Contrast Review: From Paris With Love

Contrast Review:  A story of Love, Light and Shadows 

December 18th, 2013 By Maya Mayfield

Contrast the latest offer from Compulsion games takes place in paris 1920s film noir era. The romantic bright capital city of the world appears to be most ideal of locations for this stylish adventure based on a young girl's imaginary friend that lives in the shadows.

Contrast is a heartfelt story of a young girl by the name of Didi, whose clumsy father strives to find success and win back the heart of her showgirl mother.  Contrast focuses on the concept of allowing you to move in 3D or to flatten against walls in 2D. Didi the main character of Contrast is a sweet likable young girl with an imaginary friend that lives in the shadows.

Taking on the role of  Didi’s imaginary friend, allows you to see shadows and hear voices of people that communicate with Didi. Maneuvering between light and Shadow in a 3D, to 2D environment makes for some very smart puzzle building probabilities. For example changing the direction of various light sources as Didi in the 3D environment, to assist your imaginary friend get past a particular hurdle in the 2D environment.

Controlling your imaginary friend in 2D can be quite challenging at times as one wrong move can pull you out of the shadows, fortunately you are not penalized if you misstep or fall to your death, allowing you to experiment risk free on ways to navigate the most trickiest of puzzles. One of my personal favorite sections in Contrast is at the circus where you must play the role of a princess, whose mission is to save her prince charming in a shadow puppet play, narrated by Didi's father.  It's these sort of scenes that really give contrast its magical star appeal. I felt like contrast should have taken advantage of more shadow jumping technique skills gained from earlier puzzles, and missed a great opportunity to expand on this idea as you progress through the mission.

Contrast looks stunning visually and I really enjoyed the attention to detail on the animation of the characters both in 3D and in 2D. The artistic style of the game reminds me of something Tim Burton would create, without the extra ghoulish-effects, which helps to raise its mysterious storybook appeal.  The game is captivating and charming to play, although I did wish Compulsion Games had made more challenging puzzles as you progress through later stages, than just moving crates unto buttons to keep doors open. Regardless I found the title very interesting enough to overlook these minor hang-ups.

Conclusion

Contrast is a beautiful looking game, filled with interesting puzzles built around a magical story that will keep you hooked right to the very end.

Thumbs Up

• Charming, Unique Story set in 1920s Paris
• Original puzzles based on light and shadows
• 2D, 3D environment.

Thumbs Down

• Some of the puzzles, were not very challenging.

Rating 

4/5

Contrast [Online Game Code]