It’s been no secret that, if you’ve been following #TheRandoCast’s Twitter account, that I’ve been championing PixelOpus’ new game for some time. Concrete Genie came out on October 8th, and it was everything I had hoped for.
(Disclaimer: I paid for the Digital Deluxe version of Concrete Genie myself. Also, spoilers are upcoming!)
When you begin the game, you get a view of Denska, the run-down hometown of our protagonist, Ash, and you get a glimpse of the bullies that tail him throughout the game. After a short, but fairly intuitive, painting tutorial, the bullies appear where Ash is, wreck his sketch book, and stuff him on the tram to the Denska lighthouse.
Ash chases an elusive page all the way to the dilapidated lighthouse, where he discovers that it’s not just a drawing on paper anymore; it has come to life. Luna upgrades your paintbrush and gives you a new task – use your art and your new brush to take “The Darkness” from Denska. (Throughout the game you can also find newspaper clippings to read that detail Denska’s descent, and it’s also chronicled by the flashback scenes that Ash experiences later with his bullies.)
When you return to mainland Denska with your mission from Luna, it’s a simple enough mechanic. Paint walls, which lights up the rope lights adorning them, and that, in turn, helps get rid of The Darkness. Helping you with that are your genies; when you find them, they’re chalk drawings on the ground, but with the help of your friend that’s chilling out on your duffel bag, you bring them to life by painting them on the wall. It’s great that no two genies look exactly alike; PixelOpus did an awesome job of giving players lots of different options when it comes to customizing them.
They have different abilities; some can burn cloth, some can manipulate electricity, some can produce strong winds, but they’re all meant to help you with your goal. And they’re pretty damn cute, too, looking like they came straight out of Where the Wild Things Are.
I had a blast, practically painting every surface I could, and playing with my genies almost whenever they wanted. (Yep, you read that right. YOU PLAY WITH THE GENIES. And it was wonderful.) Ash can traverse building tops, something that was handy when I needed to try and avoid the bullies. Sometimes the bullies would be in the way; staking out a spot where there was one of my pages, but a clever button push, and they were chasing my phantom self elsewhere.
When the last act rolls around, the stakes get higher. By this time, Ash and the bullies come to a truce, as they realize Denska’s fate is in their hands. PixelOpus introduces a few new mechanics here, something I wish I’d had all along. Paint skating was a SUPER fun way to get around, and even though I was using it to try and hunt down the dark phantoms around me, I couldn’t help but let out something like a “wooo!” or two. Combat is also introduced here, feeling like it came out of left field, but fitting the turn the story went.
My Thoughts
As someone who grew up in a sleepy, dying town, and also someone who spent most of her formative years tormented by bullies, the story was deeply personal for me. PixelOpus, in my opinion, nailed the “bullies-turn-friends” trope more than anything else I’ve seen recently. The world they created was gorgeous, detailed, with several buildings just begging for my paintbrush. The art style created by the studio was unique as well; it made me think a bit of Claymation, like the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special that’s on CBS every year.
It’s not a huge, open world like games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, but that’s okay. Concrete Genie is a magnum opus of a different kind. The seven hours I spent playing the story were some of the best hours I’ve spent playing a game this year. The free paint mode promises to be where I spend even MORE time; and there’s even a Photo Mode! For $29.99, it’s a steal of an adventure, guaranteed to bring out some feelings.
I uploaded a few pictures from Photo Mode!
