try, you can get it on Steam for $19.99. If point-and-clicks aren’t your speed, you may want to check out the review we did of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete.