Concrete Genie

An indie game aimed at the adolescent public that has a good finish and remarkable artistic section. It's short and it can be repetitive until its last quarter, but you can enjoy during its few 6-8 hours.

If you are going to buy Concrete Genie buy it for the novelty. You’ll probably enjoy painting the town with glorious neon landscapes, but there’s just not much more to it than that.

Concrete Genie is a very special game, a white fly in the current landscape but, on balance, it fails to emerge in the best way.

Concrete Genie’s huge potential wasn’t fulfilled the way I would have wished. It’s wonderful to look at but visual prowess doesn’t go toe to toe with providing lots of fun gameplay-wise. The good fun lasts for two hours after which it starts getting tedious. [12/2019, p.60]

Even though some concepts never really feel fleshed out, Concrete Genie's imaginative design is compelling. It’s often way too straightforward, and elements like the combat feel like afterthoughts. However, covering Denska's walls with vibrant illustrations brings a wonderful sense of satisfaction, and watching your genies come to life is a delight.

Concrete Genie’s wide-eyed appreciation for creativity and offbeat gameplay make it easy to recommend to parents looking for something for elementary or middle school kids. Though it lacks three-dimensional characters, it doesn’t lack for joie de vivre.

The exclusive PS4 game Concrete Genie is a magical adventure in which painting your own artworks works pretty well. The repetitive gameplay and limited freedom, however, could have used some fresh paint.

Concrete Genie may look arty but it’s a very classical game. It’s well-done but it never really gives to the player the feeling that he/she is the creator.

At times, Concrete Genie can be a little too pleasant, which makes the action-packed conclusion really jarring. Still, the contrast between Ash's fantasy and his reality is truly stunning.

Concrete Genie is a game with a positive message that’s ultimately held back by its execution. While I appreciate Sony’s efforts to let its in-house studios experiment with smaller titles, I’m just not sure that this one will be remembered as fondly as the other PS4 indie exclusives.

Concrete Genie is a gorgeous game that will fulfill your eyes, but it fell short in terms of gameplay mechanics.

Concrete Genie is a guided experience with a very interesting artistic and music approach.

Even if Concrete Genie offers nice arty visuals, and a good freedom in the murals we can paint, most of the other aspects are let downs, from the gameplay to the level design and the narrative.

Most of what Concrete Genie has to offer is fun and beautiful in a sort of childlike way. The game is not particularly difficult, and overcoming a puzzle or combat scenario isn't always satisfying. But it's ultimately still an endearing experience throughout. There's plenty of enjoyment to be found just from the act of exploring, and little hidden secrets along the way help make it worthwhile; I just wish Concrete Genie had more adventure waiting for me.

Concrete Genie is a little and charming experience, that makes you feel again the joy of staring, like a child, at a blank page, armed with few brushes and colours, with absolutely no worries in mind.

It’s a chill experience where players can freely paint the town, create some pleasant beasts, and engage in a predictable but welcome story that’s about using art to cleanse demons. Nothing is particularly extraordinary nor is any one aspect less than solid but there’s a commitment to the vision here that had modest and realistic goals. Concrete Genie paints within its humble parameters and still makes a lovely piece of art even if it isn’t The Starry Night.

Concrete Genie feels like a satisfying story, even if it does clock in at only four or five hours for the main story. For a value-priced game, that still feels rather short. However, between all of the pages that Ash can grab to add to his sketchbook, there are hundreds of different artistic combinations to bring out. And I will say that Pixelopus largely makes the most of the time given, with multiple art styles and a relatable lead character in Ash. It's not a masterpiece, but Concrete Genie is still a fine piece of art.

Concrete Genie, much like its main character Ash, is good-natured and warm, but also a bit flat and one-note. The game, in spite of a late-game gameplay pivot, never truly manages to engage beyond its admittedly charming painting mechanic.

Concrete Genie is a warm, joyful experience that embraces creativity in a unique way. Painting your way through Denska is effortlessly fun, and the genies that help Ash through his adventure are delightful. While this main thrust of the game is well realised, combat feels like an afterthought, as it's stashed away right at the end. This and a couple of smaller issues hold the game back from greatness, but taken as a whole, this is definitely worth playing -- and pretty as a picture, too.

Concrete Genie is creative and beautiful, but at the same time it is not all that spectacular. The story clearly tries to add an emotional extra layer to the painting arts, but it is all too predictable to really make an impact.

Concrete Genie is a simple game but it shines with animation techniques. Painting something and seeing its becoming alive is really enjoying experience. But all of these things don't change that simplicity.

It is clear that PixelOpus believes a lot in his project and that it was born out of sacrifice, dedication and love for art. Unfortunately, Concrete Genie is far from reaching the heights that so much effort would deserve and seems to be destined to pass unnoticed. With that said, it has the potential to touch the heart of those who love drawing more than anything else.

One thing is certain: Concrete Genie's identity crisis proves its creators still have some maturing left to do. [Issue#340, p.106]

Fresh ideas, beautiful visuals, but shallow gameplay that fizzles out uncomfortably soon. Concrete Genie is fun for a while and it is capable of gripping you, so it might serve as a tool to overcome foul mood. But this should have been a much better game.

The originality of Concrete Genie proposal is marred by a lack of depth in the playable side, besides the multiple bugs.

Concrete Genie is worth playing for its neat story and the magical atmosphere of its world. You should know, though, that it lacks the depth to fully sustain its - already brief - runtime.

If Concrete Genie was a fully-priced game, most anyone playing through it would feel shorted by their investment. As it stands, though, it’s amusing in spurts and, while it never fully wears out its welcome, it nevertheless struggles to make an impact.

Concrete Genie is certainly easy on the eyes and ears, with brilliant colors popping out of the screen and a light, airy score to coaxe life out of your paintings. It even successfully switches around the perspective of a strained parent-child relationship compared to what we've seen in other games. Unfortunately the monotonous nature of everything in between creating Genies, from dodging bullies to dousing Denska with Super Paint, drags it down.

Concrete Genie is a colorful and magical fairy tale for children. The project, perhaps too ambitious, however led to a clearly incomplete work.

If the sympathetic capital of the creatures of Concrete Genie is undeniable, for all the rest, the title developed by the Californian studio Pixelopus barely shines beyond its singular artistic direction. Without an original proposal of gameplay and a very limited interaction with the nice monsters, the progression is tasteless, remote-controlled and we will quickly choose to move from motion detection to the right stick, which says a lot about the success of the game initial concept.