You simply hit L1 to summon the Genies and as many that can will eventually show up. Genies are confined to the walls, but they are able to follow you throughout the city provided there is a connected surface upon which they can travel. Sometimes, instead of showing exactly what symbols to use the wall might show the end result and you’ll need to figure out the symbols required to get that drawing. There is so much emotion conveyed in just the body language, facial expressions, and the limited guttural sounds, and when you aren’t sure exactly what they want an informative thought bubble will pop-up showing you exactly what they want you to draw. You might even get to play with your Genie, play some basketball, watch TV, or sing some Karaoke. At this point the game will attach arms and legs and your Genie springs to life and interacts with you in ways you wouldn’t think possible. Be as crazy and original as you want before bringing your creation to life. You then get to add ears, antennae, wings, a tail, etc. The first step is to create the body which can be vertical or in some cases horizontal. Scattered about the city are spots where you can create a Genie, and the more parts/pages you have found the more creative you can be. And as expected, there is a bit of backtracking involved in gathering up all the collectibles. Another important element is finding those pages from your book, which adds to your growing palette of artistic components and Genie body parts. The primary objective in each part of the city is to light up all the strings of lights hanging on the walls by creating your own living graffiti on the walls beneath them. Genies have elemental abilities like fire, wind, and electricity and you get to decide which Genies are needed when it comes to solving various environmental puzzles as you set out to restore Denska to its former glory.Ĭoncrete Genie has a very open-ended gameplay loop that allows a lot of freedom in exploration and artistic expression. Potato Head) that will spring to life and follow him around the city. Using the power of paint, Ash is able to create these wonderful living drawings using a combination of symbolized drawing components, but even better Ash is able to create these amazing Genies using various body parts (think Mr. Luna repairs his sketchbook, gives Ash a magic paintbrush, and introduces him to Splotch, the first of several magical creatures that will find a home in Ash’s backpack. The encounter ends with the bullies sending Ash to the nearby island lighthouse, but that is where the magic and the adventure begin.Īsh discovers a magical energy inside the lighthouse that brings one of his favorite drawings to life. Naturally, the bullies catch up to Ash and swipe his sketchbook scattering the pages to the wind and all corners and rooftops of Denska – something to collect in your upcoming adventures. This once thriving fishing village has become environmentally and emotionally polluted by an oil spill that has brought a supernatural darkness to the town. The game opens with a fairly long cutscene where we meet Ash, a young artist who spends his days drawing in his sketchbook while avoiding the local gang of bullies who seem to have free fun over the abandoned city of Denska. Simply put, Concrete Genie defies everything we know about gaming and game design, effectively turning the player into a member of the studio’s art department while infusing the artistic creation parts with just enough traditional adventure and exploration to keep things familiar. It’s very rare when I’m only an hour or so into a game and I’m ready to declare it a major contender for Game of the Year, but that’s exactly how I felt playing Concrete Genie, a stunningly beautiful and inspirational exercise in originality that would give birth to a new genre if I thought this experience could ever be replicated.
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