With the help of the genies, beauty and light are returned to the fishing port, and you will open the entrance to the next stop, the Hydroelectric Plant. In this section, Ash is a mini Nathan Drake who climbs and jumps over all sorts of obstacles to find missing pages and solve puzzles. In the beginning, it’s mostly about traversing throughout the Fishing Port to find the lights. There’s so much more to gameplay than just the paintings. Travelling rooftops keeps you hidden from bullies. A press of the Triangle button will re-center the brush, and you can also switch the settings to use the Right Stick instead of motion, something I only learned after finishing the game. The motion controls can be finicky, which was one of the few issues I had with the game overall. I was initially worried that the learning curve of creating these masterpieces might be steep, like Media Molecule’s Dreams, but rest assured it’s a simple procedure that any one can master. Related Content – The Best PS4 ExclusivesĬoncrete Genie turns your controller into Ash’s magical paintbrush by using the motion controls to simulate the act of painting. The more pages of your sketchbook that you find scattered along the way will offer you a larger repertoire of subjects and genies to paint. Each section is split up into zones, and you need to find all the lights and turn them on by painting the areas around them. If you’re interested in playing the game, you can get it on PS4 exclusively with optional PSVR support for $29.99.The abandoned town provides a rather sizable canvas for you to paint on. This review is left scoreless because VR is such a small segment of Concrete Genie. As it stands, Concrete Genie’s PSVR offering won’t offend with its vibrant palette. Perhaps that’s a story for another time, though. A shame given the potential to mix the unparalleled freedom of VR’s creative tools with a narrative built around your artistic choices. Once you’re done, you can also visit some of the main game’s other locales in VR, which offers small pleasures. Whipping up rainbows and winds carries a soothing flow. Blobby painted companion, Splotch, is a joy to hang out with, dithering about in lovably clumsy fashion. It’s missing the most vital element: you.īetter to take this at face value, then, and enjoy its shallow surface. The resulting masterpiece never quite feels earned. This is Tilt Brush Lite a chance to quickly slap up the kind of VR artwork it might take you hours to perfect otherwise. There’s scope to create an Eden of your choosing although, again, it’s limited to the tools the game provides. Trees are summoned and pulled from the earth with mighty upheaval, apples can be stapled to their branches and the skies can be dusted with twinkling stars. No longer are you summoning pastel-colored grass with a swipe of your arms but instead sprouting the genuine article from the ground wherever you see fit. Here the experience moves into the third dimension. Initially it’s a straightforward conversion you pepper walls with stars, campfires, and grass, but eventually the game swaps street art for God sim as you find yourself thrown into one of your paintings. Seen through in 30 minutes or less, Concrete Genie’s VR add-on swaps out some troublesome DualShock 4 controls for the Move controllers but keeps you firmly rooted to the spot. The same is largely true of the game’s harmlessly pleasant VR options. There is the illusion of creative freedom, but never the true realization of it. The grass is meadow-green, the sun shimmers and the campfires crackle, but it’s all thanks to developer Pixel Opus’ own artistry rather than your own. These are often delightful to look at but ultimately confined to the tools the game makes available rather than your own desires. Rescuing the dreary remains of a once-thriving fishing village whittles down to brushing pre-determined patterns onto its every surface. Concrete Genie has heart and warmth but, from what I’ve played, it’s more sticker book than blank canvas.
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