An interesting indie adventure title featuring gameplay mechanics that make use of the character's shadows to progress through the game and solve puzzles. This was one of the first PS4 PS Plus offerings and at the time, they time had some bugs but overall was playable and enjoyable to an extent.

The setting and ambiance are very well done through the game's art direction and soundtrack with a noire and old-school vibe. I was not able to complete the game (got sidetracked) but hopefully one day I can come back to finish it although I doubt my rating will change much.

simplesmente repugnante, inaceitável pensar que chegaram até a fase final do desenvolvimento disso e não repararam que tinha algo de errado, mecânicas tão simples e mal utilizadas que parecem que cairiam melhor em um jogo mobile, gráficos que tinham tudo para serem aqueles gráficos que nunca envelhecem mal, mas foi simplesmente mal utilizada ao extremo e ficou parecendo gráficos de massinha, repleto de bugs (tanto nas mecânicas quanto bugs de colisão), os puzzles parecem algo feito para criança, porém para dificultar a gameplay tem aqueles bugs horrendos do personagem atravessando a parede sem motivo algum, animações tão travadas que achei que estava jogando algum jogo de PS2, e a história seria até interessante se elas não fossem acopladas a essa gameplay horrível

A really fun premise as well as a really nice noir-esque environment.

Unfortunately the platforming is rather janky and there's not much substance to the game.

However at roughly 2.5 hours to complete I would say it's worth the play if you're ever bored for an evening.

Oh what this game COULD have been, its an adbsolute delight but clearly rushed (supposedly publisher messing). Didi is adorable!. It has a really interesting premise with flipping between the hadow realm and "reality" that even towards the end hints towards experiments? From what I gather Dawn was Vincenzo's assistant that got lost in the shadows and now is here to help Didi get closure and unlock her powers?. This game just oozes potential and its a shame it was very rushed but what we do have is phenomenal

An absolutely gorgeous game that makes full use of my favorite aesthetic (is there a name for Tim Burton Noire?) with a very interesting premise. Some of the puzzles were excellent, but frankly a lot of them were less than stellar because the physics of light shifting simply didn't work right sometimes. I think if the game mechanics worked as intended I'd easily bump this up a point, but the bugginess definitely had me rolling my eyes a few times.

I LOVED this story. It was incredibly engaging and kept me very intensely wanting to finish the game in one sitting, which I did. It's only about 3 hours long, but it's full of great performances as well. Contrast requires precise platforming and physics manipulation of you and just doesn't have the game engine to match it, which is a shame. A little ambitious beyond its technical abilities, but whatever Compulsion Games is working on now with a Microsoft budget has me excited.

"No Light Within The Darkness"

On paper, "Contrast" seems to be a bit of a clever puzzle platformer, incorporating a 2D shadow platforming element on top of a normal 3D platforming style. However, this is the only idea the game seems to have, and it was executed pretty poorly in my opinion. The developers tried to toss a generic story on top of it as well, but that did little to save this game from its tired game mechanic, poor platforming, and lack of worldbuilding.

The shadow mechanic in this game is really simple and utilized really poorly. You transition in and out of a shadow state, allowing yourself to platform on the silhouettes of objects in the environment. However, the platforming is really janky, and the physics just make little sense most of the time. The game tries to distract the play from this by providing a bit of a plot, but that too was mishandled.

The story here is really dry - you're the imaginary friend of a little girl, and you help her discover some drama between her parents and help them succeed in their ventures. It tries to be dramatic, but the voice acting is unconvincing and therefore doesn't help with immersion. Additionally, the setting is poorly utilized, and it just serves as an art style rather than an important piece of the narrative.

This game was honestly such a missed opportunity. Instead of giving players a unique dimensional puzzler, it instead devolves into a generic gimmick with a weak story and setting. The platforming here is just too wonky for any real fun to be had, and the empty world and lackluster presentation don't really give it much lift. I would Not Recommend playing this one unless you were willing to essentially kill a few hours.

Final Verdict: 4/10 (Below Average)

There’s definitely some interesting ideas going on in “Contrast”. Its shadow based mechanic allow for some fairly inventive puzzles and it’s all at the backdrop of a 1930’s era setting were you can truly feel the creators did their homework. The story gets the dialog right, but it doesn’t really come together all that well. The biggest offender tho, is that it’s just not fun to actually play. The control isn’t fluid. It feels stiff and janky from all ends. I can’t quite say I hate this game; far from it. I admire the craft behind a lot of the ideas at work here. With that said, by the end, I just didn’t feel like my time was well spent.

Hoo boy. I'm gonna try to be kind, but this game isn't put together very well. You play as Dawn, an imaginary friend (so it seems) of a young girl named Didi. Didi's parents argue a lot, mostly because her father keeps writing bad checks and coming up with crazy schemes to get money, the latest of which is an attempt to get a mysterious magician to headline at his makeshift carnival. Oh and also, he's in deep with the mob. With the use of Dawn's shadow-person powers, you'll help Didi keep her parents together, as well as alive, and make sure the carnival goes off without a hitch.

This plays out through a series of clever puzzles and platforming sections where you blend into shadow form to traverse shadows cast by other objects. But despite this cleverness, the game is extremely frictionless in a way that takes a lot away from the experience. This is not helped by the fact that the world is small and chokingly linear, even by indie game standards. There are a limited amount of collectibles to find, some of which give a little more info about the story, and some of which can be used as currency to fix malfunctioning electrical appliances. Despite the devs' best efforts, I found every one of them on my first playthrough. The only reason I jumped into the game again was to mop up a couple of situational trophies I missed.

The story is okay, and on a more positive note, I quite like the music. I also like a lot of the voice acting here, aside from the young girl, Didi, who is very annoying. One thing that really hurts the game is this kind of waxy, lifeless look to everything that I don't think was totally intentional. I mean, I know they're doing their best here with Unity and certainly going for a unique style, but just look at this drab mess. Can you believe this was one of the "launch titles" on PS4?

I might be willing to give this 3 stars if it wasn't so short, yet so glitchy. It's easy to be brought out of an experience when it looks like this game does, while having little in the way of engagement, and yet it also has a tendency to completely freak out if you don't watch your step. That's really what makes this game a shadow of its meager potential.

Поклонников Тима Бертона и Марлен Дитрих игра однозначно не оставит равнодушными.
Эта тёмная нуарная адвенчура, которая переносит вас в 20е годы, с их джазом (как же я обожаю джаз!), красивыми фигуристыми вокалистками кабаре, театром, и погружением в ретро.
Сама игра наполнена интересными головоломками и образами. Сюжетная линия так же хороша. Закручена она вокруг маленькой девочки Диди, которой помогает её взрослая подруга, умеющая проникать "царство теней", чтобы двигаться по локации, преодолевая преграды - и в мгновение игра из 3D побегушки становится 2D платформером.
Это приключение по воспоминаниям, в которых раскрываются отношения между отцом Диди погрязшем в долгах и её матерью - звездой кабаре. Это скорее не игра, а некий мюзикл, в котором есть всё: и качественный монтаж роликов, и хорошая работа звукорежиссера, и музыка движется в такт действий. Красивый романтичный мир, не без грязи и предательства (секс и эротика так же представлены, но в лёгкой и непренужденной форме глазами ребёнка).
Игра вызывает смешанные чувства, как грусть с печалью, так и романтичные эмоции. По-моему, это именно то шикарное сочетание, которого не хватает в игровом мире.