“Rising from the ashes, I am born again, powerful, exultant, majestic through all the pain.”
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Concrete Genie puts you in control of Ash, a boy that escapes into art to escape the bullies and discovering his creations can come to life. Through his creations he finds a way to lift an old fishers’ town called Denska back to being a clean and vibrant town. It’s your job to bring back its new found glory. During this personal quest you’ll have to find a way to overcome the inner darkness through this colorful journey.
Concrete Genie runs very smoothly and running around the town is done in a fluid motion where you can go pretty much everywhere as Ash can climb and vault over obstacles and rooftops. Of course your purpose is to create “genies” that are created using prefab templates and bring them to life afterwards. Now the style is prefab but the motion controls offer enough liberty to really create the wackiest creatures for you to play with. I made a few of my own from a short little fella to one that was towering the walls with extremely long limbs. You can still run around while painting and the “super paint” mode is a nice touch to emphasize the sheer force of Ash’s determination and effect on the darkness around him!
At the beginning of the level you create a genie and you’ll have to make it follow you by adding color and life to the dark and infested walls. sometimes a genie will request a specific piece of art to be painted like a butterfly or a campfire to warm up. To replenish your magical paintbrush you’ll have to call the genie and he’ll fill it up if you create his ideal atmosphere to live in. They’ll even kick a ball your way when it leans against a wall and high-five you when you throw that ball through a hoop! These creatures are friendly and bring warmth to a town that has seemingly been deserted by all kindness and color.
The genies come in different elemental types like fire, water, electricity etc. They’ll require you to create the right one to be able to advance through the many clever puzzles the city throws at you. You’ll have to tackle the walls by creating the right murals to advance. It’s not all just running around and creating art. Denska is not only your playground…There’s pain…
Ash has demons in the form of his bullies. These kids run and bike around looking for you and when they get to you there’s nothing you can do to defend yourself. Another press that was playing besides me was talking to the staff about how stupid it was that you couldn’t fight against the bullies. I disagree, I think it’s good that the bullies cannot be defended against because it keeps you alert and it adds this feeling of powerlessness against this “darkness”. A strong contrast to the playfulness and warmth you feel interacting with your genies. Maybe further in the game you’ll be able to face them using your creations but for now they add strength to Ash’s escape from reality into the colorful world of the concrete genies!
I think the game has a lot more to show further down the line and I like how it doesn’t completely hold your hand telling you what to do at every step. You get some subtle clues but otherwise it’s up to you and your wits. I can’t wait to see more of what we’ll be able to create in Concrete Genie and what the story holds for us!
