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Contrast review: Fleeting shapes in shadow (PS4)
We're rolling out PlayStation 4 review coverage all the way through the launch on Nov. 15. Check out more coverage here! Contrast is a short, sweet game about a girl and a friend thriving in shadow. You play as Dawn, an elegant, exceptionally elongated woman visible only to Didi, a girl growing up in what appears to be a city from the 1920s. It's hard to say precisely, because the city you inhabit is a crooked, vaudevillian variant where the streets are always wet and a wrong turn terminates in a bottomless limbo. The shadows on the wall tell stories of the real world, projected into your dimension of shadow. How the raven-haired, provocatively dressed Dawn came to inhabit this place is a story best left for play, where it unfurls in snippets of dialog, posters and notes that find their way to your world. It's an earnest and mostly successful attempt by Compulsion Studios to explain something that need not be explained – the game's noir-ish embellishment and jazzy heartbeat are enough to draw you in. Didi's story is more personal, painting her as a loving daughter helping a bumbling dad, who makes one bad deal after another with unsavory types and suspicious magicians. As Didi wanders the streets, helping her father solve problems and reconnect with his songstress wife, we see that it's Dawn that makes the magic happen.
Shadowy platformer Contrast coming November 15, says Steam
Contrast is now available to pre-purchase on Steam, which says the game will arrive on November 15. Compulsion Games tells Joystiq that the November launch date is "to be confirmed," and may change as it draws near. The game is 25 percent off ($14.99) until it launches. Contrast has players controlling a young woman named Dawn that can traverse shadows cast by all objects in the game. At the center of the 1920's noir universe is Didi, a nine-year-old and sole friend of Dawn, who unravels a story surrounding Didi's mother and absent father. Our time with the game at PAX East was pleasant, though there were a few rough spots on the puzzle-platforming side of things with Dawn's character model getting caught on the edges of shadows at times. Contrast will also come to PSN and XBLA in Q4 2013, though no solid release date has been determined for those platforms yet.
Contrast comes out of the shadows on PSN, XBLA, PC in Q4 2013
Contrast, the shadow-shifting puzzle platformer from Compulsion Games, will not be released in May as previously planned. After being Greenlit on Steam, the game has since been picked up by Focus Home Interactive for a wider release. Contrast will now be released on XBLA, PSN and PC in Q4 2013. We think Constrast could be pretty cool. Here's a new trailer to help you endure the longer wait.
Contrast takes a gameplay video out of the shadows
If the clever gameplay in this clip of shadow-shifting puzzler Contrast intrigues you, be sure to check out our recent preview. Contrast received the Greenlight from Steam and will be available for $15 in May.
Contrast preview: Shadow puppet theater
Once upon a time there was a young girl with a troubled home life who took solace in the imaginary universe she dreamed up when she was alone. We've heard this story before, told in variant forms by Guillermo del Toro, Lewis Carroll and Zack Snyder, but Compulsion Studios puts a new twist on the tale with Contrast.Didi, an inquisitive 9-year-old living with her mother in a 1920s noir world, manufactures a landscape of shadows populated by her lone, best friend, Dawn. Dawn is a young woman, more mature and powerful than Didi, and has the ability to shift between the real and shadow worlds. In Didi's reality, Dawn can climb shadows as if they were solid ground, allowing her to scale areas unreachable by flesh characters. She interacts with few real-world objects, and people, aside from Didi, are invisible to her -- only their silhouettes exist.Contrast is a puzzle platformer, starring Dawn as she shifts between shade and density, helping Didi as she follows her mother through the dark city streets. The game is infused with jazz and tainted innocence: Didi's mom, the cabaret singer; her dad, absent; and a decrepit circus, just rolling into town.%Gallery-183660%
