Status: Completed (Platinum Trophy)
Date: 01.18.2021 | Play Time: 8 hours

A fun, lighthearted collectathon that lets you be creative with an easy-to-use art template.
While most games structured like this will have you going around collecting a bunch of random stuff only to have the end reward be a costume or something, every collectible in Concrete Genie has a purpose.
I wanted to get every single page not because of the end reward, but because every page would unlock one more design in my art arsenal (artsenal). I’d find a wall I need to paint with some specific designs, so I’d take to the streets hunting for the pages so I could circle back and paint the wall only to see it come alive. It’s an incredibly satisfying collection loop.

What makes this process more fulfilling is that this dark, dingy, deserted fishing town completely comes to life with the colorful paintings you put everywhere. I would go out of my way to cover every single surface with art even if the game wasn’t asking me to do it. I wanted to see that place come alive, and the end result was very satisfying.

+ Extremely good collectible loop with great payoff
+ Great art system that lets you feel like you’re making cool art even if you aren’t an artist.
+ Fun, colorful visuals

- Surprise new mechanics at the end of the game felt a bit tacked on
- Motion controls are sometimes a bit finicky. But when you turn them off, it’s clear the game was designed with motion controls in mind.
- The bullies were occasionally annoying. Just leave me alone and let me paint.

When you grow up having a tumultuous relationship with your parents, houses become distorted. Creaking floorboards and door handles, rustling keyholes, deep sighs and stares, tones of voice. All signals your brain receives as alarms. Danger. Be quiet. Poke your head into the hallway, but don't be seen. Rest your ear in the door and listen closely. Don't come out.
The house the Finch family lived in is empty, but also isn't. There's no one here, but some things remained. Their favorite things: be they toys, trophies, or photos. Their history is embedded into every wall of the house, sometimes even their deaths are etched into its architecture.
I have lived in many places throughout my life, unlike the Finch family. But still, things remained. I look back to all the houses I've lived in and yet everything feels the same, because I remember what remained. Because it followed me to every house. It lives in the creaking floorboards and rustling keyholes. It lives in the stares and the sighs. Because a house, a home, is not just somewhere you live in. It transcends the physical plane and becomes something much more abstract and hard to explain. I feel like I have always lived in the same house, even though that's not the case. They begin to blend in my mind as a towering structure constructed by memories that feel too familiar.

When you're a kid, the relationship between your parents and grandparents can seem a little whimsical. But when you start growing up, you begin to see the cracks. You see the lies, you see the fighting, and little kid tears just can't fix it anymore. And eventually, the big fight breaks out and you choose a side. Things change forever. You start to learn more of the history of your mom's life. You learn about the abuse, and of the things that remained and eventually escalated into this new reality you've been trust into.

And as time goes by, things get worse. And when things get worse, you start to see what remained with your own eyes, because it's happening to you. The fighting, the screaming, the belittling. Except you're not the observer anymore.

You try getting tough. You also begin to lie and scream and fight.
You try to make distance. To avoid small talk or eye contact all together.
You think you're gonna be different, that you won't be like that.

But you start doing this with the wrong people. To people you love and care about. And this is where the "curse" is born. It takes form out of that cyclical abuse and begins to seep into everything you do. It molds your life into a nightmare and you become convinced. You start to believe there is a curse, that this is how it's gonna play out no matter what. That how you are is predestined: if everyone else couldn't beat it, how could you? The curse takes a hold of you. And it won't let go.


But something eventually happens. There's a change for the better. Maybe life at home is better, we who remain start working out the issues, maybe we find solace in others and we start to realize it doesn't have to be like this. It never had to be.
Our life doesn't have to be dictated by who our parents are, who they think we have to be, or any stupid "curse". The cycle can be broken, be it by our parents or us. And when we break it, what matters is what we leave behind. What remains.

The manipulative nature of the narrative and how it's told is entirely the point. Legacy as a manufactured curse. The player explores a symbolic mausoleum dedicated to the grief felt over generations, weaponized to induce and propagate the cycle of mental illness and the futility of that struggle. It's uncompromisingly pernicious, containing laser focus and wonderfully composed sequences of death played out through the lens of magical realism. I adore it for its relaxing if off-putting features even if it reeks with the stench of utter defeatism.

not a huge fan of walking simulators in general so this is already an accomplishment for the game to achieve a 7/10 (which is good fans dont kill me please pleek pleek)

i actually think that the way the story is told with the whole words in the air whatever thing actually managed to make me focused on what was happening because ADHD is a thing that could be eating me alive and the restricted interactivity of the game gets the point across for me

story wise its pretty cool and exploring the familys overarching traumas that passed the test of time is incredibly interesting and even though i thought it wouldve gotten real boring real quick the different "gameplay" and storytelling of each one of these bite sized epitaphs piqued my interest in a way i didnt think this game could be able to and going for a stroll through finch manors (i dont know if its called like this but thats the name i used to refer to the house in my mind) impossible geometry architecture and verticality using secret passages (that tbh kinda fueled my claustrophobia but lets ignore that) is great

i feel like the manor is kind of a metaphor for the familys odd nature (tough shit probably 99+ youtubers already made a video about this analogy and im acting like discovering america) and oof theres some stories here that really take the cake in the disturbing or distressing factor

clearly my fav tales were the cat one and the fish factory one and also the baby bath one kind of i think this is where the narrative abilities of the devs (and also their usage of the medium) really shine through and i hate them for putting the cat one as the first story because i still feel kind of nauseous about it i think the "fish stuff" has become a meme im not aware of because while playing the game a friend came up to me on discord and said "oh shit the fish scene game omg i finished the game feeling kind of hollow but i didnt cry" and so i told him im 100% sure it wouldnt make me cry more than famous furry gay vn adastra did and proceeded to send him the guy fucking a fish meme whatever

lewis was a fucking blast because the "epitaph part" makes you do 2 things at a time with the 2 analogs trying to convey the methodical nature of this guys day to day life in contrast to his daydreaming wonders and also its the one that possibly hit me the most as a not so mentally sane person myself

and also lewis in the little sketch is kinda cute i want him as a bf i can fix him

wow this review doesnt make sense and also i dont know english ok umh nice fish game cute experience for a less than 2 hours runtime and a testament that walking simulators can be good

i didnt cry in the end which is pretty weird for me since i actually cry for every fucking piece of media ever created but maybe the dreamlike feel of it all made the events distant and hard to relate for me at least (says the person who cried for 4 hours straight during a furry vn where a gay sexy space wolf abducts and courts you)

biggest twist was that the girl was pregnant i audibly gasped like you know your family tree has a curse deal going on and you dont use condoms ? sweetie we need to talk

also this game is so weird like "i want to know the truth behind my family members mysterious deaths" proceeds to win the golden medal in trekking and climbing