Concrete genie gameplay6/1/2023 I could never seem to find a control scheme that made painting pleasant. I applaud the game for having accessibility options for those who struggle with these controls or have a mobility/physical disability, but the alternate control scheme uses the right thumbstick, which is the same stick as the camera. Painting in this manner took me at least 3 hours to get used to. You have to flip within an on-screen sketchbook to access some of these elements.īy default, you have to use the Dualshock 4’s motion controls to paint on the walls. In order to tag the walls, you have to hit R2, which brings up a menu where you can choose from your different “tags”. You will start with basic stars and trees, for example, but will get more varied elements as time goes on. As Ash collects more and more of his sketches, he can vary the living elements that he tags on the walls. Starting first with the controls, it took me awhile to get used to the intricacies of the painting in the game, which is at the core of the experience. On the flip side, this game may bore adult players both from a story perspective. The story is cute and has some nice morals to it that would be very well-suited to an under 10 year-old crowd, but many of the mechanics in the game may be complicated for someone around the same age. In my opinion, the core issue is that Concrete Genie has major identity crisis. Furthermore, the mission and game design is generally boring and becomes quickly repetitive. However, the game does not have the same mechanical fluidity as other action-adventure games in the genre. The game focuses on exploration and platforming as well as painting mechanics for the first two-thirds of the experience, with more action-focused mechanics being added in the back-third of the game. Unfortunately, the gameplay in this six-hour title was not as impressive as the visuals. I played the game on a base PS4, so this may not be an issue for those with a PS4 Pro and it may be patched out in the near future. At no point did this affect gameplay, so it was a minor annoyance. From a technical perspective, however, the game did hitch and slow down at times. The gameplay centres of creating this art that persists in the environment. These areas get more beautiful when you begin to plaster the walls with your florescent art. I immediately thought of many different films and games that made me feel the same way as Concrete Genie: the 1994 film The Pagemaster and What Remains of Edith Finch came to mind as two examples. In easily the most artistically impressive game that I have played this year, you will move between a small set of locales from a Scandinavian-inspired fishing town to the underground sewers. The game has incredible style and awe-inspiring artistic direction. With these new companions in tow, Ash quickly gets embroiled in a much larger narrative that will require Ash to grow not only his skillset, but his courage at the same time. Alongside the paintbrush, Ash comes to meet the living versions of two of his drawings: the larger Luna as well as a smaller companion in Splotch, who lives on his sling bag. Very quickly, Ash discovers a magic paintbrush that allows him to paint living graffiti on the walls. These bad seeds rip up Ash’s sketchbook, setting him on an adventure to recover his sketches. At the start of the game while walking through town, Ash meets up with the initial antagonists of the game: a set of trouble-making bullies. The town has been abandoned by many of its citizens because of severe pollution that persists in the environment. In this game, you take the role of Ash, an artistic, quiet boy living in the fictional town of Denska. After working my way through the six-or-so hour campaign and taking in the entire package however, this title ambitiously swings for the fences but unfortunately only knocks out a ground-rule double on execution.Ĭoncrete Genie is an ambitious sophomore title from PixelOpus, the studio that created 2014’s Entwined. James and the Giant Peach + Jet Grind Radio + Infamous = Concrete Genie.Īt first glance, I was certain that this equation would make for an incredibly compelling package. Title: Concrete Genie Released On: OctoGenre: Action/Adventure Reviewed On: PS4 (Standard) Developer: PixelOpus Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) MSRP: $29.99 US / $39.99 CAD
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |