Aside from a genie’s requested sketches, so long as exuberant life is drawn you’re being implicitly rewarded to see this town resurrect into something more positive and vibrant. How you wish to go about accomplishing these tasks is typically up to your unique eye when painting the town red, yellow, blue, and every hue between. Having this open-ended, leisurely means of painting tulips, tall trees, and more onto virtually every wall compliments Ash’s artistry and combats the seedier elements that made Denska rot.
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Like Entwined before it, these mechanical metaphors are married cohesively in regards to its core concept. Though it may seem tangential, I do believe there is another aspect to consider about Denska: the interplay between gameplay and the story of reviving the town. It dawdles this strange line between an ecological and emotional intention and since there’s so little to go on, the idea isn’t as effectively explored as Ash’s personal journey. While the game does sometimes infer ‘the incident’ as having a certain meaning, Ash will outright state the real purpose behind it all. There are roughly a dozen newspaper stories to disinter throughout this world, all providing background about the town before and after a suspicious accident. The story of Denska is not as thematically consistent, however. Short as they are, these touches do so much more than they would if they were in-engine cutscenes but with a black-and-white filter. Each bully’s backstory transitions into a 30 second sketched animation smattered with dour visual hues in contrast, the first time we see Ash have a similar recollection it reveals a warmer atmosphere. It typically remains economical with its cutscenes and its varied presentation does wonders in eliciting the intended emotion. Yet that doesn’t take away from how engaging it is, especially in respect to its pacing. These circumstances eventually lead to him acquiring a magical paintbrush which can render murals that come alive - literally “Genies” which assist along the way.įor anyone familiar with these types of empathetic storylines concerning good-guy-versus-bullies there aren't many surprises. Those bullies intimidate Ash for a bit, tear up his sketchbook, and throw him in a trolley going to the lighthouse. What’s left are a pack of young vagrants roaming the streets and this black-and-purple goop whose forms vary between oily masses floating above the sea to thorny manifestations that create paint barriers or roadblocks. Questionable attire aside, he’s an endearing kid, simply drawing what comes to mind while traversing Denska, the once-thriving fishing village that's now abandoned.
![concrete genie all genie moments concrete genie all genie moments](https://oddfellows.tv/app/uploads/2020/01/Intro_03-scaled-copy.jpg)
You take control of Ash, a young sketch artist who looks like he's tumbled through a local Hollister. But it’s something about their presentation and a unique hook that captures my attention more easily than the recycled-though typically polished-cinematic template Sony is apt at utilizing even so, Concrete Genie still exemplifies this young studio’s penchant of under-developing their potent & artistically-minded ideas. Even stranger when considered that their well-intentioned first game, Entwined, didn’t quite connect with me either. Whereas wider anticipation was built up for the brain-splattering exercises in Days Gone or Hideo Kojima’s next weird exercise in Death Stranding, PixelOpus’ sophomore effort is the one PlayStation exclusive I’ve been most hyped to play. By Lee Mehr, posted on 04 November 2019 / 3,777 Views