Destination Primus Vita - Episode 1: Austin Demo

Although most post-apocalyptic scenarios involve nuclear fallout or some kind of cataclysmic cosmic event, there are other ways humanity could be eradicated. Sometimes it’s easier to stick to already popular concepts, but in order to attract the attention of more people, a unique scenario is required, which is obviously not easy to create and put into practice.

Destination Primus Vita - Episode 1: Austin is a first-person adventure game that takes place in a futuristic setting, where people are in danger of going extinct because some aliens have stolen all the water from the planet. The game relies heavily on narrative and the characters in order to provide you with a good time, which is why it includes a lot of dialog, as well as all sorts of snippets you can read in order to enrich your knowledge about the world as it is presented in Primus Vita.

This episode focuses on Austin, one of the brightest quantum physics expert in the world. She is in a state of cryosleep along with the other crew members as their ship travels through space, and a dream-like construct is used to prevent their minds from getting rusty along the way. Thus, most of the gameplay revolves around Austin as she tries to keep her memory fresh and her mind sharp for the challenges that are about to come once they reach the planet in question.

You can switch from the laboratory to the memory view, and sometimes there are puzzle clues scattered around both of them. The puzzles are designed to be very difficult to solve without first finding some clues, which is a pretty standard concept if you are familiar with the Myst series. You can also increase your relationship status with the other characters by talking to them.

The overall presentation is pretty good, especially when it comes to level design and the puzzles. The characters are not fully developed in the demo, on the other hand, so it’s a tad difficult to get attached to them, especially since they are basically only memories and they usually deliver pretty cheesy line. Speaking of which, there are also some bugs every now and again, such as the fact that you may have to repeat a puzzle in order for the game to consider it completed.

Destination Primus Vita - Episode 1: Austin has a nice premise, and it would be nice to see the developers expand on it once the full version rolls out sometime next year. Thus, it’s worth a shot if you enjoy narrative-driven adventure games and tough sci-fi puzzles.