Concrete Genie (PS4) Review

The town is your canvas.

 

 Concrete Genie is a neat adventure game from studio Pixelopus and one was just recently been part of the PlayStation Plus offerings. A painting game where you control a paintbrush that can summon magical creatures, I've heard some good praise on it and decided to check it out since it looked interesting, that and I felt like playing a short game after spending hours on RPGs these past months. So is it any good? Let's find out.

 The story follows Ash, a young artist who can summon colorful beings known as "Genies" that he drew on his sketchbook using a special paintbrush. With this power, he'll have to save his childhood fishing town of Denska, which has been abandoned ever since it's been engulfed in darkness. Along the way, Ash will also face his bullies, who each have their own tragic pasts behind them. Overall, the story was a nice one with its moments and the cast of characters eventually grew on me.

While nothing special, the story was surprisingly wholesome.

 Concrete Genie is a straightforward game as you'll draw lots of landscapes and genies to restore color to the town and fight the darkness. This is done by exploring each section of Denska while avoiding the bullies. Ash's brush is either controlled with the analog stick or motion controls, though I personally suggest using the former since it's much simpler. The game's strives to unleash your inner creativity by allowing you to customise your genies in your own unique way and draw some stunning landscapes using the game's concrete walls (hence the name). I'm not much of an artistic person, but I did find some fun in making my own designs feel unique and interesting. Scattered across town are several pages of Ash's notebook, which include more landscapes and genie designs to draw, so they're worth collecting.

While you'll be painting a lot, combat is little to none.

 As for the town, it's neatly varied as since you'll be exploring the town's neighborhoods, power plant, lighthouse, sewers, which are all jam-packed together. That said, the world felt empty as there was barely anything that made it alive aside from Ash, the genies, and the bullies. There are several newspapers to read, which tells the tragedies that befell the town, but would've been great to actually interact with NPCs and the wildlife. Also worth noting is the game's lack of a mini-map feature, which would've been helpful as constantly having to pull up the map from the menu got tiresome after a while. Once you're done with the adventure, there isn't much to do aside from trying out the free level mode, where you can paint to your heart's content, collect all pages of Ash's notebook, and search each the town for secret sketches. It's an 6-8 hour game, so it's pretty light on the replay-value. 

The world was nice to explore, but felt empty even 
after the ending.

 Visually, Concrete Genie is a stunner given it's small scope. I enjoyed the hand-drawn art-style of the characters and cut-scenes, and even the backgrounds were impressive. What takes the cake is obviously the game's vibrant and bright lightning effects, which brings life to your creations and made for some memorable moments. As for the voice-work and soundtrack, they were great, though nothing really stood-out for me.

Concrete Genie boasts an impressive presentation.

 Overall, Concrete Genie was a good game that I enjoyed as there's no real sense of urgency to rush you into beating it. The story and gameplay were one the light side, as the main spectacle here are the fantastic visuals. If you're expecting a deep and engaging experience you might be a bit disappointed, but those looking for a nice, relaxing game that you can enjoy for a few hours may find some fun in Concrete Genie.