Some individuals love their video games filled with motion and violence – hitting enemies with large swords, parrying away magical assaults, taking pictures weapons at demon troopers or zombies till there’s nothing left however victory. These players love the fun and chase the adrenaline; aggressive to a fault. We get it, it’s video games and that’s a part of the DNA.
However there’s one other facet to gaming, a facet by which people wish to be transported to magical locations and simply… stroll round. In truth, it’s so fashionable that it’s a style all of its personal – the strolling sim.
Tonguç Bodur is a grasp developer of those and GENIE Reprise is their newest enterprise into the unknown. Let’s take a stroll.
The works of Tonguç Bodur have saved me busy beforehand; gratifying video games like The Redress of Mira, Lucid Cycle, Cions of Vega. It’s these which throw you into unusual worlds with impressionistic narratives, set in fantasy worlds previously or a while sooner or later. Enjoying out as narrative adventures with minimal gameplay, it should be stated that I’ve personally most popular the stranger, extra summary works, somewhat than these which have built-in fight or the necessity to go leaping.
In GENIE Reprise the story (or tales) takes place over fifteen chapters, taking you thru various completely different places and occasions, all legendary and fantasy-based. In every chapter, you get a story instructed by way of a voice-over and a poem after you discover sure gadgets and unlock them. This narrative is said to the placement you might be exploring. For instance, in a single chapter you might be discovered wandering simply outdoors a fishing village and right here you get an epic poem a couple of fisherman. The Genie is the elephant within the room presence, talked about at times, revealed within the closing chapter.
Gameplay-wise and GENIE Reprise could be very easy. You might be offered with what looks like an open world so that you can discover. You play the function of Lula in first individual, trying to accumulate fragments of a damaged crystal which are unfold across the degree. Then as soon as you discover all these fragments a portal seems, you stand on it and look into the sunshine, listening to part of the poetry/story concerning the world. You then proceed, specializing in a number of extra portals relying on the chapter earlier than all of it ends and you might be moved onto the following.
There’s little doubt that GENIE Reprise will get very repetitive and it’s fairly straightforward to work by way of, principally as there are markers within the sky pointing to the place you have to look subsequent. It’s a disgrace that the areas you discover are fairly small. There are faraway places you may see and I personally would have liked to discover them. Nevertheless it’s simply not doable.
The completely different places do look gorgeous and I really like the way in which Bodur creates these worlds to discover. I’ve come throughout just a few favorite moments too, an autumny toadstool-filled forest location and mechanical cityscape that might nearly be ripped from a Bioshock recreation. The lighting is nice, serving to be certain that GENIE Reprise is saved fascinating and fairly. The soundtrack is powerful too, emotive but stress-free, pleased to information you in your exploration. The light feminine voice does a fantastic job with the studying of the poetry.
Tonguç Bodur is able to creating some brilliantly stress-free strolling sims, mixing in unusual fairy tales and calming visuals. GENIE Reprise is a type of higher video games; a little bit of a return to kind. You shouldn’t come to this anticipating an excessive amount of gameplay, as an alternative content material with wandering from level to level, however it’s a disgrace that the open world proven is in the end fairly restricted, making it really feel at occasions like a tech demo somewhat than a recreation.
General although, in case you’re in search of an excellent calming time and want a break from the violence, then come over to GENIE Reprise.
