Games like Genesis Noir tend to be short. I would have appreciated Genesis Noir more as a short film than in its current form. The gameplay isn’t innovative, or fun-it often just gets in the way of displaying the next visual. Sure, what I’m seeing on the screen is cool-but when the game takes my mouse cursor and replaces it with an unknown mechanic with little clues, it’s a little frustrating. Genesis Noir does the same, but sometimes the scenes you’re in are so abstract, it’s hard to even get started. Most point and click adventures put you in a space, and allow you to explore by clicking around. Genesis Noir doesn’t act like any point and click adventure game you’ve played before, for better or worse-and it’s mostly for worse. While there are few gameplay mechanics in Genesis Noir, the ones that do exist get in the way of the story telling. It’s an incredibly self-indulgent experience that I saw one reviewer describe as “not possible outside of a video game.” To that: hard disagree. What results is an epic that spans epochs as you witness the birth of creation, and watch it as time marches forward. You play as No Man, as you attempt to stop Golden Boy’s big bang against the lounge singer Miss Mass. It’s about three jealous gods that represent various ingredients to creation. Genesis Noir is a point and click adventure game with a killer aesthetic. Unfortunately, when I tried it, I could only describe most of the gameplay as “inexplicable.” I was still eager to get a chance to play the full version, but unfortunately, Genesis Noir is a pretty game with not much gameplay substance. I didn’t know what it was about then, but I knew I wanted to play it. My first impression of this game was its visual style-those gorgeous blacks, shades of gray, and whites over impossible, mostly space-like visuals. This segment went on for five individual puzzles and I felt it was to the game’s detriment.Genesis Noir is one of those games I’ve been seeing for years on the various indie games circuits we cover here in Chicago. However, the least enjoyable puzzle in all of Genesis Noir has to be a specific one that tasks players with recreating sine waves using increasingly vague directions for various machines to activate a supercollider. Another had me swapping between a growing list of components to find an ideal mate for a similar object with hearts above its head. The only option is to try out different combinations to find one that works. Many of the puzzles are of that nature, though. It made as much sense to me then as that sentence likely makes devoid of context. One of Genesis Noir‘s puzzles that I was less than fond of required me to arbitrarily connect nodes to try and activate clusters. I hardly ever found myself overwhelmed due to their demands. These are typically clear despite the inherent risks that come from this manner of game design. Other chapters rely on specific mechanics and feature puzzles that have no basis in standard logic. One of the earliest shows No Man from an isometric viewpoint as he plants light and dark seeds to absorb barriers. The chapters all look and feel substantially disparate. Only, the bullet is the Big Bang, and the three of them are cosmic entities. The jealous Golden Boy, a saxophone player for the Divine Jazz Section, fires a bullet at his lover and bandmate, a singer named Miss Mass. Shortly afterward, he’s whisked from place to place in a dizzying manner before finally finding himself privy to a murder attempt. Splashes of color show their specters when appropriate, as reflections of the towering concrete behemoths above dance in the sky. The world is simplistic, yet brimming with life. Genesis Noir begins with a character known only as No Man eyeing a diner amid passerby. It’s a uniquely compelling game that will satisfy people willing to absorb its off-kilter sensibilities, although others may have some misgivings. The game uses point-and-click tropes and formalities as a medium to weave together a surreal, avant-garde mixture of strange gameplay sections and improvisational jazz-esque freeform meditations. Genesis Noir bills itself as a point-and-click-adventure and, while this isn’t wrong, it doesn’t reflect the entire truth. The manner by which most attempt this is fairly standard, often with similarities to film, allowing the player to behave as if they themselves were the camera. Video games are an excellent storytelling medium.
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