Concrete Genie Review

Concrete Genie’s best idea – the one you’ll return to over and again across its six-hour runtime – is, for the most part, sort of optional. If you’ve seen anything from Pixelopus’ second game, you’ll have seen that idea in action: lead character Ash pausing his semi-open world platforming to daub living drawings across the sides of run-down buildings. Trees sprout and grow, 2D waterfalls pour from rooftops onto bobbing ponds, and stars sprinkle themselves across brick-backed skies like dropped glitter. Thing is, if you wanted to, you could cynically cover almost every wall in paintings of a few boring blades of grass and still be able to continue. But you won’t. More likely, you’ll spend far longer than is technically required in each area, creating shimmering landscapes across the length of this shuttered city, and for no reason other than your own satisfaction. This is Concrete Genie’s crowning achievement.

Continue reading…