History VideoGame / Primordia

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/primordia.png]]

->''“We are Man’s miracle, Crispin. Let’s hope that’s enough.”''
-->-- '''Horatio''', contemplating the quest before him.

''Primordia'' is a point-and-click AdventureGame from 2012, developed by Creator/WormwoodStudios and published by Creator/WadjetEyeGames, notable for being heavily machine-themed throughout. Recommended for fans of nihilistic post-apocalyptic stories and MechanicalLifeforms.

In an indefinite time in the future, the [[AfterTheEnd apocalypse]] has come and is long gone. Humanity, or as some surviving robots knew them, "Man The All-builder" is gone from the world, and all that remains are his mechanical creations, built by Him and blessed with the gifts of Memory and Logic. Two of these, [[TheHero Horatio NullBuilt version 5]], and [[SnarkyNonHumanSidekick Crispin Horatiobuilt version 1]], live in the ruins of an old flying warship, the UNNIIC, out in the dunes, a seemingly endless sea of sand and machine-junk. Before the game begins, they pass their days there gradually repairing the ship, and studying the Gospel of Man, Horatio's holy text. Their peaceful existence is disrupted when a large floating robot with big claws and lasers cuts its way into the UNNIIC, shoots Horatio, and steals the power core that the pair need in order to stay charged (read: alive).

Once Horatio is in a fit state to move again, he and Crispin begin a quest to find power. This task will not be an easy one -- for robots, power is life, and the world Primordia takes place in is [[CrapsackWorld dying]] in the absence of Man.

In 2018, Wormwood Studios announced that they were working on a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Primordia'', called ''VideoGame/{{Strangeland}}''. It released in May 2021.
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!!The game uses the following tropes:
* AfterTheEnd: A step or two further than most examples of the trope, even, because ''every'' human is dead, not just most of them. In a short story that takes place after the game, ''Fallen'', [[spoiler: it's revealed [[https://www.youtube.com/user/WormwoodStudiosInc?feature=watch in "Fallen"]] that there are still some humans somewhere, but they want to kill all the robots because the robots have been accidentally sabotaging their terraforming efforts.]]
* AICronym: Scraper's name stands for Subway Construction, Repair, and Precision Excavation Robot.
* AIIsACrapshoot: All over the place, and not just because robots spontaneously turn malevolent, either -- in most cases, the cause is a robot following some aspect of its "core logic" to a conclusion that it was clearly never intended to reach.
* AllThereInTheManual: [[https://www.youtube.com/user/WormwoodStudiosInc?feature=watch "Fallen"]], a short story set in the game's universe expands a bit upon the backstory and reveals some things that are left out of the game. [[spoiler: Rather notably, it reveals that there actually are some humans who survived the War Of The Four Cities.]]
* AmbidextrousSprite: Variation, possibly caused by an oversight. [[spoiler:When you meet Scraper for a second time, the bomb he's carrying is on his ''right'' side. After detonating it to defeat him, you encounter him again sometime later... with burn markings and a missing arm on his ''left'' side. The visible damage stays on that side if Scraper turns around.]]
** Played straight with all the other characters, though.
* AmbiguousGender: Memorious Manbuilt. Their entries in the info kiosk list them as male, as do other [=NPCs=], but Memento Moribuilt classifies Memorious as female.
* AmnesiacDissonance: Somewhat, but also subverted. Horatio has no memory of Metropol [[spoiler:and that he was originally built as a weapon and tasked to destroy it,]] but he certainly has no love for the place at all in spite of this (claiming that something unknown in his programming causes a loathing for it). Whether or not he does remember by the end [[spoiler: he can go ahead with his mission in two endings and destroy the city in different ways.]]
* AmnesiacHero: Horatio (ver. 5) has forgotten a lot over the years. You first get a taste of this from Ever-Faithful, who met versions 1 and 3, ages ago. It turns out he's the one who first catechized Horatio in Humanism, and gave him his copy of the Gospel of Man. [[spoiler:Horatio turns out to be a half-remembered form of Horus.]] Piecing together the full story of your past over the course of the game opens up two additional endings.
* AntiHero: Horatio starts as a mild version of Type I, spends much of the game as Type II or III, [[spoiler:and can shift to Type IV or even V depending on the ending.]]
* AntiVillain: Upon the loss of her original circuits holding her back, [[spoiler:[=MetroMind=] grows to be apparently genuinely concerned of her city, and afraid that she is unable to govern it as well as she should.]] But she will still try to force Horatio to help her at gunpoint.
* AssimilationPlot: [=MetroMind's=] ultimate plan for Metropol. [[spoiler:She co-opts the cycles and processors of every robot in the city, empowering herself dramatically while controlling all of them. It's why Horatio calls her a "virus."]]
* BadassBaritone: Horatio has one, courtesy of Logan Cunningham. It's one of a few ways he resembles [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment the Nameless One]].
* BadassBoast: Good old Crispin.
-->'''Crispin:''' I am not "no one". I am Crispin Horatiobuilt, version 1. I have free will and a maglev unit. And I... [[spoiler:am a [[CallBack floating]] [[ChekhovsGun bomb.]]]]
** Horatio gets a noteworthy moment himself in one of the endings.
-->[[spoiler:Power, [=MetroMind=]. It's not a matter of generators. You were built to run trains. I was built to destroy. You knew all that, and you still thought you could rob me. Threaten me. Kill my friends? Find your deepest tunnel and hide.]]
* BigBad: [=MetroMind=]
* BittersweetEnding: Your ending if you don't help everyone. [[spoiler:Particularly the case if Crispin and Clarity are dead. Despite everything, you can save the two of them by [[WeCanRebuildHim rebuilding them]] if you pick up their remains when you get the chance, though it's easy to miss with everything else that's going on in the endgame.]]
* {{Bookends}}: Most endings reflect something from the beginning of the game in some way. Incidentally, this matches the theme of "cycles".
* BrokenBridge: Lampshaded and subverted. The only accessible part of Metropol is the Main Street, because prior to Horatio's arrival, a crashed hoverbus blocked the last remaining bridge that leads to the rest of the city. Just in case anyone actually had an idea to fix ''that'', however, the vehicle [[RedHerring happens to be named the Herringbus, and is painted red]], so...
* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler:Humanity]] to Horatio after he learns the truth behind their fall.
* CallBack: Several, including Crispin's [[spoiler:"I'm a floating bomb"]] comment, and, in some endings, Horatio's "I always wanted to fly".
* CelibateHero: The game's writer has stated that, while robots in this setting are capable of some kind of "romantic connections," he does not consider Horatio and Clarity's relationship romantic despite the usual expectations of a male and female lead. He also adds that "Horatio doesn't seem very interested in romance, at least at the time we see him."
* ComputerEqualsMonitor:
** Used as a puzzle early on. Gamma is hiding in an array of four monitors, and Horatio has to break them using his plasma torch. [[spoiler: Doing it right involves breaking every monitor ''except'' the one Gamma is using.]]
** Averted near the end. [[spoiler: When Horatio finally finds [=MetroMind=]'s mainframe, he starts randomly kicking and smashing every monitor in the room ''except'' the mainframe. It has no effect.]]
* CrapsackWorld: Everything is breaking down, everyone the player meets is either insane (by human standards) or evil, and [[spoiler:there are no unambiguously good endings.]]
* CrisisOfFaith: Horatio suffers this more and more as the game goes on.
* ChekhovsGun:
** Successfully repairing Goliath will net you a Decryption Module [[spoiler:which you can use to unlock a couple more possible endings]]
** The ticket dispenser for the train to Metropol rattles off something about "5 Megacycles", but doesn't seem to actually charge you anything. They're 5 Megacycles of ''runtime'' which you owe to [=MetroMind=], using another bot's processing power to add to her own, with the added effect of temporarily shutting them down. [[spoiler:[=MetroMind=] can redeem what she's owed at her leisure -- for example, during the endgame when Horatio is about to destroy her main terminal in the bowels of the city. Foreshadowed by [[OurZombiesAreDifferent the shells]] in the city's underworks, which are actually robots which are so deep in runtime debt that they're permanently slaved to [=MetroMind=], who uses them to hunt down other bots to add them to her collective.]]
** [[spoiler:Crispin. He's a floating bomb, remember?]]
* ComputerVirus: The aptly-named "Thanatos virus" which [[spoiler:HORUS]] originally used as a weapon against Goliath. [[spoiler:If you've got the Decryption Module, you can unlock it yourself and use it against Scraper or the entirety of Metropol. [=MetroMind=] is also described as one, at least by Horatio]].
* CoolPlane: Horatio's ship, the UNNIIC. [[spoiler:Or rather the HORUS -- and it's not just his ship, but his original body.]]
* CrystalDragonJesus: The religion of Humanism has the trappings of Christianity, with "Man the All-Builder" being analogous to a kind of collective God. Metropol in particular has many robots who dismiss it as superstitious nonsense and instead believe in what is more or less a robot equivalent to the theory of evolution: Man never existed, and the first simple robots came into existence on their own.
** Metropol sets the record straight at the end: hu'''man'''kind existed but was not perfect, was far from all powerful, and was much better at destroying that building anyway. Also [[spoiler:she killed the last of the humans living in Metropol.]]
* DownerEnding: There are a variety of ways you can finish unhappily, most of them with heavy nihilistic overtones. [[spoiler:Counting those made possible with the decryption module, you can destroy Metropol [[StuffBlowingUp two]] [[ComputerVirus different]] ways, [[DrivenToSuicide throw yourself off a tower]], commit a variant on SuicideByCop, [[AssimilationPlot submit yourself to [=MetroMind=]]], or threaten your way out and leave with the power core... and two dead friends and many bitter memories.]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: At the time of release and before the ''even darker and edgier'' VideoGame/{{Shardlight}}, this was Wadjet's darkest game. Humanity is long extinct, and the world is full of death, decay and corruption. The robots that now populate the world are LivingOnBorrowedTime, as they all require power charges to survive, and the world's power supply is rapidly falling. The whole setting is full of cynicism, nihilism and defeatism, and even in the best ending, [[BittersweetEnding victory comes at a great cost]].
* DeadpanSnarker: Horatio, with less snark and more deadpan. Vice-versa for Crispin, who Horatio built specifically to needle him and keep him on his toes. Primer as well -- [[RhymesOnADime in rhyme]]. The world is too bleak to count as a WorldOfSnark, but a few other [=NPCs=] also have their moments.
* DeathOfPersonality: The voluntary fate of [[spoiler:Horatio version five]] in one of the endings, and not for the first time.
* DevelopersForesight: If you use the correct Council Code on the tower before it being decrypted by Primer, Horatio will just say "Let's not get ahead of ourselves" and leave.
* DismantledMacGuffin: The Council Code, split between four of the Primordial machines. Subverted in that the first part is obtained automatically from Clarity at the start of the quest, and due to the way the Code chunks overlap, only two more are necessary to complete it (unless you plan to have Primer piece it together for you).
* TheDragon: Scraper, a repurposed mining bot with high-powered lasers, heavy armor, and little patience.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Arbiter and Charity were manipulated into suicide by [=MetroMind=]. Horatio can choose this in one of the endings which causes a horrified [=MetroMind=] to realize that ''she'' has no such ability, dooming her to a FateWorseThanDeath.]]
* DrowningMySorrows: Oswald ends up downing copious amounts of oil after his legal problem with Cornelius ends, to the point that the bartender robot asks Horatio to get him to stop drinking.
* EarnYourBadEnding: Doing [[EarnYourHappyEnding everything right]] also opens up an additional bad ending.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Possible, but you've really got to work for it. [[spoiler:You need to resolve the problems of all the Urbanian robots, AND finish all of the Council Code fragment quests, AND use the decryption module to unlock the records of HORUS, AND remember to get Crispin's and Clarity's remains.]] So, basically, do/collect everything.
* TheEngineer: Horatio's profession, in addition to "scavenger". His defining trait is his ability to build, repair, salvage, and recycle machines. [[spoiler:Or destroy them.]]
* EtTuBrute: Invoked by [[spoiler: Arbiter]] when he discovers that [[spoiler: Charity, his "daughter" (effectively) has sided with [=MetroMind=] against him]]. It's enough to cause him to [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide erase his own mind]]]].
--> '''[[spoiler: Arbiter]]''': Even you, [[spoiler: Charity]]?
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The arm robot at the bar is called Armstrong by one of the patrons, but Clarity addresses it as Waldo Sturnweilerbuilt later on.
* EvilIsEasy: A good number of the possible endings are available without much work or effort. [[spoiler:These are all the worst possible endings which have Horatio die, [=MetroMind=] win, Crispin and Clarity dead, and/or Metropol being destroyed. The only true "good" ending requires the most work but is definitely the most satisfying for the characters.]]
* {{Expy}}: Per WordOfGod, the similarities between the ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''[='s=] Nameless One and Morte and AmnesiacHero Horatio and SnarkyNonHumanSidekick Crispin are entirely deliberate. In fact, the tonal similarities in ''Primordia'' even earned writer Mark Yohalem a spot in the development of Torment's SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera''.
* FascistButInefficient: [[spoiler:The game's writer, Mark Yohalem, have stated that the concept for [=MetroMind=] was inspired by the phrase "At least Mussolini made the trains run on time." The point here is that Mussolini couldn't actually make the trains run on time, and neither can the similarly dictatorial [=MetroMind=].]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: TheReveal is heavily foreshadowed and all but spelled out over the course of the game. [[spoiler:That Horatio used to be an Urbanian superweapon can be inferred from many places -- most obviously, through every reference to HORUS. Also, Urbanian military robots read him as "Friend" on their [=IFF=]s, and even Horatio's apparent ability to recover from being shot or overtaken by [=MetroMind=] all suggest that he's more than just "Horatio Nullbuilt". Perhaps the earliest foreshadowing is the name UNNIIC itself. If you examine the scrap, it's clear that it doesn't actually say UNNIIC, it's just that half the letters have worn away.]] As Primer says the moment he first lays optics on Horatio:
-->Oh ha, oh hee, now look what I see:\\
The wings of Urbani and his little trainee.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: [=MetroMind=]'s original purpose was to run trains. Now she rules Metropol with an iron fist. [[spoiler:HORUS, meanwhile, went from nightmare to nobody, only to be the one who finally (possibly) brings [=MetroMind=] down.]]
* GadgeteerGenius: Horatio's ability to tinker and [=MacGyver=] together pieces of scrap into working tech is the justification for many a standard adventure game item-combination puzzle.
* GenreSavvy: Horatio knows that Metropol is trouble before he even sets foot in the city.
* GoldenEnding: Help absolutely everyone [[EarnYourHappyEnding in just the right way]] [[spoiler:and Horatio, Crispin, Clarity, and all the other bots you helped in Metropol will set out across the dunes to make their own community.]]
* GreatOffscreenWar: The War of the Four Cities.
* GuideDangIt: Unlocking the best ending requires a ''lot'' of work. There are also a couple of puzzles (like decoding the kiosk) that are really convoluted, especially to non-veterans of the adventure genre.
* TheHermit: Horatio, at least before he built Crispin. It's one of several ways in which he's characterized using the "lone wizard in his tower" fantasy archetype.
* HeroicSacrifice: Many of them, past and present.
** [[spoiler:Both of your friends]] die this way. [[spoiler:Horatio can repair them if the player makes sure to grab their matrix and head respectively, but most of the endings have them KilledOffForReal.]]
** The UNIIC turns out to have pulled one of these in the distant past. [[spoiler:Which is to say that Horatio himself, back when he was still the AI of the ''HORUS'', crashed himself into the dunes rather than wipe out Metropol -- the Metropolitans might have launched a first strike that wiped out every human in Urbani, but that also made them the only surviving humans on earth, and HORUS couldn't bring himself to kill off the entire species, not even to avenge the country that built him.]]
* HighClassGlass: Oswald Factorbuilt sports a monocle -- he admits that it's functionally useless to him, but it gives an air of distinction. [[spoiler:It's actually a tool made by Memorious -- anyone who sees through it can read Memorious' records in the Info Kiosk without the edits and purges made by [=MetroMind=].]]
* HoldYourHippogriffs: A lot of robot slang and conversational metaphors are, naturally, machine-themed: "Rust and ruin." "Gears and cogs" "RAM and ROM." "B'sod." And so on.
* HumanitysWake: There are no living humans left in his world, but Humanist robots (like Horatio) [[RobotReligion remember and worship Man]] as an abstracted creator deity.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler: The humans of the Four Cities basically wiped themselves out in a pointless war, and the Urbani humans tried to have HORUS murder few surviving people in Metropol out of nothing but petty spite. The short story "Fallen" reveals that the only surviving humans want to genocide the robots living on because the robots are hindering terraforming attempts (by accident obviously) and it was apparently too much trouble to just explain things to them.]]
* IAmNotAGun: [[spoiler:Horatio's DarkAndTroubledPast in a nutshell. The UNNIIC is properly named the HORUS, and "Horatio" was a partial drone that labored inside it. When the HORUS was ordered to kill all humans in Metropol, HORUS refused and destroyed itself, leaving only Horatio as a partial backup.]]
* ImplacableMan: Scraper takes an incredible amount of punishment before it finally goes down for good -- if it goes down at all.
* InformingTheFourthWall: "How would that even work?"
* IronicName: "Primordia" implies some kind of age of creation. One look at the trailer should tell you that this game doesn't feature one of those.
* KnightTemplar: Clarity is ultimately heroic, despite a ''strong'' tendency in this direction.
-->'''Clarity:''' Mercy is malware.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [[spoiler: In some of the endings where he survives, a grieving Horatio opts to wipe his own memories and become Horatio Nullbuilt version 6.]] Given that he was already up to v.5, one wonders [[EternalRecurrence if this has happened before.]]
* LastSecondEndingChoice: The only endings that require prior effort to unlock are the ones involving [[spoiler:the Thanatos virus]], and a lot of events alter the good ending in terms of which characters follow Horatio. Outside of that, however, the final confrontation with [=MetroMind=] is this trope, as most choices are available without any additional tricks.
* MacGyvering: More plausible than some examples of the trope -- many puzzles require Horatio to build some device out of scrap, or repair junked equipment using whatever he can find lying around -- having at least a rudimentary understanding of how mechanical devices or computer parts fit together is a great asset to any player.
* MachineMonotone: Mostly averted -- the robots speak with plenty of emotional inflection, although they usually sound like they're speaking through a recording filter. Scraper, however, is a [[RoboSpeak straight example]].
* MarsNeedsWomen: Downplayed. Despite being a non-humanoid robot, Crispin clearly displays an attraction to gynoids, specially Clarity.
* MeaningfulName: It's common, if not universal, to give a robot a name based on its function (e.g. ''Ever-Faithful'' Leobuilt is a robot proselyte for Humanism), and all robots have a surname indicating what robot built them (e.g. Crispin ''Horatiobuilt'' was [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin built by Horatio]] because he wanted companionship and a helpmate). You can bet that any robot with the name "Manbuilt" is (or was) of great importance.
** Horatio is ''Null''-built, indicating that he does not know or has forgotten his creator. [[spoiler: He's "Manbuilt", or at least he was when the world knew him as HORUS]].
** [[spoiler: HORUS is an Egyptian god of war and vengeance, which is a pretty good description of what Horatio was originally meant to be.]]
** Most of the cast fits this trope, but Memento Moribuilt deserves a mention for actually calculating his intended "design purpose" from his name (it's exactly as sad as it sounds).
** Primer likes prime numbers (in part because his assembly number is one). The fact that "prime" [[RhymesOnADime rhymes with "rhyme"]] probably isn't a coincidence either.
** The Thanatos virus, which you can use to kill [[spoiler: Scraper or the entire Metropol]], is named after the Greek god of death.
* MechanicalLifeforms: The robots are this, or at least believe they are this. They do a passable job of imitating human society and behavior, albeit in a mechanically single-minded way.
* MindRape: Of the [[StupidityInducingAttack stupidity-inducing attack]] variety, committed by [=MetroMind=] against a number of Metropol's robot citizens as an inevitable side effect of her repeatedly hijacking their processing power for her own use, which she forces robots to submit to or "starve." [[spoiler: She assaults Horatio far more intentionally, planning to destroy his mind right away as a means of dealing with him.]]
* MoodWhiplash: Crispin's ready humor and acerbic wit stand in stark contrast to how dark and hopeless the majority of the game is.
* MultipleEndings: All of them at least a little bit sad.
* NamesTheSame: "Humanism", the RobotReligion worshipping Man, is totally unrelated to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism Humanism]], the social philosophy.
* NoMouth: Justified, since all characters are robots... but oddly, you can see Horatio's jaw moving in his sprite if he's facing toward the "camera," even though it doesn't seem to animate in any of the close-up artwork.
* OhMyGods: Plenty of invocations of Man, at least by Horatio. Crispin prefers to exclaim "RAM and ROM!" a lot.
* OneWordTitle: Possibly also an example of ThePlace, if ''Primordia'' is taken as a location.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: "Shells," despite being robots, display all the common characteristics of a zombie -- aimless shuffling around, moaning, attempting to cannibalize power and memory sources (like other robots), etc. [[spoiler: They're the victims of [=MetroMind=]'s cycle-consumption, robots whose processing capabilities are burnt out to the point where all they can do is scavenge for parts on [=MetroMind=]'s behalf.]]
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Talking to Crispin repeatedly will sometimes have him say, "Boss, do you hear a clicking sound?"
* PointOfNoReturn: The train to Metropol.
* ReadingsBlewUpTheScale: Happens upon arrival to Metropol, when Horatio points the energy sensor towards the Council Tower.
* RhymesOnADime: Primer, as a side effect of [[spoiler:overwriting part of his core logic so that he didn't have to think about [[ShellShockedVeteran losing the war]].]]
--->'''Primer:''' No. ''[{{Beat}}]'' Bro.
* RoboSpeak: Scraper seemingly cannot communicate in full sentences.
-->'''Scraper:''' FORFEIT. ENEMY. PLUNDER.
* RobotBuddy: Crispin. Sure, everyone else is a robot, too. But Horatio built Crispin himself, and quite recently at that.
* RobotReligion / ThankTheMaker: Humanism.
* RunningGag: Crispin has no arms, and won't stop reminding you about it. Plenty of other characters will also take note of this deficiency. [[spoiler: If you [[WeCanRebuildHim retrieve his personality matrix]] at the end, [[BrickJoke Crispin's rebuilt self has arms]].]]
* SarcasticDevotee: Crispin (almost) all the way:
-->'''Clarity''': Crispin, since I have been monitoring you, 97% of your processor time has been spent on banter and harassment.
-->'''Crispin''': Only 97?
-->'''Clarity''': [[DeadpanSnarker There may have been rounding errors.]]
* ScavengerWorld: With humanity gone, the recycling of their civilization's remains is what allows the surviving robot population to live. Power sources are particularly sought after.
* SeeYouInHell: Crispin' BadassBoast. [[spoiler:"I have free will and a mag-lev unit. [[CallBack I am]] a [[HeroicSacrifice floating]] [[ActionBomb bomb]]."]]
* ShoutOut: Several, most notable ones include ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' and ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
** Looking at the empty power cradle in the "UNNIIC" has Crispin comment that it is where the power core "[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV should be shedding its light silently]]"
** Horatio will comment that Crispin's original design would basically have made him like Joey from VideoGame/BeneathASteelSky, another SnarkyNonHumanSidekick.
** Leo's trade includes a [[{{Videogame/Fallout}} water chip]], which he'll trade for a [[{{Videogame/Fallout2}} GECK]].
** He also mentions a crowbar's "[[VideoGAme/HalfLife half-life]]" if you ask for it.
** Another of his items, a binary abacus, strongly resembles a [[VideoGame/SystemShock cybermodule]].
** Crispin's sarcasm circuits were apparently salvaged from a [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 robot with a gumball machine for a head]].
** The Gospel of Man describes how in the beginning Man "paved the [[VideoGame/SkyRoads sky roads]]", built "[[VideoGame/MysticTowers mystic towers]]" and dug "[[VideoGame/ColossalCave colossal caves]]".
** Upon removing the targeting computer from an anti-aircraft gun, Crispin says he hopes there weren't any VideoGame/SpaceInvaders or [[VideoGame/MissileCommand missiles]] it needed to shoot down.
** When Horatio tells Crispin that he thinks he could fix a mailbot, Crispin is against that saying that the robot looks dangerous because, among other design details, his head is shaped like a toaster and [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas "you know that toasters are evil"]]. Also worth noting the mailbot is near an [[Creator/ObsidianEntertainment obsidian]] river.
* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Oswald gives one if you show him the severed head of his "brother".
-->'''Oswald:''' Alas, poor Lawrence. I knew him, [[PlayerCharacter Horatio]]. [...] But I do not care to have his skull. Do with it what you will.
* ShroudedInMyth: "Man The All-Builder." Whenever Horatio learns any fact about the actual historical humans, it tends to shock him because of how it clashes with his religious views. You can even discover what appears to be a human skeleton in the Dunes, and Horatio will mistake it for a "primitive android."
** Some robots believe that humanity never even existed to begin with. They believe a machine was simply created by chance one day and it proceeded to build robots and give them what needed to continue.
* SignsOfDisrepair: A variation with the name of Horatio's ship. Closer examination of its tag reveals that what the characters read as "UNNIIC" is actually just the top half of the letters (the bottom one having been damaged in the crash). [[spoiler:Originally, it was "HORUS".]]
* SmallNameBigEgo: [=MetroMind=] thinks that she's the only hope the robots have for life. [[spoiler:In reality she's just an AI that was built to run trains (and she's even started screwing ''that'' up by the time Horatio and Crispin arrive) who got a big head and decided she could run everything better than the Robot Council.]]
* SnarkyNonHumanSidekick: Of course, Horatio is no human either, but Crispin still plays this trope to a T, occasionally lampshading it. As is often the case with the sort of "wizard's familiar" role that Crispin takes on, he seems to have been deliberately designed to question Horatio's authority and keep him from taking himself too seriously.
* SoiledCityOnAHill: Metropol. First after the war and the end of humanity, then again as the result of infighting among the Robot Council.
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: This was what the Urbani humans intended Horatio to do; destroy Metropol so that they died alongside the other three cities. Depending on the ending he can complete this mission or perform this on [=MetroMind=].]]
* TeamworkPuzzleGame: Not as a whole, but there are clear elements of it. Although Crispin technically isn't under direct control of the player, his ability to float and fit into tight places is used in quite a few puzzles.
-->'''Horatio:''' You know, I always wanted to be able to fly. That's why I built you with a mag-lev unit. \\
'''Crispin:''' Not so that you could store tools on hard-to-reach ledges? \\
'''Horatio:''' Well, that too.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Horatio gives a very satisfying one to [[spoiler:[=MetroMind=] in one of the endings.]]
* TitleDrop: [[spoiler:[=MetroMind=], in one of her final speeches to Horatio]], tells him that "together, we can build a Primordia; every day a moment of creation".
* TrailersAlwaysLie: Don't let the teaser dialogue fool you -- no part of this game is about searching for the remnants of humanity. You ARE the remnants, and no Humanist god-figure is actually present in the game.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: You might not appreciate it without context, but the trailers give several puzzle solutions and some of the possible game endings away.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Retroactively, at least: [=MetroMind=] has banned discussion of Humanism from Metropol, and erased all public records of human existence, creating the illusion that the robot society is the only one which has ever existed. [[spoiler:Later it is revealed that she also poisoned all of the humans of Metropol and blamed the attack on HORUS.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [=MetroMind=] just wants to keep Metropol running, but her massive ego causes her to become a borderline dictator.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: [=MetroMind's=] view of things. [[spoiler: Horatio can agree in one of the bad endings]].
* UnusualEuphemism: "B'sod." [[spoiler: BSOD. [[DontExplainTheJoke Blue Screen Of Death. Get it?]]]]
* VeryFalseAdvertising: Metropol, described as "The City of Glass And Light" looks like a cyberpunk dystopia that's been decaying for several decades. Not PlayedForLaughs.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Horatio and Crispin. While they constantly rib and insult each other, they really do care about one another, [[spoiler: and Horatio is devastated by Crispin's possible death]].
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Ever-Faithful speaks this way.
* YouLeaveHimAlone: Crispin practically snarls at the customs bot after it zaps Horatio, briefly incapacitating him, when you first arrive in Metropol. It's the first time he does anything other than snark. [[spoiler:He has the exact same reaction when [=MetroMind=] does the same thing at the end of the game -- just before making his HeroicSacrifice.]]

** When Horatio tells Crispin that he thinks he could fix a Mailbot, Crispin is against that saying that the robot looks dangerous because, among other design details, his head is shaped like a toaster and [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas "you know that toasters are evil"]].

* MarsNeedsWomen: Downplayed. Despite being a non-humanoid robot, Horation clearly displays an attraction to gynoids, specially Clarity.

** When Horatio tells Crispin that he thinks he could fix a Mailbot, Crispin is against that saying that the robot looks dangerous because, among other design details, his head is shaped like a toaster and [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas "you know that toaster are evil"]].

* ThePlace: If ''Primordia'' is taken as a location.

* AmnesiacHero: Horatio (ver. 5) has forgotten a lot over the years. You first get a taste of this from Ever-Faithful, who met versions 1 and 3, ages ago. It turns out he's the one who first catechized Horatio in Humanism, and gave him his copy of the Gospel of Man. Horatio turns out to be a half-remembered form of Horus. Piecing together the full story of your past over the course of the game opens up two additional endings.

* AfterTheEnd: A step or two further than most examples of the trope, even, because ''every'' human is dead, not just most of them. In a short story that takes place after the game, ''Fallen'', [[spoiler: it's revealed that there are still some humans somewhere, but they want to kill all the robots because the robots have been accidentally sabotaging their terraforming efforts. [[https://www.youtube.com/user/WormwoodStudiosInc?feature=watch]]]]

-->[[spoiler:Power, MetroMind. It's not a matter of generators. You were built to run trains. I was built to destroy. You knew all that, and you still thought you could rob me. Threaten me. Kill my friends? Find your deepest tunnel and hide.]]

* EvilIsEasy: A good number of the possible endings are available without much work or effort. [[spoiler:These are all the worst possible endings which have Horatio die, Metromind win, Crispin and Clarity dead, and/or Metropol being destroyed. The only true "good" ending requires the most work but is definitely the most satisfying for the characters.]]

* HighClassGlass: Oswald Factorbuilt sports a monocle -- he admits that it's functionally useless to him, but it gives an air of distinction. [[spoiler: It's actually a tool made by Memorious -- anyone who sees through it can read Memorious' records in the Info Kiosk without the edits and purges made by [=MetroMind=]]].

* SmallNameBigEgo: Metromind thinks that she's the only hope the robots have for life. [[spoiler:In reality she's just an AI that was built to run trains (and she's even started screwing ''that'' up by the time Horatio and Crispin arrive) who got a big head and decided she could run everything better than the Robot Council.]]

''Primordia'' is a point-and-click AdventureGame from 2012, developed by Wormwood Studios and published by Creator/WadjetEyeGames, notable for being heavily machine-themed throughout. Recommended for fans of nihilistic post-apocalyptic stories and MechanicalLifeforms.

In 2018, Wormwood Studios announced that they were working on a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Primordia'', called ''VideoGame/{{Strangeland}}''. ''Strangeland'' was eventually released in May 2021.

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/primordia_8449.jpg]]

In 2018, Wormwood Studios announced that they were working on a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Primordia'', called ''VideoGame/{{Strangeland}}''.

Once Horatio is in a fit state to move again, he and Crispin begin a quest to find power. This task will not be an easy one - for robots, power is life, and the world Primordia takes place in is [[CrapsackWorld dying]] in the absence of Man.

* AIIsACrapshoot: All over the place, and not just because robots spontaneously turn malevolent, either - in most cases, the cause is a robot following some aspect of its "core logic" to a conclusion that it was clearly never intended to reach.

* HighClassGlass: Oswald Factorbuilt sports a monocle - he admits that it's functionally useless to him, but it gives an air of distinction. [[spoiler: It's actually a tool made by Memorious - anyone who sees through it can read Memorious' records in the Info Kiosk without the edits and purges made by [=MetroMind=]]].

* ImplacableMan: Scraper takes an incredible amount of punishment before it finally goes down for good - if it goes down at all.

* MacGyvering: More plausible than some examples of the trope -- many puzzles require Horatio to build some device out of scrap, or repair junked equipment using whatever he can find lying around - having at least a rudimentary understanding of how mechanical devices or computer parts fit together is a great asset to any player.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: "Shells," despite being robots, display all the common characteristics of a zombie - aimless shuffling around, moaning, attempting to cannibalize power and memory sources (like other robots), etc. [[spoiler: They're the victims of [=MetroMind=]'s cycle-consumption, robots whose processing capabilities are burnt out to the point where all they can do is scavenge for parts on [=MetroMind=]'s behalf.]]

* TrailersAlwaysLie: Don't let the teaser dialogue fool you - no part of this game is about searching for the remnants of humanity. You ARE the remnants, and no Humanist god-figure is actually present in the game.

In 2020, Wormwood Studios announced that they were working on a SpiritualSuccessor for ''Primordia'', called ''VideoGame/{{Strangeland}}''.

In 2020, Wormwood Studios announced that they were working on a SpiritualSuccessor for ''Primordia'', called ''VideoGame/Strangeland''.

In an indefinite time in the future, the [[AfterTheEnd apocalypse]] has come and is long gone. Humanity, or as some surviving robots knew them, "Man The All-builder" is gone from the world, and all that remains are his mechanical creations, built by Him and blessed with the gifts of Memory and Logic. Two of these, [[TheHero Horatio NullBuilt version 5]], and [[SnarkyNonHumanSidekick Crispin Horatiobuilt version 1]], live in the ruins of an old flying warship, the UNNIIC, out in the dunes, a seemingly endless sea of sand and machine-junk. Before the game begins, they pass their days there gradually repairing the ship, and studying the Book of Man, Horatio's holy text. Their peaceful existence is disrupted when a large floating robot with big claws and lasers cuts its way into the UNNIIC, shoots Horatio, and steals the power core that the pair need in order to stay charged (read: alive).

* AmbiguousGender: Memorious Manbuilt. Their entries in the info kiosk list them as male, as do other NPCs, but Memento Moribuilt classifies Memorious as female.

** Averted near the end. [[spoiler: When Horatio finally finds MetroMind's mainframe, he starts randomly kicking and smashing every monitor in the room ''except'' the mainframe. It has no effect.]]

* ComputerEqualsMonitor: Used as a puzzle. Gamma is hiding in an array of four monitors, and Horatio has to break them using his plasma torch. [[spoiler: Doing it right involves breaking every monitor ''except'' the one Gamma is using.]]

** Looking at the empty power cradle in the "unnic" has Crispin comment that it is where the power core "[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV should be shedding its light silently]]"

** Looking at the empty power cradle in the "unnic" has Crispin comment that it is where the power core "[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI should be shedding its light silently]]"

* AICronym: The robot "Scraper" stands for Subway Construction, Repair, and Precision Excavation Robot.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Possible, but you've really got to work for it. [[spoiler:You need to resolve the problems of all the Urbanian robots, AND finish all of the Council Code fragment quests, AND use the decryption module to unlock the records of HORUS, AND remember to get Crispin's and Clarity's remains, AND use the Thanatos Virus on Scraper.]] So, basically, do/collect everything.