I came across Genesis Noir (developed by Feral Cat Den and publish by Fellow Traveler) purely by accident. I was downloading Iron Harvest from XBOX Store, the art work caught my eye, watched the trailer and thought it looked interesting and decided to download.
Growing up, my brother suffered from hyper-activity meaning chocolate and sweets was a no no. There was Carob Chocolate in the house, which tastes about as much like chocolate as a bean burger tastes like a beef burger. In place of that we had dates a lot at home, I really like them, a slight chew needed and a sweet honey like taste. The issue was that sometimes they came with stones in the middle, if you don't realize you will likely break a tooth or choke on it. Playing Genesis Noir I found myself asking was this a great alternative and did I need to be careful to watch out for the stone?
Story
There are many layers to the cosmic journey that is Genesis Noir. The games sees you follow and direct No Man, who looks like a film noir detective who is trying to save the love of his life. Sounds simple enough story wise? Wrong. It is set before, after and during the big bang, across realities and alternative dimensions. There are many people he will meet along his journey and all need your help in someone way. When you enter the last few minutes of the game you will need to make a decision as to what the best, right or agreeable outcome.
Overall the story is very intriguing, the lack of talking means that a lot of things are inferred and/or interrupted some will find this frustration others will love it. While the story is both powerful, imaginative and philosophical that ending felt arbitrary and took away from the overall story.
Visuals
The art style used in the game is spectacular! The film noir style looks great and is certainly nothing like I have seen before. While the game is mostly in black and white, the colour filled sections are really powerful and have a lot of emotion connected with them. I really liked the comic book style panels in certain chapters that are mirror over and over creating a surreal experience.
Overall the visuals cannot be faulted and unlike the story which ends up tapering off this never occurs with the visuals.
Music
The soundtrack is jazztastic! Mostly a chill jazz vibe (not quite smooth jazz), paired with film noir style jazz and experimental jazz. There are also a few other music genre sprinkled in as well.The soundtrack is composed by Skillbard a UK Duo that have worked with; Cartoon Network, [Adult Swim], MTV and Nickelodeon.
The soundtrack is almost ninety minutes and for me is almost tied with the visuals in terms of the quality and greatness. As of a fan of film noir jazz and classic jazz the like preformed by Miles Davis, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, and Stanley Turrentine. My favorite tracks in Genesis Noir are; 'Golden Boy Suite', 'Pastoral (Part 1 Suspended)', 'Hello Universe', 'Alone', 'Gumshoe', 'Tetrachromacy', 'Siren Birth', and my favorite track of all 'We'.
Overall a very memorable soundtrack which is pure piece of art that easily exists outside of the confines of the game itself.
Gameplay
The gameplay is quite an experience. There are sections where you are walking and interacting with objects in the world and there are other times where you will need to figure out puzzles to progress.
The walking around and interacting with the world can be interesting - the only flaw is that on occasion it can be difficult to work out where to go or what you are supposed to do next. Some of the markers that note what you can interact with can be rather small and easily missed.
The puzzles are where the gameplay can crumble, some of them are fun, at least initially and feels like something that would work well on the Nintendo Switch (I played it on PC). On the plus side each puzzle is different to the previous, the downside is that some are frustrating and take away from both the narrative and the visuals.
Overall the gameplay is not bad but some bad puzzles the occasion lack of clarity as to what you are supposed to do next and/or small interactive icons stop this game reaching its full potential.
Final Thoughts
So, after eight hours of playing how did I feel? A little conflicted. There was a lot of great elements to story but ended not being a Big Bang but rather a little fizzle. The animation and visual style are imaginative and different to anything I have experienced before. The music is an awesome jazz mash up of various styles which real bring the game to life. The gameplay has ups and downs and the inclusion of needless (and often frustrating) puzzles takes away from the rest of the content. Overall this one gets a 3 out of 5
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