Developer: Pixelopus
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Price: $29.99
Console: Playstation 4
Release Date: October 8th, 2019
Concrete Genie is a game I’ve had my eye on ever since it was announced at Paris Games Week in 2017. It immediately had me hooked because of its art style and concept. Pixelopus was definitely looking to do something different with this game and I feel they’ve succeeded.
The Art Design of this game is something else, it feels unique and isn’t something I can say I’ve seen in another game, at least for a while. Also, I can’t go without saying how beautiful this game is, the graphics are top-notch and it looks better than most AAA games we’ve seen this generation.
What is a game without a story, the Main Character is Ash, a young boy who uses his Sketchbook to get lost in the world of creativity. The story takes place in the abandoned town of Denska covered with pollution and overrun by bullies. The bullies are the main antagonists of the game who at the beginning tear the pages out of Ash’s sketchbook and send him to the lighthouse where Ash meets Luna.
Luna is the first genie introduced into the game and she gives you a magic brush to get rid of the pollution around Denska and the ability to create more genies to help you on your quest.
The story of Concrete Genie may seem pretty straightforward, but there’s much more context, twists, and turns until you get to the endgame. Pixelopus goes in-depth with the stories of the bullies, how Denska became polluted through small dialogue and newspapers, there are even certain character actions that may surprise you.
The gameplay of Concrete Genie is probably one of my biggest gripes with the game. It’s by no means bad, but it feels like it could’ve been expanded on a lot more. The first part of the game consists of you painting walls, but it then gets switched up in the latter part of the game. By the end, your magic brush is now rideable and you can now use fire, electricity, and wind attacks. I feel the gameplay could’ve really been more expansive by this point with more normal and special attack types or maybe even another weapon.
I appreciate the boss fights of Concrete Genie due to them switching location designs throughout the various fights. Although I wish they didn’t feel so tedious to play through, the boss fights go on way longer than they really should and the and it feels like the same fight pattern throughout the entire fight.
This game isn’t without its bugs, I had a bad one where I sat Ash in front of a TV and I couldn’t get up and had to do a hard restart of the game to fix it. I’ve also noticed that at times the Camera sometimes gets stuck and will take a while to get back where it should be even when using the right stick.
Although I definitely had my gripes with Concrete Genie such as the Gameplay and Tedious Boss fight design, it’s still doesn’t stop me from recommending this game to anyone looking to sit down for 6-8 hours and play a really enjoyable experience.
The In-Depth story, Art Design, and the clear heart and soul put into this by Pixelopus is great. It’s definitely worth your money and you should definitely go out your way to try the first breakout game of a small California developer.
Rating – 8/10
GamebredMatrix 