Everyone loves cartoons. This is an axiom. Even if you’ve been out of short pants for a long time, and soda is doubly delicious if you wash it down with single malt whiskey aged in oak barrels in the vastness of Tennessee, you love cartoons. And how to make animation more exciting? You can add interactivity to it! And throw in more jazz, modern scientific theories and elegant images from the first half of the twentieth century. By mixing all this, we get today’s interactive work, Genesis Noir. We will keep silent about the nuances of its passage, below is a review of the game.
Time is above all
So, you are Mr. Nobody (No Man)– a noir detective who lives in a clock tower, trading time in his spare time from detective work. Well, or just a wristwatch. She’s the charming singer Miss Mass from the club across the street. And everything would be fine, but a third person intervenes in this Hopper idyll: the envious saxophonist Golden Boy. Obsessed with fame, he decided to shoot the lady of the protagonist’s heart. To stop him, No One has to get to the very beginning of time, creating a black hole that will suck in an enemy bullet. It’s not difficult when you’re in control of time. However, you will have to recreate the universe, going through each stage again.
The introduction immediately greets with a reference to Hopper's "Midnighters."
Everything described above in the game itself is told exclusively in audiovisual language. There is a minimum of text here, and this makes the project related to the work of Jakub Dvorsky, the author of the Machinarium and Samorost. However, GN is not exactly a quest. There are no static screens or pixel-hunting here. In general, there is no nuclear gameplay as such. This is something like a guided cutscene, and the definition of “interactive cartoon” is perhaps the best fit. If you are familiar with the feature films of David Cage (Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human), then in the conditional interactive cinema Genesis Noir you could play in front of his works.
Gold, chalk and ink
Everyone who watched Pixar’s cartoon “Soul” will surely recognize the general style of drawing characters. They look too much like the staff of the celestial chancellery. And there’s more jazz here than in the aforementioned feature film. However, most of all, Genesis Noir resembles that category of Soviet animation “for adults” that we could all see on TV or on videotapes: in experimental techniques and with a deep message, for example, like the works of Khrzhanovsky. And the color scheme of three basic colors resembles the work of Nikolai Belov a.k.a. KOLLAPS. Yes, these multipliers are of different flight, but these are my associations. But technically, everything is much more complicated here: flat characters are very often located in three-dimensional spaces with the accompanying play of light and shadow. It looks incredibly beautiful in dynamics, but it will sadden casual players who do not have high-powered machines – the Unreal Engine is very voracious.
The real detective
At your fingertips
Given the ease of gameplay, it’s a casual game. In a good way, of course. It’s a strange story to be proud of playing video games a lot. And you won’t want to play much in GN, because it presents a set of situational puzzles, interwoven into animation and intuitively simple. However, there is a certain magic in these puzzles, and it lies in the tactility of the controls. Never before have I seen such tactility achieved on a PC, with input tools not designed for electronic entertainment. You can feel the very “analog” control that console players praise so much. Objects sometimes need to be rotated, swayed, stretched, and the like. And every time it pleases, like a small discovery. Although not everything is always perfect, I have not found any critical bugs.
There are few places where you can turn the sky with your own hands
All that Jazz!
I would also like to praise the soundtrack, which is a sketch on the theme of traditional bop, although in fact it is not. You’ll immediately think of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane and many more. I would call this a good way to get a person used to jazz music if they haven’t shown any interest in it before: everything is quite interesting musically, but not too difficult. The Skillbard duo is responsible for the soundtrack, and they are more composers and sound designers than musicians. Although my favorite drum kit is quite lively here, as is the sax, and this is a powerful sign of quality.
Genesis Noir Soundtrack (2021)
02 Tick Tock
03 Shadow Trail
04 The Hunt
05 Melodie Fatale
06 Golden Boy Suite
Download or listen online Genesis Noir OST (2021) (mp3, 61 MB):
The full Genesis Noir soundtrack (28 tracks) is available here
Noir space for all ages
I have two impressions of this game. Aesthetically, she is incomparable, no doubt. But I don’t really want to play it. It’s not even possible. Because it’s not about “playing it”, but “playing with it”. And this is a different feeling, which is not easy to capture after a hard day’s work. At the same time, the toy is also a work of art, inspired by the books of Italo Calvino, and this writer is not for ordinary hard workers.
The main character's house is inside and out
Genesis Noir is childish in a good way, i.e. suitable for all ages, from young to old. Its lack of genre (almost anything can be called an “adventure” game) and tragic kindness do not sit well on a brain that is used to performing specific tasks. The difference here is like between a questrum and an immersion theater. It’s very interesting, beautiful, and even kind of sublime, but it doesn’t feel like entertainment. Yes, it’s definitely worth touching, but be prepared for a new experience, not for your usual leisure time. If I had come across such a game at a younger age, I would have been delighted, trumping the imaginary elitism. But now I’d rather recommend her to a younger generation. The game is suitable for a family evening on the computer, especially since it has a completely educational aspect. Just don’t forget to explain to the kids that smoking and drinking are bad, but listening to jazz is good.
