In line with Concrete GenieвЂ™s overall sense of earnestness and sincerity, these battles, at least from the one I encountered, play out more like attempts to capture a wild animal, protecting it from itself and from harming others. Ash gains a suite of new abilities to tackle these foes, who have been glimpsed in previous demos.Д«ut taking them on doesnвЂ™t really feel like a fight. Late in the game, a new combat system is introduced to AshвЂ™s repertoire to take on mysteriously appearing dark genies. Otherwise, youвЂ™re not really engaging in any sort of fight - that is, until Concrete GenieвЂ™s third act. Your genies canвЂ™t cross this substanceвЂ™s boundaries, but you can pull some particularly strong paint from your genies to weed out the darkness to progress. TheyвЂ™re loyal and like to help (if you treat them to a desired painting now and then), bouncing along the walls of buildings and interacting with the world around you to help you progress.ДЄs youвЂ™re painting light back into the world, youвЂ™re also fighting back a mysterious purple and black goo that has infected everything. However you draw them, genies are meant to persist throughout the game, and I pretty immediately latched on to the two I drew as if they were my own real-life pets. But if I drew a long, wiener dog genie, heвЂ™d basically become a loyal pup. Paint a squat, spiky little guy, and heвЂ™ll have a hot-headed attitude. Once created, the genie takes on a personality based on how itвЂ™s created. Painting from a few different base types, I could brush the body of a genie onto a wall with the flick of my controller, while adding a few extra elements like branches or spikes as horns or tails, to the body. And while I did need to keep a watchful eye for bullies walking the streets, who would chase after me if they spotted me, I never felt rushed in my painting of all those little or big happy trees.Д«ut of course, as the name implies, the genies you populate the world with are the most fascinating element. ItвЂ™s an oddly serene and therapeutic gameplay mechanic. But I found myself theming one wall as a sunny hillside, while the next would be a starry night bursting with life from the aurora borealis I painted. Ash needs to, essentially, literally paint the lights of his town back on, and literally drawing a line of stars across them is easy.

It sounds a bit limited on paper, but every wall is a blank canvas on which to paint, and thereвЂ™s just enough freedom offered in the motion controls, alongside a generous amount of paint element options that I never felt my creativity limited as I painted. But, with responsive movement from the DualShock 4вЂ™s motion controls, you adjust the size of a sun, the slope of a hill of grass, or the angle at which the branches of a tree bend. The foundational way each element looks remains the same, so you wonвЂ™t be tasked with painting every blade of grass or perfectly forming the circular shape of the sun.

Players have a palette of options to pull from in AshвЂ™s notebook, which expands as you find more pages in the world, to paint trees, stars, grass, suns, and more. Without any combat (well, until later in the game, but weвЂ™ll get to that), navigating Concrete GenieвЂ™s world is all about painting life back into Denska with AshвЂ™s magical brush. I encountered some light platforming and collectibles meant to enhance your knowledge of the town and its current, disparaging state - but the main hook of Concrete Genie is its magical painting gameplay. How Painting and Genies Work in Concrete Genie Ash, finding his way to a rundown lighthouse in search of the scattered pages of his sketchbook, stumbles across some magically imbued pages and a paintbrush that bring his creations, the titular genies, to 2D life. Their dialogue to one another, and to Ash, quickly establishes unique personalities - clearly some of the group is not as sure-headed in their bullying as others - and relationships among one another that I hope are explored throughout the rest of that story.ДЄnd that story gets going quickly. Though Ash is the focus, heвЂ™s also plagued by a group of bullies, who get a small amount of screentime at the start but left a surprisingly deep impression on me.

Concrete genie ign