Concrete Genie

With the amount of love and care poured into the storytelling, I wanted more from the gameplay. If the first part of Concrete Genie were more tightly done, it could have easily been one of my favorite games of the year. But like the fishing town of Denska itself, it faded before I could really appreciate it.

Concrete Genie is messy, much like the adolescent story it tells. The storytelling can be a bit too on the nose — like graffiti calling Ash “the paint nerd” — and the controls can be strangely complex at times, particularly in the last chapter when the game gets more action-heavy. But ultimately, it has just enough charm and warmth to make it worth the brief journey. They might not look like the genies you’re expecting, but that’s part of what makes them so memorable.