Concrete Genie is an action-adventure game developed by Pixelopus: Concrete Genie came out October 8, 2019, and if you haven’t played it yet, it’s time. 

You play as Ash, an artist who has little to no friends at the start of the game: You will use his sketchbook and a special brush to bring Genies to life! All while bringing life back to a once beautiful town. 

Concrete Genie is an action-adventure game with puzzles and platforming. As you traverse the various areas, you will slowly bring the light back to Denska. Denska has been polluted by darkness, and it’s up to you to fix it. 

Story 

You play as Ash, who has a love for art. One day, while he is sketching, a group of bullies approach him and steal his sketchbook, ripping all of the pages out. After they ruin his book, he is sent on a cable car by force and arrives at the lighthouse. 

Concrete Genie has a beautiful story; as you traverse the lighthouse, Luna gives you a task; she wants you to clear Denska of the pollution that has taken over. 

As you go through the story, you discover more about the bullies and why they’re so mean to Ash. Concrete Genie does a good job making the “villains” of the story come alive. Although there is no excuse for how they treated Ash, they make up for it by the end of the game. 

Pacing: 

As you go through the game, you unlock different portions of Denska to explore and paint on! You can tag everything that Ash can reach, so long as the bullies don’t catch you! Each area has enough puzzles to make it last at least 20 minutes. 

Concrete Genie does a fantastic job laying out the lore, setting the scene, and doing it all without you having to spend over 30 hours playing the game. Each area has a few puzzles and objects to climb on. Ash will need the Genies to access all areas, and they will ask you to draw pictures to make them happy! 

You can find newspapers scattered around; this will be your primary way of finding lore in Concrete Genie: What happened in the past is not force-fed to you as you play the game. The story you’re given feels fresh, and each character is fleshed out enough to make them feel real. 

The Bullies: 

As you play the game, you will be running away from, and later befriending, Zack, Beatrice, Froggie, Chuck, and Jane. Each bully has his/her backstory that you discover by making contact with them throughout the game. 

Each character has a personality; you only see it for a short amount of time. After Ash learns about their backstories, he starts to feel sympathetic, a trait I love about Ash. 

Gameplay 

Concrete Genie uses the duelsense motion controls, and it uses it well. Once you start painting, you’ll be able to tilt the controller to make all kinds of pictures! 

There are elements of parkour or platforming in the game as well! The platforming is done exceptionally well! It never felt unfair or unfun; eventually, you will have to touch the ground, but the game provides plenty of spaces where you can climb back up to the roofs! Climbing will be how you escape the bullies early in the game; you will also find pages floating around on rooftops! 

Combat in the game is relatively simple, and you only see it at the end of the game. Your genies will provide you with different powers; red attacks help break red shields, and so on. It is simple because the focus on the game is not the combat. 

Your genies get corrupted at the end of the game, and you must battle them to win them back. Ash makes a point in taming them again and not causing them harm. 

Each mechanic is introduced when it’s needed and is not tossed in your face all at once. Even the combat tutorial is properly spaced out, and that makes the whole segment refreshing. 

Final Thoughts 

Concrete Genie is a beautiful game filled with characters that bring the world to life. A lack of feature creep makes the game easy to digest and adds to the game’s replay value!  

Each Genie has a cute personality, and you can interact with them in a few ways! You will be able to pat them, play with them, and draw for them to see their reactions. Some Genies are more cautious, and some are extremely curious: You can tell by their facial expressions thought the game. 

The story is simple but beautiful. I only wish you got more time with the characters. Concrete Genie takes about 5-6 hours to beat, but you could spend hours painting and collecting pages. The runtime is not an issue because there is little to no filler in the game. 

Each environment presents a different challenge, and as you traverse, you will find new things to look at! The sewer is my favorite area because you have the chance to make a dark area extremely colorful. 

I experienced a couple of frame-rate drops playing on the PS5, but nothing that would take away from the experience. The motion controls are good, some of the best I’ve seen but still unresponsive in some areas. I had to turn them off because getting the angles right became a chore. 

I would score Concrete Genie at an 8/10. The gameplay was refreshing, and it’s clear the developers knew what they wanted to do with this game. Tutorials are introduced smoothly, and each character has a bit of personality, even if you don’t get a lot of time with them. The segments with combat are simple enough to catch onto and never provide too much of a challenge; the end boss fight is a fair experience. 

If you haven’t played Concrete Genie, it’s time to stop reading this and do it. 

Score

Concrete Genie is getting an 85/100. Scoring it a Golden Token.