14 DAY TRIAL // 
Plenty of different hybrid games have appeared in recent years as lots of developers have tried to combine different genres to more or less success.
Contrast, from indie dev Compulsion Games, wants to merge 3D exploration with 2D puzzle platforming in a quirky tale of a little girl and her imaginary acrobat friend who can use the shadows to explore the world.
While the premise is quite original, does Contrast manage to make it work in terms of gameplay or should it remain in the shadows? Let's find out.
Contrast is a pretty stylized experience and immediately puts players in the acrobat boots of Dawn, the imaginary friend of a little girl named Didi. Dawn must help Didi in her quest to get her parents to make up by helping her estranged father succeed in a business venture.
These efforts also seem a bit useless, since her father is portrayed as a guy obsessed with getting rich quick schemes while her mother prefers to be single and focus on her cabaret singing career.
As such, you're practically forced to help Didi throughout the relatively short story campaign. While the little girl's struggle is pretty emotional and can get further nuanced by different collectibles you find in the game, players don't feel invested all that much.
In terms of gameplay, the premise of exploring a 3D world and then going into a 2D mode using shadows is quite interesting. Dawn can shift into the shadows in various places and use them to reach new locations in the actual world.
There are also plenty of moments when you can manipulate the position of the light source or the objects that cast shadows, adding a clever puzzle layer on top of the platform. Unfortunately, some of these moments are handled in a clunky manner and don't make that much sense, meaning you'll often result to trial and error until you get the right combination.
There are some great moments that work really well, particularly one involving a shadow puppet theater play that's reminiscent of Limbo, but most of them don't feel that developed or flow that well in terms of platforming.
Some puzzles also require collectibles found in the game world and this can often mean that you need to systematically explore the region in order to find them so that you can progress through the story. The actual world, which is a 1920s style city, has plenty of invisible walls or obstacles and Dawn can get stuck in quite a few different spots.
Various other glitches are also present during the small cut scene moments, even at the beginning of the game, as Didi just slides around the level during one of these segments, as you can see in the video above.
In terms of visuals, Contrast looks relatively good, with a sharp style and a clever color pallet. Unfortunately, the Unreal Engine powering the game has a few glitches here and there, resulting in blurry textures or clunky animations.
Sound-wise, the game is pretty good, although some characters, like Didi's parents, try a bit too much to recreate stereotypical voices from retro movies, for example. The soundtrack, however, is really impressive, including the moments when Didi's mother sings.
Conclusion
Contrast has a bold premise, but its execution disappoints in quite a few ways, from the different bugs in terms of platforming, to overall glitches, complicated puzzles, or the story that fails to offer an incentive to actually help Didi and her parents.
