No matter you are an art lover or not, there is no way you could resist Concrete Genie, an upcoming PS4-exclusive game, which allows players to create street art with a paint brush.
Although it is not the first time for Concrete Genie to showcase a playable demo, QooApp gets to learn the attractiveness of this highly-anticipated artsy game at TGS2019.
▍Story
To start the game, you may need to understand the backstory in advance so that you could involve into the unique settings of the game. Concrete Genie takes place in a small town named Denska, which has been dilapidated and abandoned after an environmental disaster.
Players will play as Ash, who regularly doodles in his notebook. However, a group of bullies steals the book, rips out the pages and scatters them throughout the city. As Ash goes on a quest to recover his pages, he discovers a magical paint brush that can bring his creations to life.
As his journey goes, he discovers that his work can save the town from destruction. All he has to do is to stay creative and avoid the dark creatures lurking in the street corner.
▍Story Trailer
▍Hands-on Experience at TGS 2019
The stunning graphic visuals and enchanting art style is undoubtedly a charm. Players could paint grass, apples, flames, trees, stars, suns, tulips, or a bunch of other natural things on every wall you find. As you find more of Ash’s lost sketchbook pages, you can add new things to paint. For most of the time, there are no requirements on what you have to paint on the walls, giving players a huge imaginative space to create your work.
The light bulb at the top of the walls serves as a clear direction on whether you successfully lit up the area. If you do that on enough buildings in a zone, you can liberate the zone from the pollution. And it gives a huge satisfaction when you bring the abandoned street back to life.
The painting process may be tricky, as you have to hold down R1 to start painting and then use the controllers’ six-axis tilt sensors to move the cursor around the brick and mortar canvas. All you need is time for adjustment and soon you will enjoy the intuitive painting process.
The drawing itself doesn’t really require any artistry skills, you pretty much just select what you like to draw from a menu of designs that you have collected in Denska, then use the motion controls to shape it the way you like. But the brush strokes finds similarity with the features of oil paintings, giving everyone a chance to become an artist.
Creating Genies is another impressive feature. The Genies can have different personalities based on how you draw them. As you can illustrate the Genie in different shapes and attachments, it is like creating a baby of your own. I still find it adorable when I created my Genie with four horns and six pair of hands. You can also interact with the Genie by playing basketball with him or drawing things he requests on the wall. In return, he would offer special presents to you.
As every players create their genies and paint the walls differently, the streets of Denska will turn out differently for every player, making your town unique on its own.. Throughout the game you will collect a variation of brushes with different motifs, giving variations to the artwork that you create.
Unlike other action-adventure games, where you have to fight against enemies or villains, you have to avoid the bullies as you continue your quest. Though you don’t have to fight the bullies, you will still be thrilled by the action and adventure elements, such as climbing up the roof to avoid bullies or searching for the missing sketchbook pages.
▍Last Comments
It is a very unique, art-driven game where you can express your own creativity. During the painting process, it brought back my childhood memories as I paint colors on my illustration book. It is a fun and healing process, which is indeed missing in many video games nowadays.
The bullying and environmental theme brings depth to the game. It is something that is so universal that you can easily relate the story to yourself. A combat scene is also revealed in the official demo video and I am dying to try that when it is officially released on 8th October.
