“E no sétimo dia Deus terminou o trabalho que havia realizado; e ele descansou no sétimo dia de todo o trabalho que havia feito.”
GENESIS -2-2

Dito isto falo tranquilamente que conseguiram pegar um tema de jogo super interessante e transformar em algo monótono e confuso.

Genesis Noir conta uma história de amor interplanetária. O maior problema aqui é a forma que o jogo conta essa história. Ao mesmo tempo que o game tenta desenrolar um enredo cheio de metáforas sobre um crime cometido ele tropeça ao também tentar dar meio que uma aula sobre o universo e sua criação (“Ah Jackshow mas os temas se conversam” idai??? Não evita ser chato e maçante, meio que faz uma coisa atrapalhar a outra).

Os puzzles do game também não ajudam muito sendo a maioria deles simples demais. Os difíceis só são difíceis por não terem muito sentido ou explicação.

Elogio forte aos gráficos únicos do game e a sua trilha sonora, casando e conversando com a gameplay em vários momentos.

Infelizmente o jogo é cansado demais para os prós se destacarem

PRÓS:
- Trilha sonora boa.

CONTRAS:
- Ritmo de gameplay lento e cansativo.
- Puzzles sem muito nexo ou explicação.

You follow No Man as he travels through space and time to stop the Big Bang from ever happening in hopes of saving his girlfriend. See the universe unfold from the sun forming, to first life, all the way into a far future.

The story isn't really quite that solid or defined outside of the game description. In fact, it's pretty jumbled and convoluted, and lost me completely by the end.

Visuals

The striking artstyle of Genesis Noir is what originally caught my attention. It's unlike any other game I've seen. It's all black and white, with some gold thrown in for effect. It's extremely stylized, without much details, but you know exactly what is going on on screen. It's hard to describe, but you'll know if it's for you or not if you see it.

I do have to mention the flashing lights. The game does open with a warning, and it's not to be taken lightly. There are a lot of flashing lights, and sudden changes from dark to light and back again. It may look like a stark game, but it's extremely flashy. Especially the ending. Holy crap.

Sound Effects + Music

Genesis Noir has a unique soundtrack made up of primarily jazz tunes. It's exactly what you'd expect if you were watching a stereotypical noir film. The tone of the music does shift with the scenes and sounded very cool. I personally don't listen to jazz or any similar music, so I can't say that I loved the background music, but I did appreciate the commitment to the theme.

Sound effects are an important part of the gameplay as well. You'll get little noises that let you know if you've done something wrong or not. Some of the puzzles also use sound as part of the puzzle, but there's also visual hints if you're hard of hearing or just not playing with sound. If you can though, I do recommend playing with the sounds on since it adds to the experience.

Gameplay + Controls

Genesis Noir is a point-and-click, so you will be doing a lot of point and clicking. I did use my keyboard and mouse, but you can also use a controller if you prefer. You'll control No Man through several scenes. Hovering over items that can be interacted with will change the cursor to a magnifying glass, so you shouldn't get too lost. It's mostly a matter of figuring out exactly how to interact with the items once you find them.

There's a good variety of puzzle and mini game types, and most of them are quite quick. My favorite was the one where you're creating the first live organisms; it was really unique and fun o figure out! However, there were some that sound way cooler than they are, and definitely overstayed their welcome with how long and tedious they were, such as turning the sun into a super nova.

Replayability

Genesis Noir is a pretty linear game, since it's a point-and-click with a clear story to tell, which makes it less replayable. It is fairly short though, so it is an experience that's easy to repeat if you choose to. There are two endings, but they're only based on the final chapter, so you only need to replay that one and make a different choice.

Overall

Honestly, I liked the individual components of Genesis Noir better than I liked the game as a complete package. The artstyle and theming are top notch, but the gameplay was a mixed bag. I feel like it was going for unique and weird rather than focusing on a cohesive story and game.

Sights & Sounds
- There's an element of hand-paintedness to the visual style that's really appealing. I love the completely consistent color theming throughout the game as well. There's some serious design chops being shown off here
- The music is also outstanding. As the "noir" in the name implies, be prepared for quite a bit of jazz throughout the game. It runs the gamut from small trio improv to big band swing, so there's some tasty variety
- All in all, this game is a feast for the eyes and ears. It's oozing with style

Story & Vibes
- I'm going to be honest. As much as I loved the game's presentation, I'm having some trouble making sense of what appears to be a highly allegorical story
- The plot kinda makes sense. You're trying to prevent Miss Mass, the singer of a jazz band, from being killed by Golden Boy, the band's saxophone player. You go back in time doing so, seeing various parts of astronomical and human history
- It's heavily implied that saving Miss Mass will stop the creation of the universe. Why? No clue. I feel like there's some allegory that's flying directly over my head
- It is a pretty chill game in spite of all that drama

Playability & Replayability
- It's basically a puzzle game. There's a ton of variety to the puzzles, thankfully, so the game feels fresh and keeps you guessing a bit
- In spite of the variety, many of the puzzles are uncreative or tedious. The visual effects are stellar, but the simplicity of much of the gameplay diminishes the effect a little. Kinda feels like you're being disproportionately rewarded at some points
- It's really easy to get all of the achievements (there's a final choice at the end of the game, but you can just replay the chapter from the chapter select menu and switch your choice the second time). Because of that, I don't think I'll be back for a replay unless I want to reexperience the spectacle of the game

Overall Impressions & Performance
- The game has an excess of style and a questionable amount of substance. It could be that the game has a very deep message or lesson, but I couldn't tell for sure
- It's about 5-ish hours long, so take that into account when setting your price
- Ran really well on the Steam Deck, but might be worth playing on a bigger screen to take in more of the visuals

Final Verdict
- 6.5/10. It's an absolutely gorgeous game with mediocre puzzles, a slightly understandable plot, and a highly enigmatic message. I'd recommend it for the sights and sounds, but don't expect much more than that

I have to agree with Flatterdorsch's review of this game. The presentation is clearly this game's strong suit and if you're a fan of games with a unique aesthetic you'll love this one. The improvisation scene and a scene towards the end are stand out sections of the game that have a lot of creativity in them, and are what push my score up to 4 stars. I do have to say though, that I had trouble wrapping my head around the puzzle segment with the scientist, and had to look that one up. I also had to look up the final fifteen minutes or so of this game, because as of right now, I've attempted the ending 3 times on Switch, and it keeps crashing.

Oh wow, this is such a strange thing, in both good and bad ways. And it’s so hard for me to structure this bunch of thoughts, so don’t expect fluidity here.

Firstly, the game shines in its visual design. It is extremely unique and enjoyable. Many moments can simply be hung in a frame. The game gradually develops it perfectly and the variety of scene direction pleases. Genesis Noir also boldly (and this is one of the key words to characterize the entire project) tries to mix noir and space, and in some places it turns out quite well. The game connects these seemingly distant genres in an interesting way, and this (as it becomes clear after the ending) at first glance strange decision works well for the final main idea. The story itself turns out to be quite ambitious and mixes classic noir romance with showing the history of the entire universe, from the Big Bang itself to the inevitable end.

However, the way the game reveals the story leads us to the main oddity of this project - the gameplay. Most of the game consists of episodes in which the main character obtains some important item and at the same time observes one of the stages of the development of the universe, and often directly takes part in them. Genesis Noir is largely abstract, and while this approach goes well with the visuals, the gameplay here is often just... boring? Perhaps, and at the same time often unobvious, primitive and sometimes even unnecessary. Often (especially in the first half of the game) it was not entirely clear what to do, where to move or how exactly to interact. The game tries, but overall doesn't do very well in the visual direction in the gameplay-oriented segments. In other moments, the game mixes elements of a quest(?) and a narrative platformer, which it does much better (though still at simple level). And initially it even seemed to me that this project should have been just an animated film (which changed by the end of the game). Another extremely strange thing for me is the almost complete absence of music. For a project that could go both in the jazz direction and in the direction of cosmic ambient music, this is almost criminally unacceptable. Up to a certain point, this can be partly explained by the narrative, but even after that the situation does not change. Even in episodes focused on music, it seems to be missing. Only very occasionally does jazz burst in for half a moment and it instantly becomes something dynamic and alive. I don’t understand at all the almost complete disregard for this aspect, because in my opinion, if the creators had made music one of the main elements of the game, each episode of the story would have become more special and memorable.

However, the plot saves a lot. At first it looks strange, too abstract, as if trying to cover too much at once and connect something too distant. And this is partly true. But once you understand a little about the structure of the game and enter its second half (or better yet, the last third), the picture of what the creators are talking about becomes a little more clear. Part of the plot is still a mystery to me (for example, I still find it difficult to firmly connect the noir part with the entire cosmic narrative), but this extremely ambitious and bold approach in a very non-obvious and slightly drawn-out way leads the player to (in my opinion) a wonderful final idea. The way this story managed to unite myths, faith, creativity and science into a single narrative about the entire history of the universe and our purpose in the world, about the eternal attempts to understand it, to find the most distant answers - is simply magnificent. This is really what makes the game worth playing for. And surprisingly, this game sparked my interest in science more than anything else in my life (which is quite strange). At the end of the game, the gameplay also perfectly complements the narrative, creating an epilogue that actually saves the game. It's quite strange that the game gives you two endings to choose from (and both are quite detached and poetically sad), but oh well okay.

Genesis Noir has aspects that are far from ideal (besides, I would like to see a slightly more polished technical state) and I understand the low ratings, but in the end, subjectively, the last half hour before the very end and especially the last text monologue are worthy of some of your not-so-best hours with a video game before. Still, Feral Cat Den are going in an interesting and original direction, and while they are stumbling over every third stone, I like the groundwork and I hope that they will reach the point. In the meantime - a fine myth, gentlemen!

"We give it a name. We call it The Constant"

Genesis Noir - A Review

Genesis Noir’s power and strength lies in the visual and conceptual design. It’s also been paired with a lovely sound design. I’d assume that those who like jazz would consider it a positive here.

This game demands focus in understanding what it expects out of its players. I look at this as both a positive and negative, if you’ve played this, you might understand what I mean by that statement.

The ending is quite fascinating and certainly unexpected. There’s not a lot of ‘play’ here, it’s more along the lines of following a visual narrative. You’re exposed to a few moments that require strategic thinking but I think it was the most evident in the section ‘Improvisations’, that was interesting to explore.

I‘ve developed a love for visually pleasing games and so Genesis Noir ranks a bit higher for me with that regard. If you’re someone who enjoys visual narratives that doesn't exactly offer intensive and demanding game play, you’d enjoy this game. It’s absolutely stunning. If not, then reconsider.

Overall, I’m not too fascinated by the game itself but visually it was quite an experience. Would I consider playing this game again? Perhaps, but only for the sake of re-experiencing its beauty and sound design.

Rarely have I played a game that's made me more intensely question why it's a game. I was attracted to Genesis Noir by its visual style, and that turns out to be about the only thing this game has going for it... so why not just make it a cartoon instead? The interactivity in the game ranges from "press forward to progress the plot" to "click arbitrarily around the screen until you figure out what obscure thing you're supposed to do to progress the plot", and never once does it justify having interactive components at all.

Fortunately for those who might feel obligated to play it anyway, the plot does nothing to make up for the mechanical unsophistication. The jumble of biblical and scientific metaphors are too arbitrary to have anything interesting to say and too obvious to be intriguing. They act like a mountain of unflavored buttercream frosting, hiding the fact that the paint-by-numbers noir plot underneath has barely anything going on at all.

In a Q&A I attended for one of his movies, Gaspar Noé once told the audience, that his first ever trip was watching 2001 by Kubrick when he was a kid. I absolutely knew what he was talking about.
I had the same feeling while being sucked through the screen in the last 30 minutes of this game.
It feels like an interactive art installation with a narrative that metaphorically evolves on a cosmic scale. If you tried to sum up the premise of this game, it’s: a moody saxophone-ridden noir detective thriller in which someone dear to you gets shot and you try to stop it by reversing that shot, the loud Big Bang.
And that’s were it’s connected to our universe, because in order to do so you travel through the very fabric of everything.
The experience never lets you off by getting too comfortable. The perspective, the way you interact with what is shown on screen, EVERYTHING that happens changes constantly, there is no way to describe it universally. Some of the puzzles are a bit finicky and unguided to the point, it ends up being a little frustrating, but still: It’s unique in the best sense possible and not something I will forget soon.
Genesis Noir is testament to the power videogames as a medium have, as it transcends genres and defies expectation time and time again.
I can only recommend playing through this experience with good headphones, a great and big screen and the patience you need to let it all pay off.

Full disclosure, the main reason I played this is because I am friends with someone involved in the making of it. His name is coincidentally Evan, just like the creative director of the game Evan Anthony. I thought “Evan Anthony” was like his pen name or something so I messaged him after I played it and I was like the game is cool, but why are they calling you Evan Anthony and he was like Garrett what the fuck are you talking about. That was probably the most confusing thing about this game to me.

It’s not the most intuitive puzzle game but I’m also not the most patient person, so. Also they said they were inspired by Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, but I like this better than that book. As good as a lot of the stories are in that, at least Genesis Noir doesn’t end with the narrator, over and over again, horndogging over some lady and kicking himself over not getting to bust

Ok, I finally played through game that can be best described as part pretentious kurzgesagt video, part crazy Doctor Who episode.

I am incredibly torn on this game. On the one hand, two chapters in particular just absolutely blew me away with everything they did (Improvisation and... the other one ;>). "The other one" in particular is an especially amazing experience. It clevery turns the tropes of the Film Noir on its head, delivering a message that is so simple yet they manage to make it feel ethereal. The improvisation chapter managed to hook me too - I spent way more time in it than I had to. And overall: the presentation is brilliant, absolutely top-notch in soundtrack and visuals. And then there's the less good parts...

First, this game has heavy scripting problems. Sometimes I was able to fix them by going to the pause menu, sometimes I wasn't. These NEED to be adressed, I had to replay some chapters because I was stuck at some point. Also: many other chapters feel quite hollow, gameplay- and presentation-wise. The last two chapters retroactively kinda help in justifying that, but it's still unhelpful while first playing through the game. Some puzzles also seem... a little dumb. And I would advise every developer in existance against Simon Says, please. It doesn't work. At all. The improvisation chapter worked despite of it, not because of it. This game is also incredibly pretentious at times and it never really works for me.

I'm still giving this 3 1/2 stars. Why? Because of the amazing presentation, the clever twist on Film Noir tropes (which I actively hate when they are recreated uncritically), the brilliant soundtrack and the two chapters I absolutely loved. Everything else in this game is mediocre at best. But I love it for these parts in particular, and these will always stick with me. And now to wait for the soundtrack on Spotify...

Agh, the frustration! This is genuinely one of the most beautiful games I've ever played from an artistic perspective, the monochromatic surrealist illustrations and smooth animations popping out in every moment, a perfect choice to illustrate a universe defined by metaphysics and equations. I didn't love how the story was paced throughout but the way it tells human narratives of perseverance and survival with minimal spoken dialogue is admirable, whilst riffing on noir without resorting to cheap parody. I enjoyed experiencing Genesis Noir, but I didn't always enjoy playing it.

I'm all for interactive experiences and Genesis Noir has more traditional 'gameplay' than the majority of story-driven walking sims out there, but the puzzles and point-and-click sequences are so wildly inconsistent, it's ruthlessly easy to be taken out of the world entirely. I had multiple bugged puzzles where the solutions didn't work until I restarted on top of several occasions where I solved a puzzle only to have no idea why that solution was even the correct one, or what logic to follow. Minimal presentation is preferable to me than a deluge of information, but I ended up craving more context in these moments. Interacting with objects sometimes takes a few seconds to work properly and by the time it's over, these obtuse and exhausting moments stick out more than the positives (at least for me). I'm not exaggerating that the final hour involves a sequence requiring the mouse to be held forward 16 different times. At that point, I'd much rather just watch a walkthrough. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a unique, stunning cinematic experience but with the serious caveat that it's either better to wait until these bugs are resolved, or to experience it online rather than interactively (which in itself is a huge shame).

I wanted to love this, the aesthetic is stellar and the audiovisual execution is very high quality. However, unfortunately, the writing is not good. While playing with two close friends, we spent the entire 4 hours mostly tearing into the weak plot, confusing themes, and redundant concepts that it echoes repeatedly without really saying anything of substance.

I don't throw around the word "pretentious" lightly, and this is perhaps one of the most pretentious games I've ever played. It's trying SO HARD to be INCREDIBLY deep, but I've read better abstract short stories and plays written by undergraduates or maybe even high school students handling similar abstract existential fantasy concepts.

The creators had AMAZING visual ideas and can script a decent interactive adventure game game, but if they wanted to have story and writing be such a core part of the experience, they needed more experienced and refined writers on staff to edit this and smooth it out.

Gameplay Design: 3/10
Narrative Design: 1/10
Plot: 2/10
Themes: 4/10
Characters: 0/10
Aesthetic Visuals: 8/10
Technical Visuals: 7/10
Audio: 6/10
Music: 7/10

Honestly, this has got to be the weirdest game I've ever played... I mean, I think I sort of understand the plot (after reading the Wikipedia page...), but most of the time I had no idea what was happening. Still, the visuals were really unique, for that alone I don't regret playing this. I feel like using a mouse instead of a controller would have made most of the puzzles much easier, and they aren't that challenging for veteran gamers, so... I guess it's an OK title. Not much replay value, though.

This game is more of an experience, but it's a game that thrives in that (at least till you get near the end and want it to end). But yeah, this game has AMAZING presentation in it's art design, music, and so forth.

One strength to this game is that it often changes the how of what you're doing, constantly changing things up to add a lot of variety to the game. This is not much of a replay-able game, but just save it before the final choice to get the multi ending achievements (very easily achievable)

Just a charming small game that'll last you for a handful of hours.

It has the style but lacks the substance needed to truly draw you into the experience. The story itself is a unique one and framing around a detective noir aesthetic should be excellent staring ingredients - unfortunately what's added are puzzles which don't particularly compliment the tale being woven that go on for just a tick too long and pacing that, while generally fine, can feel glacial at points.

I can forgive those things somewhat though when you're provided with Genesis Noir's spectacle - certain sections have an almost transcendental quality that can put a smile on your face.

Genesis Noir is an outstanding achievement in visual storytelling. Evan Anthony, one of the main brains behind this game, already had a beautiful portfolio of motion designs and interactive use cases, like working for Google on animations, beforehand. Playing Genesis Noir is just like diving into an artists brain, there are so many feelings and views and impressions raining down on you, mostly just presenting thoughts and things, the creator might just have in their mind and thought they'd show it to us in this deeply personalized way that feels like getting a share of his most abstract dream.
I gotta confess, I didn't get 100% of whats going on, maybe not even 70% but the main premise of mashing the creation and death of the universe with a 1930ies classic murder case, brought to live by the greatest animation work that looks like Saul Bass forget to take his meds (in a good way) and live recorded Jazz music that alone makes it worth playing through the game another time, all of that carry so much additional value, that its fine if some story bits are left for interpretation.

Only cons are some actual gameplay ones. I mean the game isn't very complex, but playing on a Switch/console makes it at some point cleat, the game wasn't optimized for this. It plays OK but often when you have to select things, you gotta steer a mouse cursor, when you ask yourself, why can't you just select stuff with the analogue stick or even tap on the Switch's screen. There are a lot of similar situations, where mouse-cursor focused control schemes drag you out of this jazzy intergalactic feverdream, slapping UX-realities in your face to make you realize, its an indie game that probably didn't have the budget to fine tune this experience for all devices, although I'd say thes should absolutely do a version for mobile devices as it could work perfectly well for that.

In the end its among those games, I never thought I need in my life, I just stumbled over it through Youtube, immediately bought it when there wo barely any coverage, thought at least its gonna be visually interesting, but apart from just being that, its a mind-expanding journey told by all instruments of multimedia. Its a perfect game if you need some more casual, relaxing yet audiovisually interesting breaks from your Elden Ring bossfights or just something to sip a coffee or whiskey to.