Contrast (PS4) Review

Contrast comes out of the shadows to deliver a visually  attractive and unique, if slightly uneven, experience on PS4.

Part platformer, part puzzle game; Contrast is an interesting and unique title. At first glance, it certainly looks like a game where you’ll be running around a world doing something akin to stomping on enemies, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. And that gameplay twist is one of the main reasons that Contrast sets itself apart from the field.

When the game starts, you’re introduced to Didi, a young girl, and her family. It’s not the happiest of family homes though as Didi’s mom is a nightclub singer who keeps excessively late hours and her dad’s not in the picture for somewhat mysterious reasons. There’s also the character that you play as- Didi’s imaginary friend Dawn. Dawn is an acrobat with the skill of being able to meld with shadows and actually interact with them on the two-dimentional plane.

Effectively, this makes Contrast play like two completely different games; a side-scroller and a 3D platformer. In neither version will you find any enemies to fight or bosses to take on though, the baddies here are the puzzles. Developer Compulsion Games has crafted a really different game here in the way that the two completely different styles mix together and make for one overarching game.

As you might expect, the 3D sections play in the very traditional manner. Dawn can run, jump, cling to ledges and pick up and drop items like crates. Taken all by itself, this is actually the weakest part of Contrast though as there isn’t all that much to do, there’s minimal interaction with the game world and there are actually quite a few bugs present.

I found quite a few instances where dropping crates on weight-sensitive switches did nothing and actually trapped me in a corner a number of times. Dawn also got stuck on seemingly nothing on occasion as well as she was randomly stuck on the edge of a wall or piece of the set. In order to get away, I had to dash (a power that allows Dawn to smash through weakened walls) to escape a possible game-restarting situation. Beyond that, Dawn also just feels floaty as you guide her through the world. There’s no weight to the character and it’s noticeable.

As questionable as the 3D section of the game is though, the 2D shadow-play more than makes up for it. Well, I should actually say that it’s the play between the two that scores the big points. Dawn needs to phase into the shadows in order to progress through the game world. The cool parts come in when a shadow, sometimes a moving shadow, is the only means to make it to the next part of a section of the world.

Occasionally you’ll also have to move a light-source or some pieces of the furniture in order to make some shades fall in just the right places to create walkways or stacks to climb on to reach up to a higher point. I don’t think I can recall any other game that uses light and dark in this way pretty much well, ever- and it’s really cool.

You’ll find instances where you have to jump and enter shadows, run through them and the dash through thinner shadows… you get the idea. It’s also incredibly easy to control as well with just one button press phasing you into and out of the darkness. Control is easy in its entirety too, with only a few buttons to think about and no attack controls of any kind.

The music in Contrast is, unlike most games, a focal point. Compulsion used the audio as a way to set the stage and it’s really nice as a booster to the feel of the game, which is a great change of pace. There’s a lot of flavor in the visuals too, but the audio adds a ton to it and it’s noticeable. About that visual presentation, it’s pretty. Really pretty at times actually, but even so- Contrast won’t blow you away despite running silky smooth on the PS4 with a nice color pallet.

Final Thoughts

Contrast isn’t a bad game by any means, so I don’t want to give you the idea that I didn’t have a good time with it even though I’ve been picking on it a bit.

In most ways, this is a solid game with some very cool and well-built puzzles that are implemented in some very unique ways. I can’t help but feel like there was a lot more that Compulsion could have done with it though. The levels are largely unpopulated (by anyone) as Dawn sees living people as shadows and even then there are rarely more than one or two on screen at any given time which kind of made things feel dead in a way. The story is pretty bare-bones too which also seems like a missed opportunity as what there is is pretty cool and imaginative (especially with the twist ending).

If you’re looking for something to play on your new PS4, you could do a lot worse with Contrast. It’s not the greatest thing in the world, but there are a good deal of new and interesting ideas happening here, so many that I doubt you’ll be overly disappointed by it; even with the shortcomings.