![]() And once you unlock a special ability towards the end, movement goes from good to incredible. I never had any issues with platforming, clipping, or movement in general. One delightful surprise with the controls, however, was how responsive Ash felt when running around and platforming. I switched within the game’s first half hour and stayed with that option until the game’s end. Luckily, the game has the accessibility option to swap from motion controls to the right analog stick, which I imagine most players will opt into. And the process of creating genies and painting over dreary walls is completely customizable, which lends this game to a unique sense of player creativity.Ĭoncrete Genie tasks you with using the Dualshock 4’s motion controls to paint, which I found tedious and awkward. The environments are intentionally depressing, and the town’s design is an effective balance of intricate and simple. The late game enemies also wear similar facial expressions, which added to their menace. ![]() The faces reminded me of watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which looks primitive but is also evocatively nostalgic. The facial animations appear to be hand drawn or stop-motion, rather than rendered by polygon modeling. These sequences always turned out beautiful in a way that did not happen when I was painting freely on my own.Ĭoncrete Genie’s art style is unique to anything I’ve seen in a video game before. Certain areas, however, are a little more precise and need to be restored to their former glory, which means Ash must match what he paints to the faded original. Though the game markets itself as a canvas for the imagination, I found myself not taking too much time with the painting mechanics after about the first hour and would sometimes spam a bunch of the same images just to fill a wall and clear the area. Once Ash has painted all the walls and lit up an area, some more of the darkness clears, and the next area is unlocked for exploration. ![]() As Ash paints certain areas, the town starts to light up, lifting it from the depressing state that the game begins in. Throughout the story, Concrete Genie tries to encourage you to use your paintbrush to create beautiful scenes. Once he clears the darkness, the genies can progress and the story continues. In exchange, these genies radiate love, thanking you by charging Ash’s paint brush with “superpaint,” which Ash can activate for about 15 seconds to quickly clear through the darkness. In order to remove this darkness, Ash has to please the genies by painting things they request, like a certain plant, a string of lights, or an apple for a snack. The town of Denska is broken up into four main areas, which are locked behind the “darkness,” a kind of purple goo that spiderwebs itself across the world, causing certain areas to be inaccessible to either Ash or his genies. As Ash collects more pages, he can add, edit, and remove aesthetic features to these genies. These genies serve both as companions and as tools to help Ash through some light puzzle solving sequences. With his newly acquired magical abilities, Ash has to scour the city to recover his lost pages, which consist of the eponymous “genies,” which are benign, imagined creatures that could easily look at home in the world of Monsters Inc. Then, he meets Luna, a genie that brings Ash’s paintbrush to life with magical powers. As he watches in horror, the bullies tear out all the pages, scatter them to the wind, leaving Ash truly alone. A group of five bullies taunt, harass, and steal this sketchbook from Ash. He draws and paints in a sketchbook, which is where we meet him at the game’s beginning. ![]() You play the game as Ash, a young boy who keeps to himself, allowing his imagination to trail him off into vibrant worlds that are very unlike his surroundings. While it might not shine as a timeless classic with a massive marketing budget, it easily earns a spot along the best games I’ve played all year.Ĭoncrete Genie takes place in the town of Denska, which built its economy on commercial fishing but was sent into decay and abandonment due to a tragic oil spill that ruined the surrounding ocean. Concrete Genie shines as an experience that knows its limits, and can be comfortably played through in a few hours. It’s a brilliant concept that focuses on wholesome themes, a unique art style, and fun painting mechanics that help push the game’s story forward. When Concrete Genie arrived at my doorstep this week, I dropped everything and binged through the game.
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