Going Platinum #14: Concrete Genie 1
Image: Push Square

Platinum Trophy #14: Concrete Genie

Date Earned: 8th October 2019

Dopamine Index:

Concrete Genie has an air of sadness about it, despite being a pretty joyous experience to play.

It was only the second game produced by developer PixelOpus, but it was much bigger in scope and offered something quite different from Sony's slate of exclusive titles at the time. It would also be the last game the team would release.

The whole situation is a real shame, because Concrete Genie shows real potential and imagination. It's not a perfect game, but PixelOpus took an earnest swing to make something unique, and it certainly did that.

You play as a young boy named Ash who happens to stumble upon a magical paintbrush. Painting on the walls of the dreary town he lives in, Ash's creations spring to life, inhabiting a 2D realm that gives you the freedom to express yourself.

While you need to do specific things to solve puzzles and progress through the story, each dank wall on the streets of Denska is a blank canvas, on which you can create friendly creatures and various plants and objects for them to use.

There's a lot to like about Concrete Genie's rather sweet adventure. One moment that caught me off-guard, however, was in the final quarter of the game, it suddenly introduces combat, but because it's wrapping up it doesn't have any time to evolve beyond the basics.

It's an odd choice, but I have to respect the attempt to keep things fresh.

The Trophy list is just as light and playful as the game itself, I seem to remember. There are fun interactions to be had with your genie pals, and collectibles to find throughout the journey.

From memory it's a pretty natural list to work through, meaning I earned nearly all the Trophies just playing through naturally.

I didn't get all the Trophies for the PSVR mode, mind you. So, while I have the plat, I don't have 100%, which you'd think would bother me but I cannot express to you how much it doesn't.

Cheers, Concrete Genie.

Do you have the platinum Trophy in Concrete Genie? Tell us in the comments section below.