Some people love their games full of action and violence – hitting enemies with big swords, parrying away magical attacks, shooting guns at demon soldiers or zombies until there is nothing left but victory. These gamers love the thrill and chase the adrenaline; competitive to a fault. We get it, it’s games and that’s part of the DNA.
But there is another side to gaming, a side in which folk like to be transported to magical places and just… walk around. In fact, it’s so popular that it’s a genre all of its own – the walking sim.
Tonguç Bodur is a master developer of these and GENIE Reprise is their latest venture into the unknown. Let’s take a stroll.
The works of Tonguç Bodur have kept me busy previously; enjoyable games like The Redress of Mira, Lucid Cycle, Cions of Vega. It’s these which throw you into strange worlds with impressionistic narratives, set in fantasy worlds in the past or some time in the future. Playing out as narrative adventures with minimal gameplay, it must be said that I’ve personally preferred the stranger, more abstract works, rather than those which have integrated combat or the need to go jumping.
In GENIE Reprise the story (or stories) takes place over fifteen chapters, taking you through a number of different locations and times, all mythical and fantasy-based. In each chapter, you get a narrative told through a voice-over and a poem after you find certain items and unlock them. This narrative is related to the location you are exploring. For example, in one chapter you are found wandering just outside a fishing village and here you get an epic poem about a fisherman. The Genie is the elephant in the room presence, mentioned now and then, revealed in the final chapter.
Gameplay-wise and GENIE Reprise is very simple. You are presented with what feels like an open world for you to explore. You play the role of Lula in first person, looking to collect fragments of a broken crystal that are spread around the level. Then once you find all these fragments a portal appears, you stand on it and look into the light, listening to a part of the poetry/story about the world. You then continue, focusing on multiple more portals depending on the chapter before it all ends and you are moved onto the next.
There’s no doubt that GENIE Reprise gets very repetitive and it’s quite easy to work through, mostly as there are markers in the sky pointing to where you need to look next. It’s a shame that the areas you explore are quite small. There are faraway locations you can see and I personally would have loved to explore them. But it’s just not possible.
The different locations do look stunning and I love the way Bodur creates these worlds to explore. I have come across a few favourite moments too, an autumny toadstool-filled forest location and mechanical cityscape that could almost be ripped from a Bioshock game. The lighting is great, helping ensure that GENIE Reprise is kept interesting and pretty. The soundtrack is strong too, emotive yet relaxing, happy to guide you in your exploration. The gentle female voice does a great job with the reading of the poetry.
Tonguç Bodur is capable of creating some brilliantly relaxing walking sims, mixing in strange fairy tales and calming visuals. GENIE Reprise is one of those better games; a bit of a return to form. You shouldn’t come to this expecting too much gameplay, instead content with wandering from point to point, but it is a shame that the open world shown is ultimately quite limited, making it feel at times like a tech demo rather than a game.
Overall though, if you’re looking for a good calming time and need a break from the violence, then come over to GENIE Reprise.
