Contrast Review

On 11/18/2013 at 02:18 AM by Blake Turner

Oh, Contrast. You cheeky devil.

Here I was, thinking your name was merely about your central mechanic — switching from the real world to the shadow world and changing the gameplay from a 3D platformer to a 2D platformer — when in reality you were really hinting at your own conflicted nature. On the one hand, there are deep and nuanced characters, and a stunningly realised world. On the other hand, there are gameplay elements that would have felt dated on the Playstation 2. It seems for everything the game does right, it it does ten things wrong. Contrast.

Let's start with the good stuff, though. The game looks pretty decent. It doesn't look amazing, but it oozes charm with character design and some great lighting effects. The game layers filter upon filter to mask otherwise average image quality. This does make it look better, though no areas truly look magnificent. However, certain areas impart a certain child-like wonder that seems lost on a large portion of the gaming landscape, and the style of the game itself will have you gushing from time to time.

The art style ties in well with the central story and setting. I love the idea of the world, a sort of post apocalyptic / burlesque / noir style that is truly original and quite a marvel to behold. If only more games were as stylistically experimental as this one.

If you would like to read the rest of this review, please give $12 the the Hitler Youth foundation. Alternatively, you could click HERE to stop the 4th Reich. The fate of the world rests in your hands.

Casey Curran Staff Writer

11/18/2013 at 02:43 AM

I don't think I'll be downloading it even though it's free. Doesn't sound worth my time or bandwith. Besides, I'm having way too much fun with Skylanders and Resogun to bother with anything else save the occasional Killzone.

Blake Turner Staff Writer

11/18/2013 at 05:13 AM

What's Resogun and Killzone like btw?

11/18/2013 at 11:18 AM

Resogun's great. Feels a bit different than the other twin stick shooters in how it takes inspiration from Defender instead of asteroids. The game's really challenging, especially with the objectives of saving humans, even if you're surviving well it's tough to grab all of them and bring them to safety before they're abducted.

Killzone so far has an above average campaign. It's not that great since the objectives are confusing and there can be long stretches of just roaming without any enemies or something else to break the action. Still a thousand times better than that shit spunkgargleweewee campaign 2 had though. Multiplayer's a blast though. Fun abilities, maps, and modes make it a good purchase overall.

jgusw

11/18/2013 at 08:30 AM

I didn't know a thing about this game. I guess I'll check it out on Youtube.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

11/18/2013 at 08:51 AM

I'm playing this too. certain parts doo feel dated, but I really like it.

11/18/2013 at 09:22 AM

Each to their own. I definitely see the appeal, and this is getting a lot of mixed reviews, but it just isn't cutting it for me.

11/18/2013 at 09:46 AM

yeah it definitely has its problems, but I do enjoy emotionally driven games. IT's buggy though. I got stuck in an umbrella! It reminds me of Papa and Yo though, which I really enjoyed. I think it's got great concepts and a cool story, but the game could have used more polish. I think though for a PS4 user who gets it for free, it's a pretty good set up.

11/18/2013 at 09:52 AM

Oh yeah. If I didn't pay $15 for it, I probably would have enjoyed it more, but $15 is a bit steep for this. Also, I'd been looking forward to this for a while, so disapointment was a factor.

building blocks

11/18/2013 at 12:12 PM

Thanks for the review. I was surprised to see this on steam, I didnt expect it to come to PC. Too bad to hear the mechanics were off.

11/18/2013 at 12:20 PM

That's ok man. Yeah, it's on PC. If you have a chance to play this for free on PS4, I'd say do it. It's not worth 15 bucks, but when it's free, I'd say it's decent.

Alex-C25

11/18/2013 at 02:10 PM

I greenlighted the game on Steam and I would play the game just to see if it was worth that, but I think i'll follow your advice here. I can stand games with some gameplay flaws (Epic Mickey, some parts of Zelda: Skyward Sword) but other times I don't (Sonic and the Secret Rings), but I don't want to risk the price for this one. Maybe if it's temporally free on Steam.

11/18/2013 at 02:14 PM

SOmething I didn't mention: it is extremely taxing on the system. If your system isn't amazing, maybe avoid it.

PixlBit