It's not good, but there's some dumb momentum stuff you can do in it.
I will never forgive omelette du fromages.
So, I decided to finally beat this little indie game after yearssssss of not picking it back up. I played it for a stream and I enjoyed it a lot then. I think I got just wrapped up in other games and just kinda abandoned it for a bit.
But the concept of this game is very neat and the story is nice too. The visuals and music are also very nice. However, and I'm not sure if I picked this up when I first played it... the platforming is a but... wonky at times?
Especially at the ending puzzle... with the bars? And that rotating one? It's... not very clear or it begs for you to be precise and the mechanics just aren't tight? So, it got a bit annoying.
But either way, the story was lovely. I remembered it as I played along... I actually left the game off being in the last act... so, it didn't take long to knock this one off of the backlog.
It's cute game. Just wished the controls were a little tighter for some of the puzzles in the game.
But the concept of this game is very neat and the story is nice too. The visuals and music are also very nice. However, and I'm not sure if I picked this up when I first played it... the platforming is a but... wonky at times?
Especially at the ending puzzle... with the bars? And that rotating one? It's... not very clear or it begs for you to be precise and the mechanics just aren't tight? So, it got a bit annoying.
But either way, the story was lovely. I remembered it as I played along... I actually left the game off being in the last act... so, it didn't take long to knock this one off of the backlog.
It's cute game. Just wished the controls were a little tighter for some of the puzzles in the game.
What a lovely game
It's definitely original. It's definitely boring and super forgettable.
A great premise that needed more development. Would love to see this concept of playing with shadows/light expanded into a bigger game.
Ahhbhh Paris, seus amores, suas luzes... e seus ratos. Acredito que esse seja o primeiro jogo francês que eu finalizei. O conceito de navegar entre o mundo físico e as sombras é bem criativo e efetivo. Claro, existe todo um simbolismo por trás, que diga-se de passagem é a melhor parte do roteiro. Enfim, uma experiência diferente e divertida, mas que graficamente envelheceu mal.
"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)
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)
Potencial disperdiçado, o começo é muito bom com uma proposta interessante, lá pelo capítulo 2 fica paia. A história é fraquíssima e os controles são imprecisos, ambientação daora. Ressalva para parte do Farol, que eu achei muito divertido e com um ótimo level design
Die Steuerung ist leider etwas clunky, aber die Spielmechanik und Stil machen das für mich locker wieder wett. Überraschend abwechslungsreich und auch heute noch sehr gut spielbar
Arte muito bonita, e umas ideias bem interessantes de gameplay.
Mas vai ficando repetitivo com o tempo (mesmo sendo curto) e a história não tem punchline nem um sentido propriamente dito
Mas vai ficando repetitivo com o tempo (mesmo sendo curto) e a história não tem punchline nem um sentido propriamente dito
That bit when she turned into a shadow was pretty good. Janky though.
I remember voting Contrast for a Steam release when Steam Greenlight first unveiled and it showed so much promise, but despite its jazzy aesthetic, the final product is very meagre and lacks a lot of the energy and excitement it would benefit from.
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.
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.
it was fun but seemed like it couldve been a lot cooler if they actually put more effort into the mechanics and story
Defenitiv kein Puzzlegame.. Walkingsimulator trifft es eher.
It's not great but it has cool ideas and Adam Jensen is your dad.
There's a sweet story buried in here somewhere. I like that it's fairly sincere.
One of my all time favorite games. More people gotta play it honestly. The aesthetic of it is wonderful and the music is top notch
The idea of using shadows as puzzles is fascinating and Contrast has one of the most unique puzzle elements I have seen since Portal. Arranging objects in a room to make the shadows layout just right to get to where you need can be very satisfying. Bringing objects into the shadow world and pulling them out is also very fun. The story as well is kind of touching. You play as Dawn who has a mysterious childhood friend, Didi, whose parents are going through hard times and she wants to bring them back together. Her father is always getting into debt trouble and decides to open a circus using a magician. Everything goes wrong for her father so it’s up to her and Dawn to fix it all.
The story itself is pretty interesting but the ending sucks. It honestly just ends and you never find out what this mysterious shadow world is. She and Dawn are the only people who are in the real world. Her parents talk to her on the walls as shadows. It makes me wonder if Didi has mental issues and is imagining all this? Is Dawn a figment of her imagination? No one else can see her but it’s never explained. These mysteries can be frustrating at the end when they never make sense.
The game actually is poorly paced. There’s a lot of little cutscenes that break everything up and it gets really annoying. You will walk ten feet, cutscene, walk ten more feet, scene, pull a switch, scene, solve an easy puzzle, scene, and it continues like this. The puzzles are extremely easy and a few were head scratchers for a few minutes towards the end but nothing I couldn’t solve after a little thinking. The game is very linear and you only explore a few areas, but explore is the wrong word to use here. The only thing you can do that’s extra is to find collectibles and find luminaries to be able to start certain puzzles. That is literally all there is to this game.
The game itself can be beaten in about 4 hours. The graphics are really nice, however, they are a little dated and there are numerous bugs and glitches. The game would crash, Dawn would get stuck in a T pose during certain jumps, crates would get stuck due to weird physics issues and they all required restarts. That’s unacceptable and hopefully will be patched. I honestly can’t recommend this game for the asking price, but maybe for a sale, it would be worth it. The game isn’t bad, it just seriously lacks content and depth and has a disappointing ending. The shadow puzzles are very inventive and fun to do, but there just needs to be more.
The story itself is pretty interesting but the ending sucks. It honestly just ends and you never find out what this mysterious shadow world is. She and Dawn are the only people who are in the real world. Her parents talk to her on the walls as shadows. It makes me wonder if Didi has mental issues and is imagining all this? Is Dawn a figment of her imagination? No one else can see her but it’s never explained. These mysteries can be frustrating at the end when they never make sense.
The game actually is poorly paced. There’s a lot of little cutscenes that break everything up and it gets really annoying. You will walk ten feet, cutscene, walk ten more feet, scene, pull a switch, scene, solve an easy puzzle, scene, and it continues like this. The puzzles are extremely easy and a few were head scratchers for a few minutes towards the end but nothing I couldn’t solve after a little thinking. The game is very linear and you only explore a few areas, but explore is the wrong word to use here. The only thing you can do that’s extra is to find collectibles and find luminaries to be able to start certain puzzles. That is literally all there is to this game.
The game itself can be beaten in about 4 hours. The graphics are really nice, however, they are a little dated and there are numerous bugs and glitches. The game would crash, Dawn would get stuck in a T pose during certain jumps, crates would get stuck due to weird physics issues and they all required restarts. That’s unacceptable and hopefully will be patched. I honestly can’t recommend this game for the asking price, but maybe for a sale, it would be worth it. The game isn’t bad, it just seriously lacks content and depth and has a disappointing ending. The shadow puzzles are very inventive and fun to do, but there just needs to be more.
Su ambientación está bastante bien, el resto todo mal. La historia mala, los personajes malos, diálogos pésimos, el control muy impreciso para ser un plataformas con buenas ideas (como mezclar secciones 2D y 3D), puzles maluchos. La verdad es que flojísimo.
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.
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.
Had a lot of potential so It's bit of a shame It's so short. Puzzles were fun but never that difficult and the story was pretty thin.
A couple of hours and you're done. Easy achievement points though.
A couple of hours and you're done. Easy achievement points though.
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.
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.
Amazing game, its simplicity works in its favor
Charming game. It's a bit short and unpolished, but it's got style and a few nice ideas. It's not a great game but I liked it.
Tiene mecánicas de juego que, pese a no estar del todo pulidas, hacen que la experiencia se sienta especial. La ambientación no tiene comparación. Su historia no es la mejor, llegando a ser bizarra en ciertos momentos. Tiene puzles muy bien pensados y para nada imposibles, donde sus mecánicas juegan un papel importante para su desarrollo.
Maravilhoso, ótima trilha sonora e direção de arte impecável. O jogo não é tão longo e nem tão curto, tem uma duração boa e pode ser finalizado em uma tarde tranquilamente. Os puzzles são em simples mas divertidos de resolver e a história não é nada incrível, mas legal de se acompanhar.
A game with a lot of potential that I feel is slightly wasted on a product not worthy of that potential. The aesthetics, atmosphere, music, and gameplay concepts are great, but the game struggles with actual mechanics and the story and vibe feels inconsistent. Still really enjoyed the trip through this world, but I know that there could've been a stronger game made within this framework.
Muita proposta boa, pouco gameplay memorável.