Genesis Noir (2021)

First thing first this as with many other pc ported games playes absolutely awful on the switch. And for a game that's all about finnicking with stuff, when the finnicking feels awful and drifty, its just not a good time.

The game is visually stunning tho, and it feels fresh, different, narrative told by images and sound cues. It does at some point turn a bit too abstract for me, and I find myself losing interest in even this short game.

A good shot at making somehting different, and it does feel different, and the art direciton is incredible. But as a game epxerience? Me

I had low expectation for GN, expecting it to be a fairly short gimmick of some kind, but it's more than that at the very least. While it isn't long, and it is a fairly 'on rails' kind of adventure game. It's smooth and lean and doesn't have most of the pitfalls that other point and click adventure games have (and that's basically what it is, fite me!) (it's like film noir and Gnosticism had a baby, such a bizzarre inspiration)

It is a multi-dimensional (literally and figuratively) point and click with shifting camera angles, which only adds to the visual spectacle. It combines the buttery smooth animations and rendered video visuals with audio feedback based on your actions. These compoents are fantastic, and mesh with both the overall style, that is very artistic, with a story that has philosophical/thoughtful depth to it. I very much enjoyed.

However, at times some of the games 'puzzles' are longwinded, and somewhat obtuse. I would not want this game to be longer, maybe even would want it shorter. The laboratory equipment puzzle got really annoying by the end...

In nay case it's one of the most interesting point-and-click type adventures I've ever played. The story in this game was smarter than me, and my ability to understand or fully appreciate, (and not in what i feel was some pretentious way) and I have to respect that. It was also overall fun to play. Not perfect but highly recommended.

I didn't know what to expect with this one. I'm not sure it ever fully won me over, but I have to give it up for its absolutely stunning visual aesthetics. This is a gorgeous game, through and through, with a look that stands apart.

That said, this is only maybe my third or fourth visual novel-style experience, and I'm learning it's just not my thing. Which is weird, since I'm a fiction author, but in the end I want to be -doing- more in this world. So I can't fault it for being part of a certain genre and I have to take it for what it is, but I also don't know if I would recommend it as anything more than a visual masterwork worth experience just once.

I'm not really sure what to think about this game.

It cant be denied that Genesis Noir is super creative and visually appealing, but on the other hand the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.

The game is also unnecessarily long: during the last hour of the game I was audibly asking for the story to please get to the end already. The novelty of the presentation quickly disappears and from the midpoint onwards I was already tired of how repetitive it gets.

Frankly, its one of those games that I recommend watching it on YouTube instead of playing it.

Completed on Xbox Series S, got it via Game Pass.

I ran into some unfortunate issues with having to redo content that killed my interest in continuing the game. There was no warning that I'd have to restart from the beginning of the current section upon exiting the game. I'd figured one of the numerous ways modern games prevent you from losing progress would have been implemented, but that wasn't the case. After redoing the overly-lengthy section, the game soft-locked at what I presume to be the end of the section. It was certainly before the beginning of the next section, since I was dropped back right where I was at the start of the session again. I won't be redoing it a third time.

I appreciate the audio-visual experience that was created here, but the interactivity felt a bit too haphazard. I'd imagine I'd have lost interest in an hour or two of additional playtime regardless.

When Genesis Noir's trailer started making the rounds, several friends and acquaintances reached out to ask if I'd seen it or not. They were right to think I'd be interested: It's a "weird adventure game" with heavily stylized visuals, and I'm a sucker for media that uses genre as a familiar framing device for examining unfamiliar ideas. A big bang film noir? Sounds great!

The game's presentation certainly lives up to that potential. Evan Anthony's creative direction is stunning, easily the highlight of my playthrough. It has such a clear and consistent voice, blurring the lines between which elements are "2-D" and "3-D," and I was really impressed by its creative use of animation frame rates, perspective, iconography and color.

But I couldn't help feeling that Genesis Noir wanted to keep me at arm's length. The game's characters were a bit too broad for me to form an attachment to, functioning more as metaphors than personalities or even archetypes. The areas allowing free movement felt a bit clunky, especially when I mistakenly strayed from the intended path. And the sections with more limited "on rails" interactivity felt strangely paced: I often wondered why certain moments would linger (or even repeat themselves), while others I'd have preferred to stop and take in seemed to fly by.

The Collision chapter is a noteworthy exception. The puzzles are simple but encourage a mix of problem-solving and improvisation, and the pay-off for completing them is a bit of endearing character interaction. I'd have loved to see similar elements peppered throughout the whole story.

I think Genesis Noir is a beautiful and distinctive example of visual storytelling, and that alone is a tremendous accomplishment. But as a stylized film noir adventure game about big cosmic questions, there's a lot it could still learn from Grim Fandango.

The presentation is fantastic, aesthetic, soundtrack and animations are on point but part of me would have almost preferred this to be a movie, a short or just a let’s play, because the gameplay is the weakest part of it. Some puzzles feel like they are directly telling you “press here to continue movie”.

The story was for me too abstract to understand at first. Especially since the main characters don’t talk and don’t abide by things like time and space but still feel love and sexual attraction, so it’s hard to pinpoint what’s a problem for them and what isn’t.

With that said, I did feel like the game improved as it progressed in all aspects, so is a net positive in my book. Colors were very pretty and I'd suffer through them puzzles again to see them.

I'm struggling with whether I really liked Genesis Noir, or merely just liked it. For now I've gone with really liked it because the experience of the game, especially visually, sonically and conceptually, was very enjoyable. I enjoyed the various visual metaphors that played into a discussion of cosmological forces through the lens of almost pre-Noir visuals.

The game arguably borrows heavily from one of film Noir's predecessors, German Expressionism to convey inner states and emotionality through setting and visuals. But even with what I think is that pre-Noir influence, the game leans heavily into articulating itself via film Noir sensibilities, with a struggle between cosmic beings that influences creation, expansion and eventually retraction on a cosmic scale is represented through a classic love triangle and murder, the latter to be solved or prevented by our detective-like protagonist.

The game is visually and sonically arresting, and there are big and small moments alike that will take your breath away. However there is a significant obstacle to the enjoyment of the game that prevents me from loving it, and even from contemplating a lower score than I have currently assigned. The controls in this game are mediocre at best, downright frustrating and a hindrance at worst. I played Genesis Noir on console, so I hope some of these problems are alleviated on PC with a keyboard and mouse (although I've read that might not be the case). While many people's biggest complaint about this game will likely be the frustrating pixel hunt aspect, my frustration ran deeper. Aside from pixel hunting, the game rarely cooperates mechanically.

To be clear, Genesis Noir is not a difficult game. I am almost hesitant to call it a puzzle game. It's more of an experience than a series of puzzles. Even what you may call a puzzle is simply a series of click-through sequences. There is very little to deduce and solve in this game. Yet you will constantly hit walls when playing Genesis Noir, because most often the game fails to cooperate with the player. More often than not you'll easily deduce the solution to a problem, yet the game won't permit you to apply that solution.

On many occasions the game just simply ignored my input. Clicking on what I assumed was the element to click on resulted in no action. Clicking on the same element ten or even twenty times finally registered an action. On multiple occasions I couldn't exit a segment of a puzzle despite clicking everywhere on the screen. I had to exit the game and restart the segment for my actions to register. It's often a deeply frustrating game and I completely empathize with people that either bounced off Genesis Noir or didn't enjoy their experience.

So in the end, why four stars/really liked it? Simply because despite the frustration I still appreciated the experience. The strength of the visuals and sound design, the score and artistry, were enough to carry me through to the end. I'm on the precipice of rating it one star lower because of the various frustrations I had with the game, but I came out of the experience pleased nonetheless. It's a hard game to recommend because it can be obtuse and will put people off, but I think that it will still appeal to those with a penchant for a certain aesthetic.

I played about half an hour of this. It's some freeform art-house Yellow Submarine bullshit that's so far up its own ass that it practically disappears.

Some people might be into this sort of thing. I'm not one of them.

(Also, I kind of want to watch someone under the age of 30 try to get past the rotary phone sequence at the beginning)