Genesis Noir

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Genesis is an odd Graphic Adventure released on PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game follows a man’s struggles as he makes a reality-bending trip through time to try to stop The Big Bang, which is either using a celestial phenomenon as a metaphor for the murder of woman the man is interested in… or it’s using the murder as a metaphor for the beginning of the universe. Or Something. Yeah, I don’t know, this is a pretty trippy game.

It’s not just the jumbled story themes in this game that are trippy, either – this game does some really creative things with its visuals, using mostly greyscale stick figure artwork in a 3D space, but warping it, altering its perspective, mirroring it, and doing all sorts of trippy, stylized things with it to really make it a conceptual work of art. Despite it not being a graphical powerhouse, this game is visually stunning, and it gets there almost completely on pure style. These visuals are backed by a jazzy soundtrack that perfectly fits the “noir” elements from the title, keeping the game grounded even when the visuals take on elements of the vague, the metaphorical, and the galactic.

As for the gameplay, much like the story, this feels like a game where you’re not following a narrative or solving puzzles so much as trying to keep up with the game as reality warps around you. One minute you may be inspecting the gunshot from all angles for clues as it unfolds, the next you may be planting seeds in a galactic garden to harvest different kinds of light. Maybe all of this makes sense, but if it does, I’m not ashamed to admit I’m too dumb to follow it all.

Still, while Genesis Noir is often incomprehensible, it is never for a single moment boring. Everything is constantly shifting and changing, you’re rarely stuck in one spot for long, and even if you can’t quite understand just what the heck is happening, the game still does an excellent job conveying a mood, an overall tone, the basic idea of celestial forces as film noir-style players… as celestial forces.

I suppose I can make one technical complaint here – while Genesis Noir runs great on the Nintendo Switch, it doesn’t make use of the touchscreen, and this definitely seems like a game that would benefit from such a feature.

Look, I’m sorry if my descriptions don’t quite convey what exactly Genesis Noir is. In a way, this is sorta’ a “you need to see it for yourself” sorta’ thing. It’s hard to describe, harder to fully understand, but it is still nevertheless extremely entertaining due to an outstanding audiovisual presentation and an engaging theme. Fans of Graphic Adventure games looking for something truly unique and original should definitely give this game a look.

tl;dr – Genesis Noir is a Graphic Adventure that is extremely unique and original, strange, visually stunning, and extremely trippy, using a mostly monochrome line art presentation in ways that warps time, space, and reality, depicting a story that’s either about a murder investigation, the birth of the universe, or… both? It’s not easy knowing exactly what’s going on here, but it is consistently engaging, entertaining, and imaginative. If you’re desiring something out of the ordinary, this game is well worth a look.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Graphical Style

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