Genesis Noir, the preview of a promising sidereal adventure
The simple explanation of Genesis Noir
The simple explanation is that Genesis Noir is a point and click adventure with a play structure reduced to 'bone. Don't expect elaborate puzzles or puzzles to solve, and don't think you have to explore areas upon areas in search of the right way to go. Feral Cat Den's work aims to be linear and direct, putting us to the test from the visual and sound point of view, rather than from the playful one.The adventure of Genesis Noir, at least on the basis of what is proposed in this demo, he will take us to explore, interact with a few items and complete some minigames. For example, we tackled the classic musical minigame in which we have to imitate a sound sequence proposed by a character we have just met (precisely a double bass player), an idea that has been reused since the dawn of time in an infinite number of video games.
L 'exploration itself is even more limited than the classic walking simulator: each area is a two-dimensional corridor, the interactions with the environment are minimal (some flyers that open to full screen) and everything is solved by simply pressing the left mouse button . Click once to go up the stairs, drag a train to the right to start it and little else.
Obviously it is possible that, continuing with the adventure, Genesis Noir will increase in size and its playful structure will stratify, but we honestly don't believe it.
The indispensable explanation
Having reached this point, however, you may have wondered: what exactly is Genesis Noir about? What is the plot? Who we are? Where we are? Where do we go? Even if they might seem a bit too philosophical questions, in reality Genesis Noir could really answer them.Even if it is not explained in the demo, through the official page of the game on Steam we know that our protagonist is No Man, a watch salesman and jazz musician who finds himself involved in a love triangle with Miss Mass, a singer, and Golden Boy, a mysterious figure for the moment. We are not human beings, mind you, but of the indefinite cosmic entities that live in the universe even before the Big Bang.
The Big Bang, in fact, is part of the plot of Genesis Noir: the explosion that gave birth to everything is actually a bullet shot at Miss Mass's heart and frozen in time. Our task will be to prevent the bullet from reaching our beloved and, to do so, we will jump inside the multiple time pockets of the entire history of the universe, created at the moment of the shot, which will allow us to explore from the first seconds of the galaxy life up to what for us is a distant future.
We are therefore in sidereal space, but at the same time we are in a classic film noir city (the name of the game is obviously not by chance) , immersed in the darkness of the night, with rows of cars that become patches of light in the distance and that with their horns create a strangely inviting melody.
In the middle, there is a criminal gang: their presence is relevant already in the demo and, we assume, will be central to the whole adventure. These "first characters of passion" (as they are described) eliminate or kidnap - for now it is not clear - the aforementioned double bass player. It's easy to think that their goal is to put an end to music.
The difficult explanation
So let's talk about music, not only as a sound quality but above all as a game theme. The beginning of Genesis Noir sees No Man alone, among the stars. Our protagonist seems to be about to start playing with his saxophone but the inspiration does not come: at a certain point we hear various sounds and we begin to follow one. This will take us all the way to the double bass player. The sound, however, is a literal golden thread that unravels in deep space and guides us from screen to screen.Feral Cat Den thus blends graphics and sound and mixes the sounds of the city, from cars to the buzz of the voices of in front of a club, with the vibrant notes of the double bass. What we hear is, symbolically, the melody of the universe, a romantic representation of the cosmic microwave background that began with the Big Bang. The science of the universe becomes in Genesis Noir a song of love and harmony that tells the birth of everything. We are part of it.
In the aforementioned musical minigame, once the more playful and simple phase is over, we will have to start improvising. The screen will become a musical score and, even just by moving the mouse at random, we will begin to blow into the saxophone, closely followed by the double bass in a jazz improvisation session. The melody produced by us will in turn become a creative force and in the void will produce a city that will surround the characters as if the buildings were planets around a star, in perennial rotation and revolution in a celestial crescendo that only we can put an end to. br>
Talking about Genesis Noir is difficult and simple at the same time. Feral Cat Den is creating a visual and sound experience, more than a video game in the classic sense. It is not the first time, however, that an "additional effort" is required of the public and, while knowing that it will never be a work suitable for the masses, we hope that the final result is worthy of finding an audience of their own who will be able to be touched in the deep. All this, however, if what is proposed in the demo will be repeated for the entire game. The playful limitedness of Genesis Noir risks, as is typical in the genre, to make the adventure too repetitive. Feral Cat Den will have to propose a dense and rapid work, even at the expense of overall longevity, with continuous surprises. If the visual and sound impact of the game remains fresh throughout the adventure, then we may have one of the best indie games of 2021 in our hands.
